feat(cli): disable ctrl-s shortcut outside of alternate buffer mode

[jacob314]

Summary

The Gemini CLI UI has been suggesting Ctrl-O for a while instead of Ctrl-S but docs and the supported shortcuts didn't.
Fixed that.

Fixes #18886

[gemini-cli]

Hi @jacob314, thank you so much for your contribution to Gemini CLI! We really appreciate the time and effort you've put into this.

We're making some updates to our contribution process to improve how we track and review changes. Please take a moment to review our recent discussion post: Improving Our Contribution Process & Introducing New Guidelines.

Key Update: Starting January 26, 2026, the Gemini CLI project will require all pull requests to be associated with an existing issue. Any pull requests not linked to an issue by that date will be automatically closed.

Thank you for your understanding and for being a part of our community!

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @jacob314, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request improves the user experience by addressing an ambiguity with the Ctrl+S shortcut. By disabling its content expansion functionality outside of alternate buffer mode and introducing a clear on-screen warning, the change prevents unintended actions and guides users to the correct Ctrl+O shortcut for managing content visibility. This enhances usability and reduces potential confusion for users interacting with the application.

Highlights

• Ctrl+S Shortcut Behavior Change: The Ctrl+S shortcut no longer expands content when not in alternate buffer mode. This prevents potential conflicts with browser save shortcuts.
• User Warning for Ctrl+S: A warning message is now displayed when Ctrl+S is pressed outside of alternate buffer mode, guiding users to use Ctrl+O for content expansion instead.
• Keybinding Clarification: The documentation and internal keybinding configurations have been updated to clearly state that Ctrl+O is the designated shortcut for expanding and collapsing content blocks.

Changelog

• docs/cli/keyboard-shortcuts.md
  • Updated the description for the 'Expand and collapse blocks of content' action to explicitly mention Ctrl+O as the key, removing the Ctrl+S alternative.
  • Adjusted the table formatting for keybindings.
• packages/cli/src/config/keyBindings.ts
  • Removed Ctrl+S as a keybinding for the SHOW_MORE_LINES command.
  • Updated the command description for SHOW_MORE_LINES to be more general, referring to 'blocks of content' instead of 'height-constrained response.'
• packages/cli/src/ui/AppContainer.test.tsx
  • Added an assertion to verify that ctrlSPressed state is set to true when Ctrl+S is pressed outside of alternate buffer mode.
• packages/cli/src/ui/AppContainer.tsx
  • Introduced ctrlSPressed state and ctrlSTimerRef to manage the display of the Ctrl+S warning.
  • Implemented a useEffect hook to clear the ctrlSPressed state after a WARNING_PROMPT_DURATION_MS timeout.
  • Added logic within handleKeyPress to set ctrlSPressed to true when Ctrl+S is pressed and the application is not in alternate buffer mode.
  • Exposed the ctrlSPressed state through the UIStateContext.
• packages/cli/src/ui/components/ToastDisplay.test.tsx
  • Added a test case to ensure shouldShowToast returns true when ctrlSPressed is true.
  • Added a snapshot test to verify the correct rendering of the Ctrl+S prompt.
• packages/cli/src/ui/components/ToastDisplay.tsx
  • Modified shouldShowToast to include uiState.ctrlSPressed as a condition for displaying a toast.
  • Added a conditional rendering block to display a specific warning message ('Use Ctrl+O to expand and collapse blocks of content.') when ctrlSPressed is true.
• packages/cli/src/ui/contexts/UIStateContext.tsx
  • Added ctrlSPressed: boolean; to the UIState interface to track the state of the Ctrl+S key press.

Activity

• No specific activity (comments, reviews, progress updates) was provided in the context.

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[github-actions]

Size Change: +219 B (0%)

Total Size: 24.4 MB

ℹ️ View Unchanged

Filename	Size	Change
./bundle/gemini.js	24.4 MB	+219 B (0%)
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-open.sb	890 B	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-proxied.sb	1.31 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-open.sb	3.36 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-proxied.sb	3.56 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-open.sb	4.82 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-proxied.sb	5.02 kB	0 B

_{compressed-size-action}

[anowardear062-svg]

Thanks

[anowardear062-svg]

Thanks

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request disables the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut for expanding content outside of the alternate buffer mode, which is a welcome change as Ctrl+S is a standard terminal flow control key (XOFF) that can cause the terminal to freeze. Instead of performing an action, pressing Ctrl+S now displays a helpful warning message guiding the user to use Ctrl+O. The implementation is clean, following existing patterns in the codebase for handling key presses and displaying transient toast messages. The related documentation and tests have been updated accordingly. The changes improve the user experience by preventing accidental terminal freezes and providing clear guidance.

[anowardear062-svg]

Thanks

[gemini-cli]

Hi there! Thank you for your contribution to Gemini CLI.

To improve our contribution process and better track changes, we now require all pull requests to be associated with an existing issue, as announced in our recent discussion and as detailed in our CONTRIBUTING.md.

This pull request is being closed because it is not currently linked to an issue. Once you have updated the description of this PR to link an issue (e.g., by adding Fixes #123 or Related to #123), it will be automatically reopened.

How to link an issue:
Add a keyword followed by the issue number (e.g., Fixes #123) in the description of your pull request. For more details on supported keywords and how linking works, please refer to the GitHub Documentation on linking pull requests to issues.

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