Adding Control-Key to Snippets

If you want to add a control-key (Ctrl-A / Ctrl-C / Ctrl-D / ...) to a snippet, you can use the following syntax :

<ctrl-x> (Replace x by the control-key you want to add)

You can put the control-key anywhere in your snippet. So you can use <ctrl-A>ls to send Ctrl-A and then ls to your SSH session.

Other key tokens are available:

Token	Description
<ctrl-x>	Control character (x is a letter or one of [ \ ] ^ _ @ /), case-insensitive
<alt-x>	Escape followed by x, one character, case preserved (<alt-b> and <alt-B> differ)
<esc>	Escape (same as <ctrl-[>)
<tab>	Tab (same as <ctrl-i>)

Key tokens are expanded before dynamic variables, so a value typed in the variables form is never read as a key token.

Examples

Control-Key	Description
<ctrl-a>	Send Ctrl-A
<ctrl-b>[	Show history of your tmux session
<ctrl-b>"	Split your tmux session horizontally
<ctrl-b>%	Split your tmux session vertically
<alt-b>	Move one word backward (readline)
<esc>:wq	Save and quit vim

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Last update: September 16, 2026