Josh Piasecki created
I love keybindings.
I spend way to much time thinking about them.
I also REALLY like working in Zed.
so far, however, I have found the key context system in Zed to be less
flexible than in VSCode.
the HUGE context that is available in VSCode helps you create
keybindings for very specific targeted scenarios.
the tree like structure of the Zed key context means you loose some
information as focus moves throughout the application.
For example, it is not currently possible to create a keybinding in the
editor that will only work when one of the Docks is open, or if a
specific dock is open.
this would be useful in implementing solutions to ideas like #24222
we already have an action for moving focus to the dock, and we have an
action for opening/closing the dock, but to my knowledge (very limited
lol) we cannot determine if that dock *is open* unless we are focused on
it.
I think it is possible to create a more flexible key binding system by
adding more context information to the higher up context ancestors.
while:
```
Workspace right_dock=GitPanel
Dock
GitPanel
Editor
```
may seem redundant, it actually communicates fundamentally different
information than:
```
Workspace right_dock=GitPanel
Pane
Editor
```
the first says "the GitPanel is in the right hand dock AND IT IS
FOCUSED",
while the second means "Focus is on the Editor, and the GitPanel just
happens to be open in the right hand dock"
This change adds a new set of identifiers to the `Workspace` key_context
that will indicate which docks are open and what is the specific panel
that is currently visible in that dock.
examples:
- `left_dock=ProjectPanel`
- `bottom_dock=TerminalPanel`
- `right_dock=GitPanel`
in my testing the following types of keybindings seem to be supported
with this change:
```jsonc
// match for any value of the identifier
"context": "Workspace && bottom_dock"
"context": "Workspace && !bottom_dock"
// match only a specific value to an identifier
"context": "Workspace && bottom_dock=TerminalPanel"
// match only in a child context if the ancestor workspace has the correct identifier
"context": "Workspace && !bottom_dock=DebugPanel > Editor"
```
some screen shots of the context matching in different circumstances:
<img width="2032" height="1167" alt="Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 23 20 34"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/116d0575-a1ae-4577-95b9-8415cda57e52"
/>
<img width="2032" height="1167" alt="Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 23 20 57"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/000fdbb6-80bd-46e9-b668-f4b54ab708d2"
/>
<img width="2032" height="1167" alt="Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 23 21 37"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7b1c82da-b82f-4e14-a97c-3cd0e71bbca0"
/>
<img width="2032" height="1167" alt="Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 23 21 52"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1fd4b65a-09f7-47a9-a9b7-fdce4252aec3"
/>
<img width="2032" height="1167" alt="Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 23 22 38"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f4c2ac5c-e6f9-4e0e-b683-522b237e3328"
/>
the persistent_name values for `ProjectPanel` and `OutlinePanel` needed
to be updated to not have a space in them in order to pass the
`Identifier` check. all the other Panels already had names that did not
include spaces, so it just makes these conform with the other ones.
I think this is a great place to start with adding more context
identifiers and i think this type of additional information will make it
possible to create really dynamic keybindings!
