20 Keyboard Shortcuts Every Developer Should Know
The shortcuts that actually save time in editors, terminals and the browser — with the muscle-memory tips that make them stick.
Daniel Osei
Software Engineer & Developer Tools
Most "productivity" advice is noise. Keyboard shortcuts are not — they are measurable seconds shaved off tasks you do hundreds of times a week. These twenty cover the biggest wins across editor, terminal and browser.
Editor (VS Code / JetBrains family)
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl + P | Quick-open any file |
| Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P | Command palette — every command |
| Cmd/Ctrl + D | Select next occurrence (multi-cursor) |
| Alt + ↑/↓ | Move line up/down |
| Shift + Alt + ↑/↓ | Duplicate line |
| Cmd/Ctrl + / | Toggle line comment |
| Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + K | Delete line |
Terminal
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl + C / V | Copy / paste (with selection) |
| Cmd/Ctrl + R | Search command history |
| Ctrl + A / Ctrl + E | Jump to start / end of line |
| Ctrl + U | Clear the line |
| Ctrl + L | Clear the screen |
Browser
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl + L | Focus address bar |
| Cmd/Ctrl + T | New tab |
| Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T | Reopen closed tab |
| Cmd/Ctrl + 1–9 | Jump to tab by number |
| / | Focus page search (like on this site) |
Making them stick
- Learn five at a time, not twenty.
- Print them or pin them — sight triggers practice.
- Deliberately use a new one until it feels wrong to use the mouse.
- Revisit after two weeks; the ones that stuck are the ones you needed.
The single highest-ROI shortcut in this list is Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T (reopen a closed tab). It saves the most genuine panic per keystroke.
How long does it take to learn shortcuts?
Two weeks of deliberate use is typical for a batch of five. The key is blocking the mouse, not reading lists.
Written by Daniel Osei
Daniel builds developer tools and writes about JavaScript, JSON and everything that lives in the terminal.
Tools used in this article
JSON Formatter
PopularPretty-print, validate and minify JSON — securely in your browser.
Encode text to Base64 and decode it back — with UTF-8 support.
Convert text to upper, lower, title, sentence and camelCase.
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