Limited Keyboard Navigation and Keybinding Flexibility

[Aneeqasif]

In many popular editors such as VS Code and JetBrains PyCharm, users can create multi-step keybindings (chords) — similar to what Emacs and Vim offer — to perform complex actions efficiently from the keyboard.

Moreover, these editors provide comprehensive keybinding support for nearly every interface action, especially on the navigation side, such as:

• Navigating through lists of items
• Toggling or selecting items
• Opening and closing various panels
• Searching within UI panels
• Moving focus between panels

JetBrains IDEs, in particular, exemplify excellent UI/UX design for these keyboard-driven workflows. Such improvements greatly benefit users who prefer keyboard navigation — whether out of habit, efficiency, or due to RSI-related accessibility needs.

Currently, in Marimo, achieving a fully keyboard-driven experience requires workarounds such as browser extensions (e.g., vimium), which feel like a brute-force solution rather than a native experience.

Enhancing Marimo’s native keyboard navigation and keybinding system would make it far more accessible, efficient, and appealing to power users.