Release Notes:
- Workspace key context now includes the state of the 3 dockscrates/agent_ui/src/agent_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/collab_ui/src/collab_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/collab_ui/src/notification_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/debugger_ui/src/debugger_panel.rs | 6 ++++++
crates/git_ui/src/git_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/outline_panel/src/outline_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/project_panel/src/project_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/terminal_view/src/terminal_panel.rs | 4 ++++
crates/workspace/src/dock.rs | 10 ++++++++++
crates/workspace/src/workspace.rs | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
10 files changed, 62 insertions(+)
@@ -1395,6 +1395,10 @@ impl Panel for AgentPanel {
"AgentPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ AGENT_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _window: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
agent_panel_dock_position(cx)
}
@@ -3037,6 +3037,10 @@ impl Panel for CollabPanel {
"CollabPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ COLLABORATION_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn activation_priority(&self) -> u32 {
6
}
@@ -612,6 +612,10 @@ impl Panel for NotificationPanel {
"NotificationPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ NOTIFICATION_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
NotificationPanelSettings::get_global(cx).dock
}
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ use workspace::{
};
use zed_actions::ToggleFocus;
+const DEBUG_PANEL_KEY: &str = "DebugPanel";
+
pub struct DebugPanel {
size: Pixels,
active_session: Option<Entity<DebugSession>>,
@@ -1414,6 +1416,10 @@ impl Panel for DebugPanel {
"DebugPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ DEBUG_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _window: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
DebuggerSettings::get_global(cx).dock.into()
}
@@ -4420,6 +4420,10 @@ impl Panel for GitPanel {
"GitPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ GIT_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
GitPanelSettings::get_global(cx).dock
}
@@ -4838,6 +4838,10 @@ impl Panel for OutlinePanel {
"Outline Panel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ OUTLINE_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
match OutlinePanelSettings::get_global(cx).dock {
DockSide::Left => DockPosition::Left,
@@ -6016,6 +6016,10 @@ impl Panel for ProjectPanel {
"Project Panel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ PROJECT_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn starts_open(&self, _: &Window, cx: &App) -> bool {
if !ProjectPanelSettings::get_global(cx).starts_open {
return false;
@@ -1664,6 +1664,10 @@ impl Panel for TerminalPanel {
"TerminalPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ TERMINAL_PANEL_KEY
+ }
+
fn icon(&self, _window: &Window, cx: &App) -> Option<IconName> {
if (self.is_enabled(cx) || !self.has_no_terminals(cx))
&& TerminalSettings::get_global(cx).button
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ pub use proto::PanelId;
pub trait Panel: Focusable + EventEmitter<PanelEvent> + Render + Sized {
fn persistent_name() -> &'static str;
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str;
fn position(&self, window: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition;
fn position_is_valid(&self, position: DockPosition) -> bool;
fn set_position(&mut self, position: DockPosition, window: &mut Window, cx: &mut Context<Self>);
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ pub trait Panel: Focusable + EventEmitter<PanelEvent> + Render + Sized {
pub trait PanelHandle: Send + Sync {
fn panel_id(&self) -> EntityId;
fn persistent_name(&self) -> &'static str;
+ fn panel_key(&self) -> &'static str;
fn position(&self, window: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition;
fn position_is_valid(&self, position: DockPosition, cx: &App) -> bool;
fn set_position(&self, position: DockPosition, window: &mut Window, cx: &mut App);
@@ -108,6 +110,10 @@ where
T::persistent_name()
}
+ fn panel_key(&self) -> &'static str {
+ T::panel_key()
+ }
+
fn position(&self, window: &Window, cx: &App) -> DockPosition {
self.read(cx).position(window, cx)
}
@@ -1016,6 +1022,10 @@ pub mod test {
"TestPanel"
}
+ fn panel_key() -> &'static str {
+ "TestPanel"
+ }
+
fn position(&self, _window: &Window, _: &App) -> super::DockPosition {
self.position
}
@@ -6373,6 +6373,24 @@ impl Render for Workspace {
}
}
+ if self.left_dock.read(cx).is_open() {
+ if let Some(active_panel) = self.left_dock.read(cx).active_panel() {
+ context.set("left_dock", active_panel.panel_key());
+ }
+ }
+
+ if self.right_dock.read(cx).is_open() {
+ if let Some(active_panel) = self.right_dock.read(cx).active_panel() {
+ context.set("right_dock", active_panel.panel_key());
+ }
+ }
+
+ if self.bottom_dock.read(cx).is_open() {
+ if let Some(active_panel) = self.bottom_dock.read(cx).active_panel() {
+ context.set("bottom_dock", active_panel.panel_key());
+ }
+ }
+
let centered_layout = self.centered_layout
&& self.center.panes().len() == 1
&& self.active_item(cx).is_some();