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Cheatsheet Terminal Warp Developer Tools macOS Linux 8 min read

Warp Terminal Cheat Sheet: Shortcuts, Workflows & AI Features

Darsh Jariwala
By Darsh Jariwala
| Updated: May 21, 2026
Warp Terminal Cheat Sheet: Shortcuts, Workflows & AI Features
TL;DR
  • Warp is a GPU-accelerated terminal with AI autocomplete, block-based output, and a command palette — works on macOS and Linux (Windows beta)
  • Cmd+K opens the command palette; Cmd+P opens the file palette
  • Block-based output lets you copy output per block, scroll back to specific commands, and share output as URLs
  • AI Command Search (Cmd+Shift+K) writes and explains shell commands from natural language
  • Warp Modes (Cmd+/) switch between default, remote SSH, and Zen focus modes
  • Team Features: share command output as public links, collaborative sessions

Quick reference tables

Core shortcuts

| Action | Shortcut | What it does | |---|---|---| | Command palette | Cmd+K | Open command palette (search commands, settings) | | File palette | Cmd+P | Fuzzy search files in current directory | | AI Command Search | Cmd+Shift+K | Write commands from natural language | | New tab | Cmd+T | Open new terminal tab | | New window | Cmd+N | Open new window | | Search output | Cmd+F | Search scrollback buffer | | Block focus | Click a block | Focus on a single command + output | | Toggle sidebar | Cmd+Shift+S | Show/hide session sidebar | | Zen mode | Cmd+/ | Switch to focus mode (hides UI) | | Kill process | Ctrl+C | Send SIGINT to foreground process | | Clear scrollback | Cmd+Shift+K (while empty) | Clear all scrollback |

| Action | Shortcut | |---|---| | Start of line | Ctrl+A | | End of line | Ctrl+E | | Previous command | Up or Ctrl+P | | Next command | Down or Ctrl+N | | Previous word | Alt+Left | | Next word | Alt+Right | | Delete word (forward) | Alt+D | | Delete to start of line | Ctrl+U | | Delete to end of line | Ctrl+K | | Paste last argument | Alt+. |


Block-based terminal

Warp organizes output into blocks — each command and its output is one block.

| Action | How | |---|---| | Focus a block | Click on it | | Copy block output | Hover → copy icon (or Cmd+C when block selected) | | Re-run a command | Hover → play icon (or Shift+Up when block focused) | | Delete a block | Hover → X icon | | Expand/collapse long output | Click expand button | | Share block as link | Hover → share icon → public URL | | Pin block to top | Hover → pin icon | | Select multiple blocks | Shift+Click |

Block metadata

Each block shows:

  • Exit code (green ✓ for 0, red X for non-zero)
  • Duration of the command
  • Directory where it ran
  • Timestamp

Command palette (Cmd+K)

Type anything to search:

| Query | Action | |---|---| | theme: | Search and switch themes | | font: | Adjust font size and family | | key: | Search keyboard shortcuts | | profile: | Switch between shell profiles | | workflow: | Trigger saved workflows | | >bash command | Run a shell command from the palette | | !name | Expand named snippet | | Settings panel name | Jump to settings |

Saved workflows

Save sequences of commands as named workflows:

bash
# In Warp, press Cmd+K → "workflows" → "New workflow"
name: "Deploy to prod"
commands:
  - git checkout main
  - git pull
  - docker build -t myapp .
  - docker tag myapp registry.com/myapp:v1
  - docker push registry.com/myapp:v1
  - kubectl rollout restart deployment/myapp

AI Command Search (Cmd+Shift+K)

Write shell commands from natural language:

plaintext
Describe: "Find all Node.js files larger than 5MB in the current directory"
→ find . -name "*.js" -size +5M

Describe: "Kill the process running on port 3000"
→ lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill -9

Describe: "Show me the 10 largest directories in node_modules"
→ du -sh node_modules/*/ | sort -rh | head -10

Describe: "Restart nginx and check its status"
→ sudo systemctl restart nginx && sudo systemctl status nginx

AI also explains existing commands in your output:

  1. Hover over any command in scrollback
  2. Click the AI icon (wand)
  3. Warp explains what the command does, line by line

AI autocomplete

Warp’s AI suggests completions as you type:

  • Suggestions appear inline, in gray
  • Tab accepts the suggestion
  • Down to cycle through suggestions
  • Autocomplete is local-model powered (Privacy Mode)

