Ctrl+Backspace (delete previous word) doesn't work on Windows
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 75/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Active
- Tech stack
- shell
- Domain
- cli, operating-systems
Research direction
Start at the CLI input library's existing Alt+Backspace handler and inspect how raw key events and modifier flags are matched on Windows. Add the equivalent Ctrl+Backspace behavior, then verify that it deletes the previous word in the Windows CLI prompt while preserving the existing Alt+Backspace behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Ctrl+Backspace does nothing in the CLI input prompt on Windows. This is the standard shortcut for "delete previous word" in every other Windows text input (browsers, VS Code, Notepad, shell prompts).
Alt+Backspace works as a workaround, but that's the Unix/macOS convention — not what Windows users reach for.
Windows Terminal's sendInput remapping can't fix this either, because the CLI reads raw key events with modifier flags rather than character input.
Likely a small fix — just add Ctrl+Backspace alongside the existing Alt+Backspace handler in the input library.
Environment: Windows 11, Windows Terminal, Copilot CLI 1.0.64-0
- Dominant language
- Shell
- Stars
- 11.2k
- Forks
- 1.9k
- Avg merge
- 14h 16m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 6
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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