Track Held Keys and Modifier State in Solid

These primitives report which keys the user is holding right now. They're optional helpers for your UI: show which modifiers are down, or change a button while Shift is held. You don't need them to register hotkeys. To show a button's shortcut while the user holds its modifiers, see Hotkey Hints.

Each primitive returns an accessor, so call it to read the current value.

Show which keys are held#

createHeldKeys returns the held keys in the order they were pressed, such as ['Control', 'Shift', 'A']:

import { createHeldKeys } from '@tanstack/solid-hotkeys'

function KeyDisplay() {
  const heldKeys = createHeldKeys()

  return (
    <div>
      {heldKeys().length > 0 ? `Held: ${heldKeys().join(' + ')}` : 'No keys held'}
    </div>
  )
}

Check whether a key is held#

createKeyHold returns whether one key is held. It updates only when that key is pressed or released, and accepts an accessor for a key that changes:

import { Show } from 'solid-js'
import { createKeyHold } from '@tanstack/solid-hotkeys'

function FileItem(props: { file: File }) {
  const isShiftHeld = createKeyHold('Shift')

  return (
    <div>
      <span>{props.file.name}</span>
      <Show
        when={isShiftHeld()}
        fallback={<button onClick={() => moveToTrash(props.file)}>Move to trash</button>}
      >
        <button onClick={() => permanentlyDelete(props.file)}>Delete permanently</button>
      </Show>
    </div>
  )
}

Tell left and right modifiers apart#

createHeldKeyCodes maps each held key to the physical key that's down, from event.code:

import { Show } from 'solid-js'
import { createHeldKeyCodes } from '@tanstack/solid-hotkeys'

function ModifierSides() {
  const heldCodes = createHeldKeyCodes() // e.g. { Shift: 'ShiftLeft', Control: 'ControlRight' }

  return (
    <Show when={heldCodes().Shift === 'ShiftRight'}>
      <p>Right Shift is held</p>
    </Show>
  )
}

Read held keys in an event handler#

To read the held keys in an event handler without tracking them, use the shared tracker from getKeyStateTracker:

import { getKeyStateTracker } from '@tanstack/solid-hotkeys'

function Canvas() {
  const tracker = getKeyStateTracker()

  const onClick = () => {
    if (tracker.isKeyHeld('Space')) startPanning()
    else if (tracker.isAnyKeyHeld(['Shift', 'Control'])) addToSelection()
    else select()
  }

  return <canvas onClick={onClick} />
}

The tracker starts listening the first time you get it, so get it when the component is created, before the user presses the keys you care about. Call its methods inside the handler to read the state at that moment. It also has getHeldKeys() and areAllKeysHeld(keys). Don't destroy the tracker when a component unmounts, because every primitive shares it.

For a mouse or wheel event, event.ctrlKey, shiftKey, altKey, and metaKey already report the modifiers. Browsers also set ctrlKey for a trackpad pinch, so it doesn't always mean Control is held.

Held keys clear when the window loses focus, so a key released after switching apps doesn't stay held. Held keys reset when the window loses focus covers the cases the tracker handles.

The createHeldKeys example shows held keys and their codes, and the createKeyHold example shows modifier indicators.