Streamlit Shortcuts

Add keyboard shortcuts to your Streamlit buttons! 🚀

🎯 Mirrors the native st.button pattern

# Before using native st.button:
if st.button("Save", type="primary", use_container_width=True):
    save()

# After (just change function name & add shortcut):
if shortcut_button("Save", "ctrl+s", type="primary", use_container_width=True):
    save()

# Multiple shortcuts for one button
if shortcut_button("Previous", ["arrowleft", "h"]):
    go_previous()

🎨 Add shortcuts to ANY Streamlit widget

name = st.text_input("Name", key="name_input")

# Add shortcuts to any widget with a key
add_shortcuts(
    name_input="ctrl+n",     # Focus name field
)

Check out the live demo or view the example code

📦 Installation

pip install streamlit-shortcuts

📖 API Reference

shortcut_button(label, shortcut, **kwargs)

Drop-in replacement for st.button with keyboard shortcut support.

Parameters:

• label (str): Button text
• shortcut (str | list[str]): Single shortcut or list of shortcuts (e.g., "ctrl+s", ["ctrl+s", "cmd+s"])
• key (str, optional): Unique key for the button
• hint (bool, optional): Show shortcut hint in button label (default: True)
• **kwargs: All other st.button parameters (help, on_click, args, type, icon, disabled, use_container_width)

Returns: bool - True if clicked

add_shortcuts(**shortcuts)

Add keyboard shortcuts to any Streamlit widgets.

Parameters:

• **shortcuts: Keyword arguments where key is the widget's key and value is the shortcut (str | list[str])

Example:

add_shortcuts(
    save_btn="ctrl+s",
    search_input="ctrl+f",
    submit_form="ctrl+enter"
)

# Multiple shortcuts per widget
add_shortcuts(
    prev_btn=["arrowleft", "a"],
    next_btn=["arrowright", "d"]
)

clear_shortcuts() (New in v1.1)

Remove all keyboard shortcuts and event listeners. Useful for:

• Multi-page apps when switching pages
• Conditionally disabling all shortcuts
• Cleaning up shortcuts in dynamic UIs

Example:

# Disable shortcuts conditionally
if not shortcuts_enabled:
    clear_shortcuts()

# Clean up when switching pages
if st.sidebar.button("Go to Settings"):
    clear_shortcuts()
    st.switch_page("settings")

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Modifiers: ctrl, alt, shift, meta (cmd on Mac)
• Common keys: enter, escape, space, tab, delete
• Letters: a-z
• Numbers: 0-9
• Function keys: f1-f12
• Arrow keys: arrowleft, arrowright, arrowup, arrowdown

Examples:

• ctrl+s - Ctrl + S
• ctrl+shift+d - Ctrl + Shift + D
• alt+enter - Alt + Enter
• f1 - F1 key

💻 Platform Notes

• On macOS, ctrl works as expected (not cmd)
• For OS-specific shortcuts, use meta (Windows key on PC, Cmd on Mac)
• Some shortcuts may conflict with browser/OS shortcuts

⚠️ Known Issues

Column Alignment

When using shortcut_button inside columns with vertical_alignment, the button may not align properly. This happens because the shortcut injection creates an invisible element that affects layout.

Workaround: Use st.button with add_shortcuts separately:

# ❌ Broken alignment
col1, col2 = st.columns([1, 1], vertical_alignment="bottom")
with col1:
    shortcut_button("Save", "ctrl+s")
with col2:
    st.selectbox("Options", ["A", "B", "C"])

# ✅ Correct alignment
col1, col2 = st.columns([1, 1], vertical_alignment="bottom")
with col1:
    st.button("Save", key="save_btn")
with col2:
    st.selectbox("Options", ["A", "B", "C"])

# Add shortcuts after columns
add_shortcuts(save_btn="ctrl+s")

🚨 v1.0 Breaking Changes - complete rewrite

• ⭐ No more API hijacking - v0.x monkey-patched Streamlit's API. Now we respect it:

  # v0.x - Hijacked the API, confusing and unpythonic
  button("Save", "ctrl+s", lambda: save())  # What is this? Not st.button!
  
  # v1.0 - Respects Streamlit patterns, works like st.button
  if shortcut_button("Save", "ctrl+s"):     # Familiar pattern!
      save()
  
  # Or use native st.button unchanged
  if st.button("Save", key="save_btn"):
      save()
  add_shortcuts(save_btn="ctrl+s")
  

• 📉 From 277 lines → 91 lines total (across 5 Python files → 1 file)
• 🗑️ Removed 15 files of configuration bloat
• 📁 No more src/ directory - just one flat file
• ❌ Deleted all tests - meaningless tests that tested nothing, replaced with assertions that actually fail
• 🔥 Modern Python tooling - replaced setup.py/MANIFEST/VERSION with pyproject.toml + uv
• 🧹 Ruff instead of 5 linters - removed flake8, black, isort, mypy, pre-commit hooks
• ⚡ 3 workflows → 1 workflow - simple CI/CD

If upgrading from v0.x:

# Old v0.x API
button("Click me", "ctrl+k", lambda: st.write("Hi"))

# New v1.0 API  
if shortcut_button("Click me", "ctrl+k"):
    st.write("Hi")

# Or use st.button + add_shortcuts
if st.button("Click me", key="btn"):
    st.write("Hi")
add_shortcuts(btn="ctrl+k")

🙏 Credits

Built by the Streamlit community! 🎈

Special thanks to:

• @brunomsantiago and @TomJohnH for the initial concept
• @toolittlecakes for Meta key support
• @quantum-ernest for keyboard hints
• @sammlapp for making shortcuts work with any widget
• @jcbize for improved error handling
• @csipapicsa for identifying a XSS vulnerability

Inspired by Streamlit discussion #1291