Textual Jumper

A keyboard-driven navigation widget for Textual TUI applications. Jump to any focusable widget instantly using intuitive keyboard shortcuts!

Note: This was created with Claude Code

Features

• Instant Navigation - Jump to any widget with 1-2 keystrokes
• Multi-Character Keys - Automatically generates key combinations for many widgets
• Visual Feedback - Real-time highlighting shows typed characters
• Customizable - Define your own key mappings or use defaults
• Zero Dependencies - Only requires Textual
• Easy Integration - Add to existing apps in minutes

Installation

Using uv:

uv add textual-jumper

Using pip:

pip install textual-jumper

Try the Demo

Run the interactive demo to see Textual Jumper in action:

uvx textual-jumper

Press Ctrl+O to activate jump mode, then press a key to jump to that widget!

Quick Start

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Input, Button, Header, Footer
from textual_jumper import Jumper

class MyApp(App):
    BINDINGS = [("ctrl+o", "show_overlay", "Jump")]

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Header()
        yield Jumper()

        # Focus mode - widget will receive focus
        name_input = Input(placeholder="Name")
        name_input.jump_mode = "focus"
        yield name_input

        email_input = Input(placeholder="Email")
        email_input.jump_mode = "focus"
        yield email_input

        # Click mode - widget will be clicked
        submit_button = Button("Submit")
        submit_button.jump_mode = "click"
        yield submit_button

        yield Footer()

    def action_show_overlay(self) -> None:
        self.query_one(Jumper).show()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    MyApp().run()

How It Works

Single-Character Keys

For 8 or fewer widgets, each gets a single character:

Input Field 1  [a]
Input Field 2  [s]
Button         [d]

Press a to jump to Input Field 1.

Multi-Character Keys

For 9+ widgets, the system generates combinations with no conflicts:

Input 1   [a]     Input 5   [ha]    Input 9   [js]
Input 2   [s]     Input 6   [hs]    Input 10  [jd]
Input 3   [d]     Input 7   [hd]    Input 11  [jw]
Input 4   [w]     Input 8   [ja]

Smart allocation strategy ensures no conflicts between single and multi-character keys.

Jump Modes

textual-jumper supports two jump modes for different widget interactions:

Focus Mode

Widgets with jump_mode = "focus" will receive focus when jumped to. This is ideal for input fields, text areas, and other widgets where you want to interact with them directly.

name_input = Input(placeholder="Name")
name_input.jump_mode = "focus"

Click Mode

Widgets with jump_mode = "click" will be clicked automatically when jumped to. This is perfect for Buttons, Selects, and other widgets that trigger actions.

submit_button = Button("Submit")
submit_button.jump_mode = "click"

Also the Widget you want to jump to needs to be focusable, so Widget.can_focus = True must be set, if the widget is not focusable by default.

Configuration

Custom Key Mappings

jumper = Jumper(ids_to_keys={
    "username": "u",
    "password": "p",
    "submit": "s"
})

Custom Available Keys

jumper = Jumper(keys=["a", "s", "d", "f", "j", "k", "l", ";"])

Acknowledgments

Inspired by Darren Burns jump functionality in Posting.

Feedback and Issues

Feel free to reach out and share your feedback, or open an Issue, if something doesn't work as expected. Also check the Changelog for new updates.