Configure: Cmd+, → AI → Autocomplete


Shell and environment

Shell support

| Shell | Status | |---|---| | zsh | Default (macOS) | | bash | Fully supported | | fish | Fully supported | | PowerShell | Supported | | Starship prompt | Works with Starship custom prompt |

Environment variables

Warp reads standard shell RC files:

  • ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc (interactive login)
  • ~/.zprofile, ~/.bash_profile
  • .env files are NOT loaded automatically — use source .env or direnv

Warp’s own config: ~/.warp/


Team features

Sharing

| Action | How | |---|---| | Share block | Hover block → share icon → copy link | | Share session | Cmd+Shift+H → creates shareable URL | | Collaborative session | Invite teammates to同一个 Warp session |

Shared sessions are real-time — collaborators see the same terminal output as you type.

Teams plan

| Feature | Free | Pro | |---|---|---| | AI autocomplete | Yes | Yes | | Command sharing | Yes (unlimited blocks) | Yes | | Session sharing | Unlimited | Unlimited + password-protected | | Custom workflows | 5 | Unlimited | | SSH sessions | Limited | Full remote mode |


Remote SSH

Warp has a built-in remote mode for SSH sessions:

  1. Cmd+, → Remote → Add host
  2. Enter SSH connection string or upload an SSH config
  3. Warp opens a remote session with the same UI (blocks, AI, autocomplete)
bash
# SSH config (~/.ssh/config)
Host myserver
  HostName 203.0.113.42
  User ubuntu
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  ForwardAgent yes

Remote Warp sessions support:

  • AI Command Search on remote machines
  • Block-based output from remote commands
  • Copy/paste from remote scrollback
  • Workflows that run on remote hosts

Customization

Themes

Cmd+Ktheme: → search themes

Or create a custom theme:

yaml
# ~/.warp/themes/my-theme.yaml
name: "my-theme"
terminal:
  background: "#0d1117"
  foreground: "#e6edf3"
  cursor: "#58a6ff"
  selection: "#388bfd40"
  black: "#0d1117"
  red: "#f85149"
  green: "#3fb950"
  yellow: "#d29922"
  blue: "#58a6ff"
  magenta: "#bc8cff"
  cyan: "#39c5cf"
  white: "#b1bac4"
  brightBlack: "#6e7681"
  # ...

Font and appearance

bash
# ~/.warp/config.yml
terminal:
  font:
    family: "JetBrains Mono"
    size: 14
  line_height: 1.4
  cell_padding: 2
  cursor:
    style: "block"  # block, underline, bar
    blink: true

Troubleshooting

Warp not launching

bash
# Check if Warp is running
ps aux | grep warp

# Reinstall
brew reinstall --cask warp

AI autocomplete not working

bash
# Cmd+, → AI → Enable autocomplete
# Check Privacy Mode — if enabled, AI uses only local models
# Disable Privacy Mode for cloud-powered suggestions

SSH sessions hanging

bash
# Increase keepalive in ~/.ssh/config
Host *
  ServerAliveInterval 60
  ServerAliveCountMax 3

Slow scrollback with large output

bash
# Cmd+, → Terminal → Scrollback limit
# Set to 5,000 lines for most use cases
# Or Cmd+K → "scrollback" → adjust

Summary

  • Cmd+K — Command palette (themes, workflows, settings, snippets)
  • Cmd+Shift+K — AI Command Search (natural language → shell)
  • Block-based output — copy, share, re-run, pin individual commands
  • Team sharing — share blocks and full sessions as public links
  • Remote SSH built-in — same Warp UI on remote machines
  • Workflows — save and replay command sequences

FAQ

Does Warp work on Windows? Windows is in public beta. Linux and macOS are fully supported. Remote Warp works with any machine you can SSH into.

Is my terminal history sent to Warp’s servers? Privacy Mode keeps all AI processing local. Disable Privacy Mode for cloud-powered AI suggestions. Command blocks are stored locally by default.

Can I use my own SSH key? Yes. Add keys to ~/.ssh/ and configure in ~/.ssh/config. Warp’s agent-forwarding keeps your keys on your local machine.

How does Warp compare to iTerm2? Warp’s advantages: AI command search, block-based output, GPU acceleration, team sharing. iTerm2 advantages: deeply mature,-scriptable, stable on older macOS versions. Warp is actively developed with frequent updates.

Does Warp support tmux? Warp supports native multiplexing via tabs and panes (Cmd+D for split pane). You can also run tmux inside Warp for more advanced session management.