Shortcuts and quick input
The system-wide hotkeys, every in-app shortcut, how to rebind them and what to do when one is taken
The desktop app has two kinds of keyboard shortcuts. System-wide ones work while you are in any other application, so they are also the only ones that can collide with another program. In-app ones only work while a DeutschlandGPT window has focus.
All of them are listed and rebindable under Settings, Shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl+,), grouped exactly as below.
Quick input
Press the quick-input hotkey anywhere, while writing an email, reading a PDF, in a spreadsheet, and a small input box appears over your current window. Type your question, press Enter, and the answer opens in a new conversation in the app. Esc closes the box.
| Platform | Default |
|---|---|
| macOS | Cmd+Shift+I |
| Windows | Ctrl+Alt+Space |
The defaults differ per platform on purpose: Ctrl+Shift+I opens the developer tools on Windows,
so quick input takes a chord that is genuinely free there.
The tray icon opens the same box without bringing the whole window forward.
System-wide
| Action | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Quick input | Cmd+Shift+I | Ctrl+Alt+Space |
| Dictation | Ctrl+Alt+D | Ctrl+Alt+D |
The dictation entry only appears if dictation is enabled for your account. Directly below it sits its trigger setting, push to talk or toggle, because that describes the key press rather than the transcript.
The macOS dictation default avoids Cmd entirely. Every Cmd variant of D is already taken system-wide (Cmd+Shift+D is Finder's Desktop and Mail's send, Cmd+Alt+D hides the Dock, Cmd+Ctrl+D looks a word up), and a global registration would win over whichever app normally owns the chord. Ctrl+Alt+D is also comfortable to hold, which push to talk depends on.
In-app shortcuts
Grouped as in the settings list.
Navigation
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| New conversation | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+O |
| Search conversations | Cmd/Ctrl+K |
| Cowork | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+C |
| Custom apps | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+G |
Code and Cowork
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Switch permission mode | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+M |
Window
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Show or hide sidebar | Cmd/Ctrl+B |
| Close window (to tray) | Cmd/Ctrl+W |
Profile and settings
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Profile | Cmd/Ctrl+P |
| Skills | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S |
| Tasks | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+T |
| Integrations | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Sign out | none |
Help
Feedback, contact and the status page are in the list with no default binding. Give them one if you use them often.
In-app shortcuts are delivered through the native menu bar, so they work regardless of which part of the window has focus. That is why they still fire while the cursor sits in the terminal or in the code editor, which would otherwise swallow the key press.
Rebinding
Click the combination you want to change and press the new keys. It saves immediately. Esc
cancels.
Conflicts are shown in red on both sides, not blocked. Swapping two shortcuts has to pass through a conflicting state, and you are the one who knows which you meant. Resolve it before you leave.
While this settings pane is open, every shortcut is suspended: the system-wide hotkeys are unregistered and the menu bar is rebuilt without its accelerators, so the keys you press reach the recorder instead of firing their command.
Reset to default is available per shortcut, and a shortcut can be removed entirely.
A combination needs at least one modifier key. A bare letter cannot become a shortcut, or typing would trigger commands.
When a shortcut does not work
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Already taken by another app | The operating system refused to register it, because another program claimed it first. Pick a different one |
| Could not be registered | Same cause, reported at the moment you tried to save. The old binding is kept rather than silently lost |
A system-wide hotkey outranks the application that normally owns that combination while DeutschlandGPT runs. If a chord suddenly stops working in another program, that is where to look.
Two Windows specifics:
- The Windows key is reserved by Windows for its own shortcuts and cannot be used reliably by applications. The recorder refuses it and asks for Ctrl instead.
- AltGr reports itself as Ctrl+Alt. A key press with AltGr held is therefore never treated as a shortcut and cannot be recorded as one, because otherwise typing
@or€would trigger commands.
Not configurable
Text-editing keys are conventions rather than app commands, so rebinding them would break the surface they belong to: