Shortcut Tutor
Learn the keyboard shortcuts that matter right now. Shortcut Tutor watches what you are doing in VS Code, shows the shortcuts most worth learning in the current situation, and gives you a tip when you do something the slow way.
Open it from the keyboard icon in the Activity Bar, or run Shortcut Tutor: Show Useful Shortcuts from the Command Palette. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K (macOS: Cmd+Alt+Shift+K) toggles the view.
Author's note: My idea for an extension to learn shortcuts for VS Code – let's see if it helps …
Features
Useful Now
A short, ranked list (12 entries by default) of shortcuts that are useful at this moment. Each entry shows the command, its key combination(s) and why it is listed, for example:
- Essentials: core shortcuts everyone should know (Quick Open, Command Palette, Go to Definition, Rename, …)
- The current situation: text is selected, a debug session is running, a diff editor is open, the file has unsaved changes or problems, the file is long, many editors are open, the shortcut only applies to the current language, …
- Your learning focus: areas you chose to learn (see below)
- Detected workflows: something you just did by hand that a shortcut would do faster (see Tips)
The list updates as you work: when you select text, start debugging or switch files.
Learning focus
Choose the areas you want to learn: Editing, Navigation, Code Intelligence, Search, Files & Explorer, Editors & Layout, Terminal, Debugging, Source Control, Notebooks, Chat & AI, Window & Settings. Shortcuts from these areas get a bonus and move up.
Click the line at the top of the view, the target button in the view's title bar, or run Shortcut Tutor: Choose Learning Focus.
Tips
Shortcut Tutor notices common slow workflows and suggests the matching shortcut:
| You did … |
Suggested |
| Duplicated a line via copy & paste |
Copy Line Down |
| Moved lines via cut & paste |
Move Line Down |
| Typed a comment marker in front of code by hand |
Toggle Line Comment |
| Deleted many characters one by one |
Delete Word Left |
| Pressed the up/down arrow many times in a row |
Go to Line |
| Pressed the left/right arrow many times in a row |
Cursor Word Right |
| Selected all text with the mouse |
Select All |
| Selected whole lines with the mouse |
Expand Line Selection |
| Placed multiple cursors with the mouse |
Add Cursor Below |
| Opened many files in a short time |
Quick Open |
| Switched back and forth between two files |
Previous editor (Ctrl+Tab) |
The latest tip appears as a card at the top of the view, and optionally as a notification (at most every 2 minutes, once per hour per command). Turn notifications off with No more tips or the shortcutTutor.notifications setting.
Got it
Hover an entry and click ✓ to mark the shortcut as learned. It disappears from “Useful Now” and from tips, so the next shortcut worth learning moves up. Learned shortcuts are listed under Learned, where ↺ brings them back. Your progress is synced across machines via Settings Sync.
Change a shortcut
Hover an entry and click ✎ to open the Keyboard Shortcuts editor filtered to that command.
Edit Reasons
The gear button in the view's title bar (or Shortcut Tutor: Edit Reasons) opens an editor with every reason, grouped and with a navigation on the left. For each reason you can:
- turn it on or off
- change the text shown in the view (placeholders such as
{value} or {count} are supported)
- change its bonus, thresholds (e.g. number of key presses, time window, line count) and commands
- edit the base importance of every command
Changes are saved immediately. Only differences from the defaults are stored, in the shortcutTutor.reasons setting. Reset restores a single reason, Reset All restores everything.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
shortcutTutor.notifications |
true |
Show a notification when a slow workflow is detected. |
shortcutTutor.keyboardLayout |
auto |
Keyboard layout for labeling keys that VS Code defines by physical position (see below). |
shortcutTutor.reasons |
{} |
Your changes to the reasons. Easiest to edit via Edit Reasons. |
Keyboard layout
VS Code defines a few default shortcuts by physical key position. In its default keybindings these appear as scan codes such as [Equal]. Extensions cannot read your keyboard layout, so Shortcut Tutor labels these keys for the layout set in shortcutTutor.keyboardLayout:
auto guesses the layout from the system locale (de_DE → German, de_CH → Swiss German, en_GB → English UK, fr_FR → French, …, otherwise US)- or choose one of: English (US), English (UK), German, Swiss German, French (AZERTY), Spanish, Italian, Swedish / Finnish
Example: Ctrl+Shift+[Equal] is shown as Ctrl+Shift+´ on a German keyboard.
Limitations
- VS Code does not report which commands you run. Shortcut Tutor cannot tell whether you already use a shortcut. Tips are based on what is observable: text changes, mouse vs. keyboard selection and editor switches. Mark shortcuts you know with Got it.
- Focus is assumed to be in the editor. VS Code does not reveal where keyboard focus is, so shortcuts for the terminal or lists are not boosted by focus.
- Context keys from other extensions cannot be read. Shortcuts that depend on them are never hidden, but they are not boosted either.
- Areas are derived from command IDs. Commands of extensions with their own namespace (e.g.
markdown.*) belong to no area.
- Settings profiles: only the
keybindings.json of the default profile is read.
Development
npm install
npm run compile # or: npm run watch
Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host. Changes to package.json (icons, commands, settings) only take effect after restarting it.
To build and install a package:
npm run package
code --install-extension vscode-shortcut-tutor-0.1.0.vsix
License
MIT © 2026 Janos Kovac – see LICENSE.
