App Hotkeys and Custom Shortcuts

App hotkeys are optional. Plain useHotkey is enough until you need a cheat sheet for your whole app, or a screen where users change hotkeys. useHotkey registers a hotkey when its component mounts, so a cheat sheet built from live registrations misses hotkeys on routes that have not rendered yet, and a settings screen has nowhere to change them. App hotkeys solve both: you declare every hotkey in one place, pass the declarations to HotkeysProvider, and attach callbacks where the work happens. Users can then customize any of them, and your app decides how to save their choices.

A declaration holds a hotkey's id, default hotkey, metadata, and options. It never holds a callback. useHotkey and useHotkeys still attach the callbacks.

Declare app hotkeys#

Use defineAppHotkeys in a module that contains only declarations. Keep it free of components and handlers, because it loads with your app shell:

// app-hotkeys.ts
import { defineAppHotkeys } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'

export const appHotkeys = defineAppHotkeys({
  'doc.save': { hotkey: 'Mod+S', meta: { name: 'Save', group: 'Document' } },
  'doc.find': {
    hotkey: 'Mod+F',
    meta: { name: 'Find', group: 'Document' },
    scope: 'editor',
  },
  'nav.home': {
    hotkey: ['G', 'H'],
    meta: { name: 'Go home', group: 'Navigation' },
    options: { timeout: 800 },
  },
  'palette.open': { hotkey: null, meta: { name: 'Command palette' } },
})

declare module '@tanstack/react-hotkeys' {
  interface Register {
    appHotkeys: typeof appHotkeys
  }
}

• The object key is the app hotkey's id. Treat ids as a stable contract, because saved custom hotkeys use them as keys.
• hotkey is the default: a chord, a sequence, or null for an action without a default. An unbound app hotkey registers nothing until the user assigns one.
• options describe the hotkey itself: capture, conflictBehavior, eventType, ignoreInputs, preventDefault, stopPropagation, plus requireReset for a chord default or timeout for a sequence default. Hotkey options describes each one. Options that don't match the default's kind are type errors. Pass target and enabled where you register the hotkey.
• scope sets the scope the hotkey fires in, such as 'editor', in place of the scope of the provider it registers under. App hotkeys in different scopes may share a hotkey.

The Register augmentation types useAppHotkeys(), the ids accepted by useCustomHotkeys(), and the CustomHotkeys type.

Provide app hotkeys#

Pass the declarations to the root HotkeysProvider. See Provide app hotkeys:

import { HotkeysProvider } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'
import { appHotkeys } from './app-hotkeys'

function Root() {
  return (
    <HotkeysProvider appHotkeys={appHotkeys}>
      <App />
    </HotkeysProvider>
  )
}

Register app hotkeys#

Pass an app hotkey wherever you pass a hotkey. Read it from useAppHotkeys(), or import it directly:

import { useAppHotkeys, useHotkey } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'

function Editor() {
  const appHotkeys = useAppHotkeys()

  useHotkey(appHotkeys['doc.save'], () => save(), { enabled: isDirty })
}

Both forms use the provider's effective hotkey for that id, so a user's custom hotkey applies even to a direct import. Without a provider, the declared default is used.

The registration takes meta and options from the declaration. Options merge in this order: provider defaultOptions, then declared options, then call-site options. meta comes only from the declaration, so the cheat sheet and the registration cannot disagree. Call-site options are typed by the declared default's kind, so timeout is accepted for nav.home but not for doc.save.

When a component registers several hotkeys, pass app hotkeys to useHotkeys in the same field, mixed with plain hotkeys if you like:

useHotkeys([
  { hotkey: appHotkeys['doc.save'], callback: save },
  { hotkey: appHotkeys['nav.home'], callback: () => navigate({ to: '/' }) },
  { hotkey: 'Escape', callback: close },
])

When the user changes a hotkey, registered app hotkeys move to the new hotkey immediately, even if it changes from a chord to a sequence.

List app hotkeys#

useAppHotkeyList returns every app hotkey, with its current hotkey and whether anything has registered it. Use it to build a cheat sheet that includes pages that haven't rendered. See List every app hotkey.

Customize and persist hotkeys#

TanStack Hotkeys does not store anything. Pass the user's saved custom hotkeys to the provider and save them when they change:

import { HotkeysProvider } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'
import type { CustomHotkeys } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'

const saved: CustomHotkeys = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('hotkeys') ?? '{}')

function Root() {
  return (
    <HotkeysProvider
      appHotkeys={appHotkeys}
      customHotkeys={saved}
      onCustomHotkeysChange={(custom) =>
        localStorage.setItem('hotkeys', JSON.stringify(custom))
      }
    >
      <App />
    </HotkeysProvider>
  )
}

• customHotkeys holds only the hotkeys that differ from the declared defaults, keyed by id. null means the user unbound that hotkey. Saving differences means users who never changed a hotkey get new defaults when you change them.
• The provider reads customHotkeys once and owns the state afterwards. Saved data can outlive the code that wrote it, so unknown ids and invalid hotkeys are ignored with a warning.
• onCustomHotkeysChange receives the complete custom hotkeys after every change, ready to save. Storage can be anything: local storage, a server, or a user profile.

The hotkey recorder records Mod rather than platform-specific modifiers, so a hotkey saved on one platform works on others.

Change hotkeys#

useCustomHotkeys reads and changes the user's custom hotkeys. Pair it with a recorder, so users press the hotkey they want:

import {
  formatForDisplay,
  useAppHotkeys,
  useCustomHotkeys,
  useHotkeyRecorder,
} from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'
import type { AppHotkeyId } from '@tanstack/react-hotkeys'

function ShortcutRow({ id }: { id: AppHotkeyId }) {
  const appHotkey = useAppHotkeys()[id]
  const { setCustomHotkey, resetCustomHotkey, findConflicts } = useCustomHotkeys()

  const recorder = useHotkeyRecorder({
    maxSteps: Infinity,
    validate: (hotkey) => {
      const conflicts = findConflicts(id, hotkey)
      return conflicts.length === 0 || `Used by ${conflicts[0]?.meta?.name}`
    },
    onRecord: (hotkey) => setCustomHotkey(id, hotkey),
    onClear: () => setCustomHotkey(id, null),
  })

  return (
    <div>
      {appHotkey.meta?.name}:{' '}
      {appHotkey.hotkey ? formatForDisplay(appHotkey.hotkey) : 'Unassigned'}
      <button onClick={recorder.startRecording}>Change</button>
      <button onClick={() => resetCustomHotkey(id)}>Reset</button>
    </div>
  )
}

Two app hotkeys conflict when their scopes match or either is in 'global', including app hotkeys with no declared scope, and their hotkeys collide: equal chords, or one sequence starts with the other, including a sequence whose first step equals a chord. Conflicts are checked across every declaration, whether or not it is registered.

Each app hotkey's defaultHotkey holds its declared default, and isCustom in useAppHotkeyList reports whether the effective hotkey differs from it.

HotkeysProvider creates an AppHotkeysStore from the core package. See the AppHotkeysStore reference to use it directly.

The Kitchen Sink example declares app hotkeys, lists them in a cheat sheet, and lets users change them.