Swap TAB / ENTER for Steering and Queuing

Open 💬 5 comments Opened Feb 27, 2026 by am-will

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What variant of Codex are you using?

CLI

What feature would you like to see?

Swap TAB/ENTER Semantics:

I have a very simple argument.

Steering has a much higher immediate impact and can distract the model from its current task. It is one of my favorite features you added, but it makes little sense to me that it is being used as Enter instead of Tab.

Enter is much easier to quickly press without thinking bc of muscle memory.

More impact should require more intent. TAB is the logical key for higher intent.

Or, at least make it configurable? The same way it is in the Desktop App.

If I type out a message that might distract the agent from its current task, and accidentally press enter, there's no way to reverse it. Not even escaping out really will reverse it.

If Enter was queue, this is not a problem whatsoever.

No one is pressing Tab by accident.

More impact should require more intent.

Thanks for reading!

Additional information

_No response_

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5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 6 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#12939
#12129

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saulrichardson · 5 months ago

Duplciate

mk2001233 · 5 months ago

alex-dokienko · 4 months ago

chaserobinson · 1 month ago

I would deeply appreciate this small change. You _can_ modify the hotkeys to make plain enter queue, but it adds some wonky-ness in other areas.

e.g.,

[tui.keymap.composer]
queue = ["enter"]
submit = ["ctrl-enter"]

But then:

terminal commands like ! git commit -m "my example" require the "submit" hotkey, so simple enter no longer works.
some outside automations that assume 'enter' will "submit" then breaks/requires workarounds (e.g., herdr).
others I've run into but cannot remember. C:

I beseech thee.