Keys and counts

This page lists the keys of the main screen of tt: how to move in the list of messages and in the tree, how a count works, and how to quit.

Try it

tt --demo

Press j a few times, then 5j. The bottom bar goes from message 1 of 200 to message 6 of 200 and more. gg goes back to the first message. ZZ quits.

The focus

The screen has two parts that take keys: the list of messages (the context list) and the tree of accounts and folders (the context sidebar). The list has the focus when tt starts. Ctrl-w gives the focus to the other part.

The selected row of the part that has the focus is black on cyan (the pictures of this site draw cyan in the mint green of the site, not in the cyan of your terminal). In the other part it is white on grey, so you can tell which one the keys move. A theme can change both colours: see Themes of tt.

The list of messages

Keys	What they do
j, Down	the next message
k, Up	the previous message
gg, Home	the first message
G, End	the last message
Ctrl-d, PageDown	half a page down
Ctrl-u, PageUp	half a page up
l, Enter	open the selected message in the reader
/	search the list
n, N	the next and the previous match of the last search
c	write a new mail
r, R	answer the sender, answer everyone

The reader is on Folders and the reader, the search on Search, and writing and answering on Write and send.

A row shows N for an unread message and * for a flagged one, then the sender, the subject and the date. The date is the time (12:00) for today, the day and month (06 Nov) for this year, and 2025-03-14 before.

The tree

Keys	What they do
j, Down	the next row
k, Up	the previous row
l, Right	open the account or the folder; on one that is open, go to its first child
h, Left	close the account or the folder; on one that is closed, go to its parent
Enter	open or close the account or the folder
gg, G	the first and the last row

Space is not bound in the tree: it is the leader key. The tree is on Folders and the reader.

Keys that work everywhere

Keys	What they do
Ctrl-w	give the focus to the other part
:	open the command line
ZZ	quit
Ctrl-c	quit at once
?	opens a window with every key binding, a block for each context, each line with the key, its command and its description when it has one; it scrolls and closes with the keys of the reader (help.show_keys)

q never quits the main screen. :q and :quit do. Ctrl-c is not a binding, so it works even when keybind.lua is empty.

Counts

A number typed before a key is a count, and it goes to the command as its first word. The digits 1 to 9 start a count, so no binding can start with them.

• 5j moves five messages down, 3k three up.
• 3G and 3gg go to the third message. Without a count G goes to the last one and gg to the first.
• 2 Ctrl-d moves two half pages.
• In the tree, 5j moves five rows.
• 5n goes five matches on.

Sequences

gg and ZZ are sequences of two keys. After the first key Tilde waits for the next one, for one second by default. The wait and the leader key are in the [keys] table of config.toml:

[keys]
leader = "<Space>"
timeout_ms = 1000

The mouse wheel

The wheel moves the selection of the part that has the focus. tt asks the terminal to send Up and Down for the wheel, so it works when those keys are bound. Inside tmux or screen it depends on the outer terminal and on the mouse option of tmux. Clicks do nothing.

The ? key opens a window with every key, a block for each context:

Where the keys come from

Every key on this page is a line of keybind.lua, in the scripts folder beside config.toml. Tilde writes the file once, when it is missing, and never changes it again. To change a key, see Change a key. The names of the commands are in tt commands and contexts.

A keybind.lua written by an older tt does not get the new keys by itself. The README of tt lists the lines to add by hand.