# Keys (/docs/haus/rooms/keys)



Two keys carry almost everything haus binds. **⇪ Caps-Lock is the leader**: tap
it and the bar turns into letter hints, and what follows is **launch mode**.
**⌥ Option is the everyday modifier**. Both need the
[Windows](/docs/haus/rooms/windows) room, both are what the
[hacker](/docs/haus/desktops/hacker) desktop turns on, and both move.

## Tap ⇪, then [#tap--then]

| Key                    | What happens                                                                 |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `<app-key>`            | Launch or focus that app                                                     |
| `1`-`4`                | Go to that [numbered workspace](/docs/haus/rooms/windows#the-numbered-ones)  |
| `⇧` + a workspace key  | **Throw** the focused window there and follow it                             |
| `⌥⇧` + a workspace key | Throw it there and **stay**                                                  |
| `←↓↑→`                 | Move focus; the arrows keep working after the first                          |
| `-` / `=`              | Shrink / grow, repeatably                                                    |
| `V` / `F`              | Clipboard history / Find Files, in the [launcher](/docs/haus/rooms/launcher) |
| `Z`                    | Reopen the last closed app                                                   |
| `,`                    | macOS System Settings                                                        |
| `.`                    | [Cycle the tiling](/docs/haus/rooms/windows#spin-the-layout-until-its-right) |
| `` ` ``                | [Re-sort every window](/docs/haus/rooms/windows) to its workspace            |
| `/`                    | The cheatsheet                                                               |
| `Esc`                  | Out                                                                          |

A **workspace key** is a digit, or the letter a
[named workspace](/docs/haus/rooms/windows#workspaces-and-what-lives-on-them)
claimed; `T` and `B` out of the box, terminal and browser. An app's letter comes
from its [roster](/docs/haus/rooms/apps) entry, which is also the list a rebuild
checks for collisions.

## Without the leader [#without-the-leader]

| Keys              | What happens                                                                                                       |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `⌥/`              | Tiles layout; toggles the split horizontal ↔ vertical                                                              |
| `⌥,`              | Accordion layout                                                                                                   |
| `⌥F`              | Fullscreen, and the bar says so ([unless it is alone](/docs/haus/rooms/windows#a-window-on-its-own-does-not-zoom)) |
| `⌥` + right-click | Fullscreen the window [under the pointer](/docs/haus/rooms/windows#zoom-the-window-youre-pointing-at)              |
| `⌥⇧Tab`           | Move this workspace to the next monitor                                                                            |
| `⌥⇧;`             | **Service mode**: `R` flatten the tree, `F` float, `Backspace` close every other window, `⌥⇧←↓↑→` join a neighbour |

There is no `h`/`j`/`k`/`l` direction anywhere; the arrows already do it.
`haus.keys.leaderExtras` adds them behind the leader, on letters no app in your
roster has claimed:

```nix
haus.keys.leaderExtras = [
  { key = "h"; command = "aerospace focus left";  caption = "Focus left"; }
  { key = "l"; command = "aerospace focus right"; caption = "Focus right"; }
];
```

## Not fond of these keys? [#not-fond-of-these-keys]

Four options move the whole vocabulary at once, cheatsheet included, shown here
with the values hacker picks:

```nix
haus.keys.layout    = "qwerty";     # qwerty | azerty | dvorak | colemak
haus.keys.leader    = "caps";       # caps | alt-space | none
haus.keys.windowNav = "alt";        # alt | ctrl-alt | cmd-alt | none
haus.keys.palette   = "cmd-space";  # cmd-space | alt-space | ctrl-space | none
```

Only `layout` defaults to what it shows. The other three default to `"none"`,
so a bare `haus.windows.enable` tiles and claims no key at all until you set
them, which is also how you keep the tiling and hand the keyboard back.
`leader = "alt-space"` is the middle road: launch mode without giving up Caps
Lock, and no remap at all.

`layout` is **host-only**: a shared [desktop](/docs/haus/desktops/creating) may
not set it, because the keyboard you type on is a fact about you rather than
about the desktop.

`palette` is the [launcher](/docs/haus/rooms/launcher)'s hotkey, and `cmd-space`
is the one value that displaces Spotlight, so moving it anywhere else is how you
keep both. Moving it does not give Spotlight's own shortcut back on a machine
that already ran with `cmd-space`: turn that on yourself in System Settings ▸
Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

Whatever you pick, the in-system cheatsheet, the leader then `/`, describes the
keys you actually have: it is generated on your own machine from your own
tables, where the ones on this page are prose. Trust the cheatsheet where they
disagree.

### A non-US keyboard [#a-non-us-keyboard]

Every key name in your config names a **position on a US keyboard**, the only
thing macOS names a key by, so on AZERTY the key printed `A` is the one a US
keyboard calls `Q`. Set `layout` to the keyboard your keys are *printed* on and
the twenty-six leader letters move onto the keys that print them.

<Callout type="warn" title="Three things it cannot move">
  AeroSpace maps a key *name* to a key with no room for a modifier, and AZERTY
  hides these behind `⇧`:

  * **The numbered workspaces.** `1`-`4` stay on the number-row keys, which AZERTY
    prints `&` `é` `"` `'`. The key printed `1` is `⇧`+that key, so it **throws**
    instead of going. Use the unshifted key.
  * **`.` and `/`** (tiling cycle, cheatsheet) stay on the keys AZERTY prints `:`
    and `=`. The cheatsheet still captions them `.` and `/`.
  * **`-` / `=`** (resize) stay on `)` and `-`, so the key printed `-` *grows*.
</Callout>

`⌥` still types every character AZERTY hides behind it, so `alt` costs four
typographic characters and nothing structural. `dvorak` and `colemak` hand the
job to AeroSpace's presets; only `qwerty` and `azerty` have been driven end to
end on a real macOS guest. pounce's hotkeys name US positions whatever `layout`
says.

## Options [#options]

[Every setting, with types and defaults](/docs/haus/reference/options#shared-surfaces).