Config option that swaps the default Enter key behavior: Enter inserts newline, Ctrl+Enter submits input

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

• #5305
• #5687

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same. Using codex for one week. And i was speechless when discovered after last update that there is no more inserting trough enter and you cannot return it back. So, now i have ctrl+enter and enter that are sending messages :)))))) and you cannot reset it somewhere. just... i dont know.. wanna break my keyboard

The keybinds for this kind of thing just need to be configurable - some fix set of presets is always going to be inconvenient for some users.

We're slowly regressing. Now "Enter to send" is being forced on everyone since 0.4.67 -> https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/5687
0.4.66 is the latest non-frustrating version.

We're slowly regressing. Now "Enter to send" is being forced on everyone since 0.4.67 -> #5687 0.4.66 is the latest non-frustrating version.

There is a setting (which, admittedly, didn't work in the latest release) but will be fully working in the next one.

<img width="518" height="550" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/37c356be-6a43-4145-a25f-7043908ea2dc" />

This setting is just a cheap way to restore the functionality that used to be a previous default. And, as you noted, it doesn't even work.
I reported it here (#5687) but it just got ignored, like most of discussions about Codex hotkeys.

Even this conversation we're having right here is being marked as off-topic. Devs would rather stifle this entire hotkey conversation than have people choose whether to use Enter or Ctrl+Enter for a new line.

If they actually cared, we wouldn't have 4-month long, highly upvoted issues like this one (#3049).

@PowerSix, this issue is specifically about the Codex CLI (TUI). If I understand correctly, you are using the Codex IDE Extension, so this issue does not apply. That's why I hid these remarks as "off topic" to avoid confusion.

I have a problem with this as well. I think Codex's current setting is suboptimal, and isn't a standard at all. Here is what Codex provides us:

<img width="1786" height="500" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5b777a94-7f49-419f-8e0d-5dc7d3d1ca68" />

The problem is that, I want it to be predictable, meaning:

• enter: creates a newline, always
• cmd+enter: submits my prompts

However with this settings, if enabled, if I write a line, and hit enter, it submits my prompt immediately. I have to first do a shift+enter, and then each enter becomes a newline. Not only is it pretty uncommon, it also messes up with our mental model.

The industry wide standard is obvious. If you provide this, make sure Enter always creates a newline, and cmd+enter or ctrl+enter submits it. Here are some example from other app or websites.

Slack macOS App:

<img width="948" height="482" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/330af728-30b8-4726-961a-4ab3048c0479" />

LinkedIn:

<img width="588" height="164" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6cdcdd84-5e8f-4745-89d8-05e7607c0c2b" />

Cursor:

<img width="1434" height="234" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a518ac94-0953-409f-9674-a4d49fa6e779" />

Can we please fix the setting and makes sure it doesn't introduce a new behaviour. Let's make sure it's following certain standards, and it's predictable and doesn't require us to think about when a enter produces a newline.

+1 for this request. On macOS, I want Enter to insert a newline and Cmd+Enter to send (Ctrl+Enter on Windows/Linux). This would prevent accidental sends when writing multi-line prompts.

The current design seems to prevent me from manually inserting a new line; instead, I have to copy a multi-line text block from elsewhere just to use the Enter key to create a new line. A better design would be:

1. Shortcut keys should behave consistently in all situations to reduce the cognitive load on users.
2. Regardless of how users configure shortcut keys, the system should support both submitting and inserting a new line.

We recently added the /keymap command. It allows you to configure key bindings for all key shortcuts in the TUI.

@etraut-openai, thanks that's a significant improvement. i can now bind enter to new line (need to unlearn pressing CTRL all the time)!

A small thing: i can't bind ctrl-enter to submit. That's fine, i've bound it to ctrl-j which is mechanically equivalent. Maybe this is a WSL2 windows terminal thing.