Key Bindings

See also

Reference for key bindings

Complete documentation on key bindings.

Key bindings let you map sequences of key presses to actions.

File Format

Key bindings are defined in JSON and stored in .sublime-keymap files. In order to integrate better with each platform, there are separate key map files for Linux, OSX and Windows. Only key maps for the corresponding platform will be loaded.

Example

Here’s an excerpt from the default key map for Windows:

[
        { "keys": ["ctrl+shift+n"], "command": "new_window" },
        { "keys": ["ctrl+o"], "command": "prompt_open_file" }
]

Defining and Overriding Key Bindings

Sublime Text ships with a default key map (e. g. Packages/Default/Default (Windows).sublime-keymap). In order to override key bindings defined there or add new ones, you can store them in aseparate key map with a higher precedence, for example Packages/User/Default (Windows).sublime-keymap.

See Merging and Order of Preference for more information about how Sublime Text sorts files for merging.

Advanced Key Bindings

Simple key bindings consist of a key combination and a command to be executed. However, there are more complex syntaxes to pass arguments and provide contextual awareness.

Passing Arguments

Arguments are specified in the args key:

{ "keys": ["shift+enter"], "command": "insert", "args": {"characters": "\n"} }

Here, \n is passed to the insert command when you press Shift+Enter.

Contexts

Contexts determine when a given key binding will be enabled based on the caret’s position or some other state.

{ "keys": ["escape"], "command": "clear_fields", "context":
        [
                { "key": "has_next_field", "operator": "equal", "operand": true }
        ]
}

This key binding translates to clear snippet fields and resume normal editing if there is a next field available. Thus, pressing ESC when you are not cycling through snippet fields will not trigger this key binding (however, something else might occur instead if ESC happens to be bound to a different context too —and that’s likely to be the case for ESC).