Hotkeys
The complete Esc-leader table, plus rationale.
SpiceEdit avoids Ctrl+ shortcuts on purpose. They fight tmux. They fight Zellij. They fight your terminal — Ctrl+S is XOFF flow control on a real serial line, and modern emulators still honor it. They fight remote sessions where keystrokes hop through three layers of software.
So Esc is the leader. Tap Esc, then within half a second tap a bound letter. A lone Esc with no follow-up is a no-op — your next keystroke reaches the editor as normal, so accidental Escs never swallow a real character.
The full table
| Combo | Action |
|---|---|
Esc Esc | Open ≡ menu |
Esc s | Save |
Esc u | Undo |
Esc r | Redo |
Esc w | Close tab |
Esc q | Quit |
Esc n | New file |
Esc t | Toggle sidebar |
Esc f | Find in file |
Esc p | Find file in project |
Editor keys (no Esc needed)
Standard movement and editing keys behave the way every editor since the Macintosh has trained you to expect:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move the cursor. |
| Shift + arrow | Extend the selection. |
| Home / End | Jump to the line start / end. |
| PgUp / PgDn | Scroll a viewport. |
| Tab / Shift+Tab | Indent / dedent. |
| Enter | New line. |
| Backspace / Delete | Remove a character or selection. |
| Mouse drag | Select. |
| Double-click | Select the word under the cursor. |
| Scroll wheel | Scroll the panel under the mouse. |
Why not bind clipboard
c, x, and v are deliberately unbound. Your terminal’s Cmd+C / Cmd+V already covers that path; adding a third channel just creates confusion about which buffer holds what. Copy and Paste live in the action menu, where they belong.
Why not bind destructive ops
Rename, Delete, and Revert are deliberately unbound. They’re destructive enough that a confirm modal is the right gate, and the menu’s confirm flow makes the action a deliberate gesture instead of muscle memory.
Double-tap Esc
The leader window is 500 ms. Two Esc taps inside that window open the action menu. Outside it, each Esc is its own no-op leader prefix — there is no way to accidentally summon the menu by leaning on the key.