Keypress Notifications

May 26, 2026 · View on GitHub

Keypress Notifications

Never lose track of which shortcut you just pressed.

VS Code gives you zero feedback about which keyboard shortcut you triggered. You pressed something — but what? This tiny blind spot compounds fast: during screencasts and tutorials, your audience can't follow your keystrokes. In pair-programming sessions, your colleague doesn't know what you just did. When streaming or presenting, viewers stare at a result with no context. And when you're learning new keybindings yourself, muscle memory can't form if nothing confirms you hit the right combo.

Keypress Notifications plugs that gap. Every time you trigger one of 42 common VS Code keybindings, a toast notification pops up — "You've pressed Ctrl+C" — so there's always on-screen confirmation of what happened.

Features

Visual Feedback: On-screen toast notification confirms every triggered keybinding.
Screencast & Stream Ready: Viewers see the shortcut label as you press it, without extra software.
Pair Programming Friendly: Your keys are visible without any extra screen-share setup.
Accessible: On-screen text confirmation of every action alongside screen reader support.
Muscle Memory Builder: Instant reinforcement each time you press the right combo.

Tech Stack

TypeScript
Node.js
VS Code Extension API

Visuals

On-screen toast for every supported keybinding

Setup & Installation

Prerequisites

VS Code: Version 1.111.0 or later.

Install Commands

VS Code Marketplace (recommended):

ext install VijayGangatharan.keypress-notifications

Or search "Keypress Notifications" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).

Open VSX (VS Codium / other open-source VS Code builds): open-vsx.org/extension/VijayGangatharan/keypress-notifications

Command line:

code --install-extension VijayGangatharan.keypress-notifications

Usage

Quick Start

Install from VS Code Marketplace
Open any file in VS Code
Press a supported shortcut (e.g. Ctrl+S to save)
See the toast notification — "You've pressed Ctrl+S"

That's it. No configuration needed for the default experience.

Commands

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and search for:

Command	Description
Keypress Notifications: Enable	Turn notifications on
Keypress Notifications: Disable	Turn notifications off
Keypress Notifications: Show Status	Open the extension output channel

Configuration

All settings live under the keypress-notifications.* namespace in your VS Code settings.json:

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	boolean	`true`	Enable or disable notifications
`minimumKeys`	number	`2`	Minimum number of keys in a combination before a notification fires
`excludedCommands`	string[]	`[]`	Commands to suppress notifications for
`showCommandName`	boolean	`false`	Include the VS Code command ID in the notification message
`logLevel`	string	`"info"`	Logging verbosity: `"debug"`, `"info"`, `"warn"`, or `"error"`

Supported Shortcuts

The extension covers 42 common commands across the Editor, Explorer, Workbench, and Terminal.

Click to view all supported shortcuts

Editor

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+A	Select All
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+H	Find & Replace
Alt+Up	Move Line Up
Alt+Down	Move Line Down
Shift+Alt+Up	Copy Line Up
Shift+Alt+Down	Copy Line Down
Ctrl+Shift+K	Delete Line
Ctrl+.	Quick Fix
Shift+Alt+F	Format Document
Ctrl+/	Toggle Line Comment
Ctrl+D	Add Selection to Next Match

Explorer

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy File/Folder
Ctrl+X	Cut File/Folder
Ctrl+V	Paste File/Folder

Workbench / Navigation

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+K S	Save All
Ctrl+Shift+P	Command Palette
Ctrl+P	Quick Open
Ctrl+Shift+F	Find in Files
Ctrl+G	Go to Line
Ctrl+B	Toggle Sidebar
Ctrl+`	Toggle Terminal
Ctrl+J	Toggle Panel
Ctrl+W	Close Editor
Ctrl+Shift+N	New Window
Ctrl+N	New File
Ctrl+O	Open File
Ctrl+\	Split Editor
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopen Closed Editor
Ctrl+Shift+O	Go to Symbol
Ctrl+,	Open Settings
Ctrl+Shift+G	Source Control
Ctrl+Shift+X	Extensions
Ctrl+Shift+D	Debug
Ctrl+Shift+M	Problems

Terminal

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+`	New Terminal

Getting Help & Contributing

Troubleshooting

Notifications not appearing

Check extension status: open Command Palette → Keypress Notifications: Show Status — look for enabled: true in the output.
Enable the extension: Command Palette → Keypress Notifications: Enable.
Check minimumKeys: default is 2, so single-key presses won't fire. Lower it in settings if needed.
Check excludedCommands: the command may be in your exclusion list.
Unsupported shortcut: notifications only fire for the 42 curated keybindings above — arbitrary shortcuts are not wrapped.

Shortcut not in the list

The extension wraps a curated set of 42 common commands. To request coverage for a shortcut, open an issue with the VS Code command ID and your use case.

Notifications are too noisy

Add commands to keypress-notifications.excludedCommands (use the VS Code command ID, e.g. editor.action.clipboardCopyAction).
Raise keypress-notifications.minimumKeys to suppress shorter combos.

Contribution Guidelines

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines, including how to set up the local development environment. Please open an issue to discuss significant changes before submitting a Pull Request.