Ctrl-K (GitHub Command Palette) having no effect anymore (2024-07-02)

[mminot-yseop]

Select Topic Area

Bug

Body

Be it on Firefox on Chromium (the latter having no extension whatsoever), Ctrl-K suddenly stopped working today. It just bubbles up to my browser, putting the focus on the address bar, ready for a web search, instead of opening the GitHub Command Palette, even though this is still listed in the official list of site-wide keyboard shortcuts.

Also tried in a private browsing session (and I’m not logged in in Chromium), so it’s not related to accessibility settings or whatever (it was the case last time I had weird shortcut issues).

Tried multiple repositories, both public and private, and both on specific files or on the repository’s “home” page.

Ubuntu 20, Firefox 126.0.1

[github-actions[bot]]

💬 Your Product Feedback Has Been Submitted 🎉

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights with us! Your feedback is invaluable as we build a better GitHub experience for all our users.

Here's what you can expect moving forward ⏩

• Your input will be carefully reviewed and cataloged by members of our product teams. 
  • Due to the high volume of submissions, we may not always be able to provide individual responses.
  • Rest assured, your feedback will help chart our course for product improvements.
• Other users may engage with your post, sharing their own perspectives or experiences. 
• GitHub staff may reach out for further clarification or insight. 
  • We may 'Answer' your discussion if there is a current solution, workaround, or roadmap/changelog post related to the feedback.

Where to look to see what's shipping 👀

• Read the Changelog for real-time updates on the latest GitHub features, enhancements, and calls for feedback.
• Explore our Product Roadmap, which details upcoming major releases and initiatives.

What you can do in the meantime 💻

• Upvote and comment on other user feedback Discussions that resonate with you.
• Add more information at any point! Useful details include: use cases, relevant labels, desired outcomes, and any accompanying screenshots.

As a member of the GitHub community, your participation is essential. While we can't promise that every suggestion will be implemented, we want to emphasize that your feedback is instrumental in guiding our decisions and priorities.

Thank you once again for your contribution to making GitHub even better! We're grateful for your ongoing support and collaboration in shaping the future of our platform. ⭐

[Armando3888]

User

[peterroelants]

I'm having the same issue on chrome (Version 126.0.6478.126 (Official Build) (64-bit)) on Ubuntu since today

[ChrisDugdale]

Me too, on mac so cmd+K as opposed to ctrl K. Chrome Version 126.0.6478.127 (Official Build) (arm64)

[mgriffin]

Can you check the "Feature preview" settings by clicking on your avatar in the top right and then clicking on "Feature preview" in the menu that displays? Then click on "Command palette" and toggle the setting to make it enabled again.

[rohitpaulk]

Same here - got disabled automatically.

[cheng-alvin]

I wonder why it got disabled, I thought I've enabled it before in the same menu...

[aecorredor]

The flag got automatically disabled for me somehow, and enabling again is not making the issue go away for me. I'm on Firefox 128.0 on MacOS.

[zepumph]

Yes again, Thank you. I have been using this for months, and it disabled itself in the last week or so.

[cheng-alvin]

For one moment I thought command or control K was reserved by the browser or operating system lol

[itdhsc]

It's hilarious to add a feature toggle for a feature that's been active forever. What's next, a toggle for the toggle?

[alwa97]

I wonder what the reasoning was to turn it off by default as well. You literally have to press those key combos in order to access that feature.

[rmagatti]

This was actually super frustrating. No idea what the thought process was or if it was just a mistake but I was going nuts without this 😅

[stephent]

@rmagatti agreed - it's been driving me mad since it disappeared. It had become my default way of navigating GH. Glad to have found a solution here.

Weird thing to do, GitHub...

[alexbohomol]

I have got the same issue. Both Mac and Windows. Both Chrome and Edge.

[jereckley]

Kinda crazy how dependent I became on CMD K. Really strange product decision to change the behavior with no communication. Lost a hour trying to debug.

[BenjaminYde]

There should be a button to create a issue when just opening the project...
Also when there is a 1 repo <--> 1 project link, and you create a issue in the project, is that the issue should automatically be assigned to the repo it is linked to without having to select the repo. Or a setting in the project that can assign a default repo on creating an issue.

[GuyvanderKolk]

As a product manager, this is very interesting. I have become dependent on ctrk/cmd k for the command palette as well and lost time trying to figure out what has happened.
Apparantly, ctrl-k or cmd-k interfered opens search on Firefox/Chrome, so a lot of people were unhappy about that. So this change was probably to accomodate those people.
The only problem I have is ctrl-alt-k doesn't work on Windows.

[uttambodara]

Response #1

[aecorredor]

Alright, my flag is on, and firefox is still intercepting command + K and focusing the address bar for search. This used to work fine for me until the change reported in this issue. I've tried clearing the flag, and other work-arounds with no luck. Is this an issue others are seeing or am I missing something?

[jaagut]

Same for me. Toggling the feature preview did not help.

[aecorredor]

FWIW, I ended up uninstalling/reinstalling firefox + cleared firefox local data and that ended up fixing the issue for me. Something broke with my installation at some point and I only noticed when less noticeable commands in other websites also stopped working.

[PsychicPlatypus]

Can someone explain why this feature got disabled for everyone in the first place, it's one of the most useful features of the product?

[lantrix]

Never got explained, now planned to be turned off in Aug 2026 👎🏻

[aplr]

And now it's being sunset "due to low usage": https://github.blog/changelog/2025-07-15-upcoming-deprecation-of-github-command-palette-feature-preview/

[yermulnik]

Oh my, I heavily use it at work's GH EMU to switch easily between repos etc 😢

[alizehkhan]

How are we expected to "plan for this change"? Like mentally plan for it?

[stephent]

"We really didn't like having to support this feature, so we randomly disabled it behind a hard-to-find feature flag. With that successfully done, we're now happy to announce that it will be removed entirely due to low usage. This allows us to continue our pattern of killing or completely ignoring features that users like and rely on, as we have with Projects for some years now."

[aecorredor]

Go upvote and comment on this discussion: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/166528