Keyboard-First Workflow

Keyboard shortcuts &
Central Shortcut Engine

Vastra operates at the speed of thought. Powered by a unified keydown listener, you can navigate workspaces, search tabs, bookmark, and command the browser entirely from your keyboard.

Interactive Simulator

Click the highlighted key combinations below to simulate how Vastra's central shortcut engine processes command hotkeys.

Select a combo:
0 XP HOTKEY CHALLENGER 1 / 5

Quest: Press Ctrl + K!

Hint: Toggles Vastra's central Command Palette modal.

Click a combo above
Press or click keys to view active shortcuts in Vastra's Central Shortcut Engine.
Vastra Tab 1
Simulator Idle

Core Hotkeys

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+T Open a new tab in the current Workspace
Ctrl+W Close active tab (saves state for restoration)
Ctrl+Shift+T Reopen the last closed tab (in original Workspace)
Ctrl+Tab / Shift+Tab Cycle next / previous tab in active Workspace
Ctrl+1 … 8 Quick-jump directly to Tab indices 1 to 8
Alt+Left / Right Back / Forward navigation inside Web View
Ctrl+L Focus address URL bar to type addresses or search
Ctrl+R / F5 Hard reload the active tab's web contents
Ctrl+K Launch simulated Command Palette overlay
Ctrl+F Find text matches on page with next/prev control
Ctrl++ / - / 0 Adjust browser scale zoom levels or reset to 100%
Ctrl+H Open local browsing history page
Ctrl+J Open downloads manager page
Ctrl+D Bookmark/Unbookmark the active page
Ctrl+B Toggle left workspace and tab sidebar width
F11 Toggle full-screen viewing mode
Esc Close command palette, find bar, or any active overlay
Behind the Code

The Centralized Key-Handling Architecture

In ordinary browsers, keyboard listeners are scattered across disjointed elements, causing conflicts where shortcuts fire while you are typing inside input forms.

Vastra solves this by using a centralized, single ShortcutsProvider. A global keydown interceptor evaluates all keystrokes. Modifier combinations (e.g. Ctrl + L) intercept execution instantly, while bare characters are smartly bypassed to fields when active. Adding a new browser-wide combo is as simple as registering a single line in our useShortcutMap() hook.

src/shortcuts/index.jsx 
// Simplified Centralized Engine Listener
window.addEventListener('keydown', (e) => {
  const isInput = ['INPUT', 'TEXTAREA'].includes(e.target.tagName);
  const combo = getPressedCombo(e); // "Ctrl+T"
  
  if (isInput && !hasModifier(e)) {
    return; // Defer bare characters to input fields
  }
  
  const action = shortcutMap[combo];
  if (action) {
    e.preventDefault();
    action(); // Execute command store dispatch
  }
});