Shift + Enter Executes Command Instead of Creating a Newline in Integrated Terminal

[jskorlol]

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering a keybinding issue within the IntelliJ integrated terminal, specifically when I'm using an interactive CLI tool like codex.

My goal is to input a multi-line command. In many other terminal applications, pressing Shift + Enter inserts a newline, allowing me to continue writing the command on the next line.

However, when I press Shift + Enter inside the IntelliJ terminal, it behaves exactly like pressing Enter on its own—it immediately executes the current line as a command.

This makes it very difficult to work with multi-line inputs in tools that require them.

I've already looked through the Settings > Keymap to see if Shift + Enter is bound to a conflicting action, but I couldn't find anything obvious that targets the terminal specifically.

Has anyone else faced this issue? Is there a specific setting in IntelliJ's terminal configuration or a keymap override that I can apply to make Shift + Enter function as a simple newline character?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[cdrx]

I dont think this is JetBrains specific. You'll see the same behaviour if you open codex via the MacOS Terminal app. The shortcut for a new line is ctrl-j.

I would love a way to change this because the muscle memory is strong.

[nkaijala]

Running Claude Code and Codex side by side. Ctrl+J feels impossible. Configurability would be awesome.

[zacharypodbela]

Yea Ctrl+J is a wild design choice. Makes codex fundamentally unusable right now.

[flowerornament]

Running codex inside tmux in Wezterm on Mac. Shift+Enter runs the command. Ctrl+J is my tmux prefix 🤦

[birnam]

Ctrl-j is part of my tmux pane navigation and vim splits navigation (replacing [prefix]+j and C-w+j respectively). Having it for a newline is such a strange choice.

[joshkellett87]

Really hoping this gets updated, I keep on accidentally submitting half-baked thoughts due to my shift+enter muscle memory.

[piotrborowian]

Please make it Shift + Enter, or configurable. Like everyone else here, I keep submitting half-baked messages which drives me insane. Don't fight our collective muscle memory; ctrl-j is a terrible choice IMHO.

[rwestwood89]

Agreed on it being a wild design decision. But if you are on WSL, here is a workaround that works for me. (And there are probably similar techniques for other terminals).

1. Edit the terminal settings.json

• In a terminal window, "ctrl+," and a window should pop up. Click "Open JSON file" in bottom left

2. Add a binding under "keybindings:"

        {
            "id": "User.sendLF",
            "keys": "shift+enter"
        },

3. Add an action for that keybinding under "actions":

        {
            "command": 
            {
                "action": "sendInput",
                "input": "\u000A"
            },
            "id": "User.sendLF"
        }

So a minimal settings.json could look like:

{
    "$help": "https://aka.ms/terminal-documentation",
    "$schema": "https://aka.ms/terminal-profiles-schema-preview",
    "actions": 
    [
        {
            "command": 
            {
                "action": "sendInput",
                "input": "\u000A"
            },
            "id": "User.sendLF"
        }
    ],
    "keybindings": 
    [
        {
            "id": "User.sendLF",
            "keys": "shift+enter"
        },
    ]
}
    
    

[Xavierus]

Same, love Codex, especially after new updates, but Ctrl + J feels like learning to play Piano. Please make it adjustable! Or change to Shift - Enter

[bleedingdev-quantum]

Definitely change to Shift + Enter.

[zuuxuux]

You can do this with Alt + Enter (on linux at least)

[zuuxuux]

You can add a new line with Alt + Enter (on linux at least)

[birnam]

I tried this one too, but in Windows Terminal that's the keybinding to toggle between windowed and full screen. I'm not sure if there's an override.

I realized my problem was my tmux keybindings. I have Ctrl + vim movements (h j k l) for changing panes in tmux and vim, so Ctrl-j is 'next pane down'. The terminal and/or tmux was converting my Ctrl-Enter and Shift-Enter attempts INTO a Ctrl-j, because it is ALSO the ASCII keycode for a newline. Which is why Ctrl-j is used here -- it's not some novel weird keybinding choice, it's actually just ASCII.

So for now I'm trying to find the best way to remove the Ctrl-j binding in tmux in panes that are running codex. It's not great though because the codex process is just node, and I run a lot of stuff with node, so my binding is off in a lot of panes now. I still need to work that one out.

But anway. This is the 'why'.

[timothy-web3-dev]

this is unbelievably stupid!!

[Jianhua-Cui]

I've been following this issue for three versions, but it still hasn't been fixed as of v0.47.0.

Apparently, they consider it a feature rather than a bug.