Keybinds

User-opened Surfaces have verbs you can bind in niri or Umbriel. Auth opens only for polkit. Kanade grabs no global key. The KDL examples below are for niri’s binds block in ~/.config/niri/config.kdl; for Umbriel bind the same commands in its config.toml, as in the supplied config.

Mod+Alt+Space hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Launcher" { spawn "kanade" "launcher" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+N hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Notifications" { spawn "kanade" "notifications" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+M hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Media" { spawn "kanade" "media" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+C hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Controls" { spawn "kanade" "controls" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+T hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Tray" { spawn "kanade" "tray" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+V hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Clipboard" { spawn "kanade" "clipboard" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+D hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Calendar" { spawn "kanade" "calendar" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+W hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Weather" { spawn "kanade" "weather" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+B hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Wallpapers" { spawn "kanade" "wallpaper" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+Slash hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Keys" { spawn "kanade" "keys" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+P hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Session" { spawn "kanade" "session" "menu"; }
Mod+Alt+Escape hotkey-overlay-title="Island: Collapse" { spawn "kanade" "island" "collapse"; }

Capture, caffeine and locking work the same way:

Print hotkey-overlay-title="Screenshot: Area" { spawn "kanade" "capture" "screenshot" "area"; }
Shift+Print hotkey-overlay-title="Recording: Start" { spawn "kanade" "capture" "record" "start"; }
Shift+Ctrl+Print hotkey-overlay-title="Recording: Stop" { spawn "kanade" "capture" "record" "stop"; }
Mod+Alt+K hotkey-overlay-title="Caffeine" { spawn "kanade" "caffeine" "toggle"; }
Mod+Alt+L hotkey-overlay-title="Lock" { spawn "kanade" "lock"; }
Mod+G hotkey-overlay-title="Gesture" { spawn "kanade" "gesture"; }

Keys inside a Surface

Where	Keys
Any Surface	Escape backs out of a Sub-surface, then collapses; Auth cancels. A pinned island gives the keyboard back, so use the collapse bind
Text fields	Arrows/Home/End move, Shift selects, Ctrl+arrows jump a word, Ctrl+A selects all, Ctrl+V pastes one line (up to 64 KiB); copy and cut are unsupported
Dock menu	Up/Down move, Enter or Space press, Delete or Backspace closes the window, Escape closes the menu
Media	Arrows/Tab ring the chips, timeline, transport and speaker; Left/Right seek 5 s and set the volume
Notifications	Arrows/Tab ring, Enter or Space press, Backspace dismisses the card or the whole stack
Launcher	Typing searches; Up/Down/Home/End move, Enter acts, Ctrl+K opens the selected answer’s actions, Ctrl+1–9 press the nth
Clipboard	Typing searches, the ring walks entries and their pin/delete, then Clear all; clearing is a 0.7 s hold
Calendar	Left/Right a day, Up/Down a week, n/p a month, Home or t today, a adds, e edits, holding d removes
Timer, Capture	Arrows/Tab ring the tiles, Enter/Space press; recording audio cycles none, system, mic, mix
Window	Arrows/Tab ring column controls, widths and workspace pills; Enter/Space press
Strip	Arrows/Tab ring columns and stacked window tiles; Enter/Space focuses the window and collapses
Emoji	Typing searches, arrows/Tab ring tiles; Enter copies and closes on success, Space types
Screen time	Up/Down/Tab/Home/End ring today’s apps and scroll to them; Module off by default
Files	Typing searches names and folders; arrows/Tab/Home/End select, Enter opens, Right opens the folder, Ctrl+R refreshes
Wallpapers	Typing searches, arrows/Tab/Home/End ring pictures and Shuffle; Enter sets one and stays open
Keys	Typing searches; Up/Down/Tab/Home/End move through results
Auth	Typing enters the password, Backspace erases, Enter submits, Escape cancels; keys stay in the prompt
Session	Arrows/Tab ring, Enter or Space press; a countdown keeps it open with the ring on Cancel
Settings	Tab/Shift+Tab ring, Enter or Space press, arrows step a value, Escape leaves a field
Tray	Arrows/Tab ring, Enter or Space press, Right enters a submenu, Left or Escape goes back
Controls	Up/Down/Tab ring, Left/Right move or adjust, Enter or Space press

An island opened from a keybind takes the keyboard and collapses after 5 s if nothing on it is used and the pointer never comes onto it; one opened with a click gets keys after the click. A typed character collapses Media, Controls, Weather and Session so it goes to the window beneath.

Note

Idle locking is off by default (idle is a Module you turn on). With it off, point an idle daemon at kanade lock; Kanade locks before sleep on its own, so no before_sleep_cmd is needed.

Desk keys

The Desk has no focus keybind. With pointer focus on its media buttons, Left/Right first reveals a ring without acting. Later Left/Right skips disabled buttons; Enter/Space presses. Escape clears the ring and drops the keyboard request so typing can return below. Live media-ring acceptance on niri and Umbriel is NOT RUN.

Click the notes card to type a new note; Enter starts another line, Backspace erases, Escape leaves and saves. A face moves only by dragging its handle: Escape or losing the keyboard cancels, release saves its place. Notes and handle drags take keys before the media ring.

See also

Running Kanade, CLI surfaces, and the canonical keyboard guide for the full key table.