Commands & keyboard

Everything is reachable three ways: a slash command, the Ctrl+K palette, or a direct key. You never have to memorize anything — the palette lists it all.

The slash palette#

Type / as the first character of the composer to open the slash palette. Typing filters fuzzily; ↑/↓ navigate; Enter runs; Tab completes without running; Esc closes.

 ❯ /se
   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    /sessions   browse and resume sessions
    /new        start a new session
    /resume     resume the most recent session
   └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    ↑↓ navigate · Enter run · Esc close

All commands#

/model — model selector

Shows the current Anthropic model and configured alternatives; applies immediately to the session and updates the status bar. Inside the panel, t cycles the thinking mode (off / adaptive / always) and o cycles the output token budget.

 ┌─ model ────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   current   claude-sonnet-4-5        thinking adaptive
   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ❯ claude-sonnet-4-5      default · fast
    claude-opus-4-5        deepest reasoning
    claude-haiku-4-5       cheapest · aux model
   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
   t thinking: adaptive · o output budget: 16000
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
   ↑↓ select · Enter apply · t/o cycle · Esc close

Model ids are never hard-coded — the list comes from your configuration and aliases. From the shell: khaelor --model <id>.

/config — configuration panel

A keyboard-navigable view over the same settings the config files expose (the files stay directly editable). p toggles whether an edit writes user scope (~/.khaelor/config.json) or project scope (.khaelor/config.json) — the target is always shown before writing. Secrets are never displayed: the API key row reads set via environment ✓. See Configuration.

/permissions — permission rules

Lists every effective permission rule with its source (default, user, project, session), shows which rule matched recent decisions, and supports deleting or reordering project rules. It is the audit-friendly mirror of the config files. See Permissions.

/context — context inspector

Shows exactly what occupies the model's context window — system prompt, project instructions, conversation, tool observations, repository context, checkpoint, reserved output — with real token counts, plus which files are materially represented and why. Press c inside to compact immediately.

 ┌─ context · 41,382 / 200,000 tokens · 21% ───────────┐
   system prompt              3,120
   project instructions       1,240
   conversation              24,988
   tool observations          9,414
   repository context         1,620
   checkpoint                   —     (no compaction yet)
   reserved output           16,000
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
   Enter file detail · c compact now · Esc close

/sessions — session picker

Browse this project's sessions with titles, ages, real costs, and git branches. Enter resumes, n starts new, r renames, x deletes, / filters. See Sessions.

/resume — resume the most recent session

Replays the most recent session's event log: the transcript reprints into scrollback, file-state tracking is rebuilt, and even a permission prompt that was pending when you quit reappears. Starting khaelor in a project with an interrupted session also hints: Interrupted session from 12 min ago · /resume to continue.

/new — start a new session

Begins a fresh session (new event log, fresh context) in the same project. The old session remains in /sessions.

/rename — rename the session

Sets the session title shown in /sessions. Sessions otherwise receive a title derived from your first request.

/clear — clear the conversation

Clears the visible conversation and the working context for a clean start while staying in the same project. Use /new when you want the previous transcript preserved as its own resumable session.

/compact — compact the context now

Manually triggers context compaction: the older conversation is distilled into a structured checkpoint (objective, completed work, important files, decisions, failed attempts, running processes, next steps) and raw evidence that still matters is preserved. KHAELOR also compacts automatically under context pressure — /compact just does it on your schedule. Inspect the resulting checkpoint in /context.

/cost — session cost

Token usage and dollars from actual API usage metadata — input, output, cache writes, cache reads (with hit rate). If pricing for your configured model is unknown, the dollar column honestly reads n/a rather than inventing an estimate.

 ┌─ cost · this session ─────────────────────────────┐
   input tokens           182,455        $0.27
   output tokens           24,110        $0.18
   cache write             41,020        $0.08
   cache read             512,300        $0.08   (90% hit)
   ─────────────────────────────────────────────
   total                                 $0.61
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

/status — session status

A one-shot summary of the session: working directory, git branch and dirty state, model and thinking mode, context utilization, cost so far, and running background processes.

Autonomy & audit commands (v2)

/diff — the diff viewer

Opens the full-screen diff viewer (the one alternate-screen surface in KHAELOR) showing the session's cumulative changes — only what KHAELOR changed, never your pre-existing working-tree diff. Side-by-side on terminals wider than 120 columns, unified below that, with syntax highlighting and per-file counts.

 /diff · 3 files · +64 −21                                    2/3
 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  src/session/store.ts                                    +18 −6
 ▸src/context/engine.ts                                   +31 −12
  src/tools/edit.ts                                       +15 −3
 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ↑↓/jk scroll · ]/[ next/prev file · Tab file list · u unified · q close

With an empty composer, d is the quick version: it prints the unified diff of the most recent edit inline, without leaving the conversation.

/processes — background processes

Everything running in the background — dev servers, watchers, adopted long commands:

 PROCESSES
 ● p3  npm run dev   running   04:32
 ● p4  pytest        running   00:18
 ○ p1  npm test      exited    code 0
   ↑↓ select · Enter tail output · s stop · Esc close

Enter prints the selected process's recent output into the conversation; s stops it (SIGTERM, then SIGKILL after a grace period, whole process group).

/help — list commands

Prints every registered command with its slash name, description, and bound key.

/quit — exit

Exits KHAELOR. The session is already persisted (it always is — every event is journaled as it happens). Background processes are stopped on session end, with notice. Ctrl+D on an empty composer does the same; Ctrl+C twice within one second also quits.

The universal palette — Ctrl+K#

Ctrl+K opens the universal command palette from anywhere. It is sourced from the same command registry that powers keys and slash commands, so every action appears with its slash form and live key binding:

   ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    ❯ diff_
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    View diff                    /diff        d
    Compact context              /compact
    Show processes               /processes
   └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    ↑↓ navigate · Enter run · Esc close

Complete keyboard reference#

Binding precedence: an open overlay captures keys first; then single-key actions (only when the composer is empty); then composer bindings; then global bindings.

Global

Composer

Single-key actions (composer empty)

Overlays and pickers (uniform)

Permission panel

/diff viewer (alternate screen)