Complete Fish Shell keyboard shortcuts reference — 18 shortcuts across 3 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows & Mac.
Fish is a user-friendly shell with autosuggestions, smart tab completion, and a set of unique Alt-key helpers that most users never discover. Learning its keyboard shortcuts can dramatically speed up your workflow — studies show shortcut users save an average of 8 days per year compared to mouse-only users.
This page covers all 18 Fish Shell shortcuts across 3 categories: Autosuggestions (5), Fish Specials (6), Line Editing (7). Each shortcut includes a description to help you understand when and how to use it effectively.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Right | Accept suggestion |
| Alt + F | Accept one word |
| Up | History prefix search |
| Alt + Up | Token search |
| Ctrl + R | History pager |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt + L | List directory |
| Alt + P | Append pager |
| Alt + S | Prepend sudo |
| Alt + E | Edit in $EDITOR |
| Alt + H | Show man page |
| Alt + W | Describe command |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + A | Start of line |
| Ctrl + E | End of line |
| Ctrl + U | Kill to start |
| Ctrl + K | Kill to end |
| Ctrl + W | Delete word |
| Ctrl + L | Clear screen |
| Tab | Complete |
Fish Shell's 18 shortcuts on this page are organized into 3 categories: Autosuggestions (5), Fish Specials (6), Line Editing (7). Line Editing is the largest group with 7 shortcuts — a good place to focus first if you're building muscle memory from scratch.
A few of these aren't Fish Shell-specific — they're shared across tools: Alt + F (Accept one word, also in Chrome); Alt + Up (Token search, also in Linux); Ctrl + R (History pager, also in Excel). Learning them here pays off well beyond Fish Shell itself.
New to Fish Shell? Start with Autosuggestions above — it's usually where the shortcuts you'll reach for constantly live. Once those feel automatic, work through Line Editing to round out your workflow.
Want this on paper? The printable cheat sheet turns these 18 shortcuts into a one-page PDF you can pin above your desk. Prefer to learn by doing? Shortcut Speedrun turns memorization into a timed typing challenge with a global leaderboard, so you find out which Fish Shell shortcuts you actually remember under pressure.
The most essential Fish Shell shortcuts are: Right (Accept suggestion), Alt + F (Accept one word), Up (History prefix search). These cover the most frequent actions and can significantly speed up your workflow.
Fish Shell has 18 keyboard shortcuts across 3 categories on shortcut-tools.com.
Simply press the key combination while Fish Shell is focused. Most shortcuts work immediately. On Mac, replace Ctrl with Cmd and Alt with Option for most shortcuts.
The Fish Shell shortcut for accept suggestion is Right.
Fish Shell includes 7 Line Editing shortcuts, including Ctrl + A (Start of line) and Ctrl + E (End of line). See the full list in the Line Editing section above.
Print the Fish Shell cheat sheet and keep it next to your keyboard for the first week, then switch to active recall: open Shortcut Speedrun and practice Fish Shell shortcuts against the clock until they're automatic.
Yes — use My Stack to combine Fish Shell shortcuts with any other platform on this site into one printable reference, which is useful if your daily workflow spans several tools.
Most do not — the underlying key is the same, but Fish Shell (like most software) maps Ctrl on Windows/Linux to Cmd on Mac for standard operations. Where a shortcut is platform-specific, this page notes the Mac variant next to the Windows one.
Start with the essentials: Learn Right (Accept suggestion) and Alt + F (Accept one word) first — these are the most commonly used.
Practice daily: Pick 2–3 new shortcuts each day and consciously use them instead of the mouse. Within a week, they become muscle memory.
Print this cheat sheet: Keep a reference nearby until shortcuts become automatic. Focus on the Line Editing category first.
CLI tip: Create shell aliases for the commands you use most. Combine them with these shortcuts for maximum efficiency.