streamlit-hotkeys 0.4.0

Keyboard hotkeys for Streamlit (Ctrl/Cmd/Alt/Shift combos) with edge-triggered events.

Streamlit Hotkeys

Keyboard hotkeys for Streamlit - capture Ctrl/Cmd/Alt/Shift + key anywhere in your app and trigger Python once per press (edge-triggered). Uses a single invisible manager component.

Important: call activate(...) as early as possible in each page. Activation injects CSS that collapses the manager iframe, which avoids layout flicker.

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Installation

pip install streamlit-hotkeys

Quick start

import streamlit as st
import streamlit_hotkeys as hotkeys

hotkeys.activate([
    hotkeys.hk("palette", "k", meta=True, help="Open palette (mac)"),
    hotkeys.hk("palette", "k", ctrl=True, help="Open palette (win/linux)"),
    hotkeys.hk("save", "s", ctrl=True, prevent_default=True, help="Save"),
    hotkeys.hk("show_legend", "?", shift=True, help="Show shortcuts"),
], key="global")

def save():
    st.success("Saved!")
    
if hotkeys.pressed("save"):
    st.info("Thank you for saving")

hotkeys.on_pressed("save", save)

@hotkeys.on_pressed("palette")
def open_palette():
    st.info("Palette opened")
    
@st.dialog("Keyboard Shortcuts")
def _shortcuts_dialog():
    hotkeys.legend()

if hotkeys.pressed("show_legend"):
    _shortcuts_dialog()

st.write("Press Cmd/Ctrl+K, Ctrl+S or Shift+?")

Features

• Single invisible manager (one iframe for the whole page)
• Activates early and auto-collapses its iframe to avoid layout flicker
• Edge-triggered events (per-id seq; no sticky booleans)
• Bind single keys or modifier combos (ctrl, alt, shift, meta)
• Reuse the same id across multiple bindings (e.g., Cmd+K or Ctrl+K → palette)
• prevent_default to block browser shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl/Cmd+S)
• Layout-independent physical keys via code="KeyK" / code="Digit1"
• ignore_repeat to suppress repeats while a key is held
• Built-in legend: add help="..." in hk(...) and call hotkeys.legend()
• Multi-page friendly; use key= for multiple independent managers
• Optional debug=True to log matches in the browser console

API

hk(...) - define a binding

hk(
  id: str,
  key: str | None = None,           # for example, "k", "Enter", "ArrowDown"
  *,
  code: str | None = None,          # for example, "KeyK" (if set, 'key' is ignored)
  alt: bool | None = False,         # True=require, False=forbid, None=ignore
  ctrl: bool | None = False,
  shift: bool | None = False,
  meta: bool | None = False,
  ignore_repeat: bool = True,
  prevent_default: bool = False,
  help: str | None = None,          # text shown in the legend (optional)
) -> dict

activate(*bindings, key="global", debug=False) -> None

Register bindings and render the single manager. Accepts hk(...) dicts, a list of them, or a mapping id -> spec.

pressed(id, *, key="global") -> bool

Return True exactly once when the binding id fires.

legend(*, key="global") -> None

Render a grouped shortcuts list (merges multiple bindings that share the same id, and shows the first non-empty help string per id).

Shortcuts Legend Example

import streamlit as st
import streamlit_hotkeys as hotkeys

hotkeys.activate({
    "palette": [
        {"key": "k", "meta": True,  "help": "Open command palette"},
        {"key": "k", "ctrl": True}, 
    ],
    "save": {"key": "s", "ctrl": True, "prevent_default": True, "help": "Save document"},
}, key="global")

@st.dialog("Keyboard Shortcuts")
def _shortcuts():
    hotkeys.legend()  

if hotkeys.pressed("palette"):
    _shortcuts()

Notes and limitations

• Browsers reserve some shortcuts. Use prevent_default=True to keep the event for your app when allowed.
• Combos mean modifiers + one key. The platform does not treat two non-modifier keys pressed together (for example, A+S) as a single combo.
• The page must have focus; events are captured at the document level.

Similar projects

• streamlit-keypress - Original "keypress to Python" component by Sudarsan.
• streamlit-shortcuts - Keyboard shortcuts for buttons and widgets; supports multiple bindings and hints.
• streamlit-keyup - Text input that emits on every keyup (useful for live filtering).
• keyboard_to_url - Bind a key to open a URL in a new tab.

Credits

Inspired by streamlit-keypress by Sudarsan. This implementation adds a multi-binding manager, edge-triggered events, modifier handling, preventDefault, and KeyboardEvent.code.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.