Commands and Key Hints

XenoAtom.Terminal.UI provides a lightweight command system to make keyboard shortcuts discoverable and reusable across UI surfaces (key hints, command palette, menus).

Commands are retained-mode, registered on visuals (local) or on the TerminalApp (global), and routed using the same focus → parent traversal as other keyboard handling.

Screenshot placeholders will be added later.

What is a command?

A Command is an action with:

A stable Id
A user-facing LabelMarkup (ANSI markup supported, including theme tokens like [primary])
An optional Gesture (single-stroke shortcut)
An optional Sequence (Ctrl+K Ctrl+P style multi-stroke shortcuts)
Optional CanExecute / IsVisible predicates

Registering commands on visuals

using XenoAtom.Terminal;
using XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Controls;
using XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Input;

var editor = new TextArea("Hello");
editor.AddCommand(new Command
{
    Id = "App.Save",
    LabelMarkup = "[primary]Save[/]",
    Gesture = new XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Input.KeyGesture(TerminalChar.CtrlS, TerminalModifiers.Ctrl),
    Execute = _ => Terminal.WriteLine("Saved"),
});

Notes:

For Ctrl shortcuts, prefer TerminalChar.CtrlX + TerminalModifiers.Ctrl (terminals commonly emit control characters).
Gesture and Sequence are mutually exclusive.

Multi-stroke shortcuts (key sequences)

Use KeySequence to define sequences:

var cmd = new Command
{
    Id = "App.CommandPalette",
    LabelMarkup = "Command palette",
    Sequence = new KeySequence(
        new XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Input.KeyGesture(TerminalChar.CtrlK, TerminalModifiers.Ctrl),
        new XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Input.KeyGesture(TerminalChar.CtrlP, TerminalModifiers.Ctrl)),
    Execute = _ => Terminal.WriteLine("Open palette"),
};

By design, a gesture used as a sequence prefix should not also be used as a standalone command in the same scope.

Showing key hints with CommandBar

Use CommandBar as part of your app chrome:

using XenoAtom.Terminal.UI.Controls;

var root = new DockLayout()
    .Content(new TextArea())
    .Bottom(new VStack(
        new CommandBar(),
        new Footer().Left("Tab focus | Mouse").Right("Ctrl+Q quit"))
        .Spacing(0));

The command bar shows commands for the current focus context and clips when the line is full.

Where commands appear

Commands have CommandPresentation flags (for example CommandBar, CommandPalette, Menu, ContextMenu).

CommandBar shows context-aware key hints for the focused visual.
CommandPalette lists commands from the current focus context and global commands.
MenuBar supports menu items backed by commands.
Context menus can be built from commands via CommandPresentation.ContextMenu.

While a modal popup/menu is active, global shortcuts are not executed “behind” it.