^B (Ctrl-b) is the prefix: press it, then the command key. The footer shows the most useful chords for your terminal's width, ^B ? opens the full key reference, and every command here is also in the menu bar — a chord is a shortcut, never the only way.

A reader's bind lines in the configuration rewrite these chords; commands without a default chord remain available in the menus.

Default key appendix

This table is generated from the same registry that drives dispatch, the menus, footer, which-key popup, and in-application help. Prefix means ^B by default. A bind or unbind line can change any row with an action name.

Copy mode and paste

^B [ enters copy mode on the focused terminal (its scrollback included); ^B ] pastes what was copied.

Inside copy mode:

Where a copy goes — the outer terminal's clipboard, pbcopy, or a command of your own — is the [terminal] clipboard setting in the configuration.

The big clock

^B t shows the time in big digits over the focused terminal, the way tmux's clock mode does; View ▸ Show Date and View ▸ Show Date and Time show the date, or both. The clock stays up while you work in other windows: switch away with ^B n, ^B p or the mouse and it is still there when you look across. Back in its window, any key puts it away and does nothing else — except the prefix, which works as usual. A click that brings the window back only returns you to the clock; a second click puts it away. The program underneath keeps running, and nobody else watching the session sees the clock. Seconds are shown unless the [general] clock setting is minutes; a window too small for the digits shows the same lines as plain text.