SHIFT + BACKSPACE / CTRL + BACKSPACE not working on Windows

Resolved 💬 5 comments Opened May 4, 2026 by MNeMoNiCuZ Closed May 4, 2026

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

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

0.128.0

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Win11

What issue are you seeing?

SHIFT + BACKSPACE / CTRL + BACKSPACE not working on Windows

At the same time as a recent change on your end which disabled CTRL + ENTER, and now only allows SHIFT + ENTER for newline, you also broke erasing. So now SHIFT + BACKSPACE is not allowed, nor CTRL + BACKSPACE. You still require ALT + BACKSPACE to erase a word.

It's like you partially shifted from Linux inputs to OS-inputs, but only for part of the inputs. And on top of that, you nuked previously supported hotkeys. SHIFT + BACKSPACE should not SOAK the backspace, it should at least let it through. The same for CTRL + BACKSPACE.

The same for DELETE.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I'm sure you'll figure it out

What is the expected behavior?

For SHIFT + BACKSPACE to erase.
For CTRL + BACKSPACE to erase.

Ideally CTRL + BACKSPACE should erase the entire word like on any text input field on Windows, including CMD.
But it should NOT absorb and invalidate the backspace usage.

The same for DELETE.

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

#20631

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etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

I presume you're using the TUI and not the app? You selected the app bug report template, so I wanted to confirm.

MNeMoNiCuZ · 3 months ago

@etraut-openai
Correct, TUI.

It's not an exact duplicate of the mentioned potential duplicate.
The result is the same, but the CLI/TUI is different.

I'm just using windows CMD.

It's always been wrong from the start and I've reported it months ago I believe.

It's not treating CLI inputs as native, and instead forcing Linux-style behavior onto other OS input schemas (if that's the correct word for this kind of behavior). Basically: Linux uses ALT and Windows uses CTRL. I'm guessing Mac uses COMMAND. For things like CTRL + BACKSPACE to delete an entire word, or to move to an entire word etc.

etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

In 0.128.0, we significantly changed the way we handle key bindings in the TUI. We now support full user customization through a /keymap slash command. I'm guessing that we introduced a regression as part of this change. Will investigate. Thanks for reporting the issue.

You may be able to work around the issue in the meantime using the /keymap feature.

MNeMoNiCuZ · 3 months ago

I see. Didn't know about /keymap.
It seems to be faulty then.

I do see the correct mappings listed, but they are not functioning.