Keyboard navigation

MeowMenu can be driven entirely from the keyboard: open it, start typing, or use the keys below. These shortcuts are tested on the primary X11 path. Wayland remains experimental and unverified live.

Quick reference

Key	Effect
Type any text	Starts or extends a search from any normal region.
Enter	Launches the highlighted item (the first match on the search box).
Space	Adds one literal space to the query; it never activates the focused item.
Backspace	Deletes from the query; on an empty query it does nothing.
Tab / Shift+Tab	Switches between Applications and Places (when Places is on).
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Does nothing; it never starts focus traversal.
↑ / ↓ / ← / →	Moves within the focused region, then crosses to the nearest usable region.
Page Up / Page Down	Moves the selection one screenful at a time.
Esc	Steps back one level (see below).
Shift+F10 or Menu	Opens the context menu for the highlighted item.

The context menu is also the non-drag route for desktop entries. Highlight an application and open its context menu to use Add to Desktop. In Places, highlight a file or folder and open its context menu to use Add Desktop Link. These actions are available in FullScreen as the supported alternative to dragging to the desktop.

Switching Applications and Places

Tab and Shift+Tab switch between Applications and Places from anywhere in the menu. The new view clears the old query, opens its default content (Applications → your default category, Places → Home), and focuses the first visual result. If no result exists, Search keeps focus. When Places is disabled, Tab and Shift+Tab do nothing. Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab are consumed no-ops.

Moving between areas

Arrow navigation is one physical model across Search, Results, Sidebar, and Session controls. It first moves within the current region. Only at a true edge does it score visible targets in the pressed direction by forward separation, perpendicular alignment, then visual order. Hidden, insensitive, decorative, empty, and mode-switch controls are skipped. There is no wrapping; an outer edge with no target is a consumed no-op.

In Full Screen, Profile, Search, and available Session actions share the fixed top row. With no vertical sidebar, Apps/Places also belongs to that row between Profile and Search; with a vertical sidebar, it remains part of the sidebar. Horizontal category navigation stays in its strip, while Apps/Places follows the no-vertical-sidebar row and spans the same centred width as Results. When the category entries fit, the Horizontal group is centered within its strip; the strip uses the full menu width in Docked/Centered and the Results-width column in Full Screen. Overflow remains inside the strip, and Apps/Places is not part of the centered category group. The whole logical row mirrors in right-to-left interfaces. No hidden alternate search or bottom row participates in focus navigation.

Moving within an area

• Results — list results move one displayed row at a time; grids use their actual visible cells in all four directions, including an incomplete final row. Calculator is the first visual result when visible. Exactly one item is highlighted at a time, whether you move by keyboard or by mouse.
• Sidebar — the arrow keys along the sidebar move through the categories one per press and keep focus in the sidebar the whole time, without wrapping. The along-axis keys are ↑ / ↓ for a vertical sidebar and ← / → for a horizontal one. While a query is non-empty, Sidebar remains excluded from Search and vertical Results exits, but a focused Results item may leave horizontally toward a visible vertical sidebar. Selecting a category with the mouse instead hands focus to the search box so you can start typing right away.
• Region crossing — any arrow toward a visible neighbouring region uses the same live-geometry rule. Search remains reachable even while typing.
• Session buttons — ← / → move between buttons; Enter activates.

How arrowing through categories affects the results depends on the “Switch categories by hovering” sidebar setting. With it on, the highlighted category opens live as you arrow, so the results preview each one. With it off, arrowing only moves the highlight and the results stay put until you press Enter (or Space) to confirm the highlighted category.

The Esc ladder

One press undoes one thing, in this order: close an open context menu → cancel a resize → clear the search text → close the menu.

Type to search

Start typing at any time. Letters, digits, punctuation, spaces, shifted symbols, non-Latin characters, emoji, and committed input-method text go to the search box, wherever normal menu focus is. Space is inserted literally before button activation or input-method candidate handling. In-progress composition and dead-key input remain Search-owned; Ctrl/Alt/Super/Meta shortcuts do not alter the query.

When a query refreshes, Calculator is the first anchor when visible, followed by the first ranked list row or top-left grid item. If no result exists, Search keeps focus. Home recursive Places results use a one-result focus lease: the first current result selects, reveals, and focuses once; stale results or a deliberate arrow, pointer, Tab, section, or mode departure may still display but never steal focus.

The configured desktop shortcut, including a selected bare Super shortcut, remains outside this in-menu model and continues to toggle MeowMenu when the desktop delivers it. MeowMenu does not claim or reconfigure that shortcut.

Notes

• Left and Right remain physical directions in right-to-left locales. Native Search cursor editing keeps its locale-specific behavior, while ties between equally placed targets use physical leading-to-trailing order.
• On Wayland, compositor and optional layer-shell behavior can differ. Close the menu with Esc or the configured global shortcut if focus behavior is unexpected.