Keyboard Shortcuts & Triggers

Global hotkeys, mouse triggers, and chord sequences

Overview

PasteSuiteAI uses global hotkeys and mouse triggers to execute actions from anywhere on your system. All triggers work system-wide, even when PasteSuiteAI is minimized to the tray. Select text in any application, fire the trigger, and the result replaces your selection in place.

Hotkey Format

Hotkeys use a standard notation: modifier keys wrapped in angle brackets, joined by +. Example: <ctrl>+<shift>+<alt>+v.

Modifiers are always stored in canonical order regardless of the order you press them. The canonical order is:

Cmd → Ctrl → Alt → Shift

For example, if you press Shift then Ctrl then Alt then V, the stored hotkey is <ctrl>+<alt>+<shift>+v — modifiers reordered automatically. In the UI, hotkeys are displayed as individual key badges rather than the raw shortcut notation.

Chord Sequences

Chord shortcuts are used for the main app trigger (the shortcut that opens the PasteSuiteAI panel). Instead of a single simultaneous key press, you press the combination once, fully release it, then press it again within a configurable timeout window.

Default timeout: 500 ms
Minimum timeout: 200 ms
The panel opens on the second press when both presses occur within the timeout.

Double-tap mode makes accidental triggers nearly impossible and reduces conflicts with other applications that use the same key combination.

Mouse Triggers

Mouse triggers fire an action when you click a specific mouse button, optionally while holding modifier keys. They are registered and checked globally, alongside keyboard hotkeys.

Supported buttons:

middle — middle-click (scroll wheel click)
x1 — back / thumb button (the one closer to your wrist)
x2 — forward / thumb button (the one farther from your wrist)
left — left-click, but only with at least one modifier key

Supported modifiers: Ctrl, Alt, Shift

The canonical modifier order for mouse triggers is: Ctrl → Alt → Shift

Examples: shift+x2, middle, ctrl+x1, ctrl+alt+shift+left

Bare left-click (no modifiers) and right-click are not supported. Left-click without a modifier would interfere with normal use; right-click is reserved for system context menus.

Default Hotkeys

These keyboard shortcuts are pre-configured out of the box. Each can be customized or removed on the action card in Settings.

Action	Hotkey	Mouse Trigger
Open App (main trigger)	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`V`	—
Paste as Plain Text	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`P`	—
Audio to Text	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`S`	`x2`
Diplomatic Rewrite	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`D`	—
Rewrite & Correct	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`R`	—
Rewrite & Correct to English	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`E`	—
Address Correction	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`A`	—
Save to File	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`F`	—
Prompt Library	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`L`	`middle`
Chat Window	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`C`	—
Repaste Last Result	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Alt`+`H`	`x1`

"X1" is the back thumb button and "X2" is the forward thumb button. Not all mice have these extra buttons. For a full guide on using all your mouse buttons (including extra buttons via keyboard shortcuts), see Mouse Configuration.

Editing Hotkeys

To assign or change a keyboard shortcut for an action, click the hotkey badge (or empty hotkey slot) on any action card in Settings. This opens the Hotkey Editor.

Hotkey Editor Modal showing key capture area with badge display

Inside the Hotkey Editor:

Click the recording area to focus it, then press your desired key combination. All pressed keys are captured simultaneously and displayed as badges.
Click Save to confirm the new hotkey.
Click Cancel to close without saving.

Additional controls within the editor:

Control	Description
Reset to original	Reverts the recording area to the hotkey that was saved before you opened the editor.
Re-record	Clears the current recording and lets you start fresh without closing the modal.
Delete	Removes the hotkey entirely. The action will only be accessible from the panel, not via keyboard.
Double-tap toggle	Available in chord mode (main trigger only). When enabled, the combination must be pressed twice within the timeout to fire. Recommended to avoid accidental triggers.

If the recorded combination conflicts with a known system shortcut (such as Ctrl+C), an advisory warning is shown. You can still save — the warning is informational only and does not block saving.

Editing Mouse Triggers

Click the mouse trigger slot on any action card in Settings to open the Mouse Trigger Editor.

Mouse Trigger Editor Modal showing recording area

Inside the Mouse Trigger Editor:

Click inside the recording area using the mouse button you want to assign. Hold Ctrl, Alt, or Shift while clicking to include modifier keys.
The captured trigger is displayed as key badges.
Click Save to confirm, or Cancel to discard.

Control	Description
Reset to original	Reverts to the trigger that was saved before you opened the editor.
Delete	Removes the mouse trigger. The action will no longer fire on mouse button clicks.

Some gaming mice and peripheral software (Logitech G Hub, Razer Synapse, etc.) intercept X1 and X2 buttons before they reach PasteSuiteAI. If your mouse trigger does not fire, check whether your mouse software is consuming the button event.

Trigger Conflict Detection

PasteSuiteAI centrally checks for duplicate trigger assignments before saving. A conflict is flagged when:

Two or more actions share the same hotkey or mouse trigger.
An action trigger conflicts with the Prompt Library hotkey or mouse trigger.
An action trigger conflicts with the main app trigger.

When a conflict is detected, a warning is displayed in the editor identifying which other action or feature uses the same trigger. You must resolve the conflict by changing or removing one of the conflicting assignments before saving.

Auto-Copy Timing

When an action with Auto-Copy Before enabled fires via hotkey, the app automatically captures the currently selected text before processing it. This involves a brief pause to ensure the text is captured reliably across different applications.

If you see "No text selected" errors when using hotkeys in specific applications, this is usually because the application needs slightly more time to provide the selected text. The app is tuned to handle most applications reliably, including slower ones like Excel.

Actions Configure what each shortcut does and set per-action execution mode. Prompt Library Open the Prompt Library overlay with its own dedicated trigger. Settings Overview of all Settings tabs and configuration options.