The Command Palette
The Command Palette is the human-facing surface to the same action registry that powers § 1 (the AI Assistant) and § 3 (the MCP server). Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on macOS), type what you want, hit Enter.
actions:
- action_id: palette.overlay.toggle
input: { open: true }
label: "▶ Open the Command Palette (Escape to close)"Opening + dismissing
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd+K | Open the palette |
| Click the Search icon in the topbar right cluster | Open the palette |
| Escape | Dismiss |
| Click outside the palette | Dismiss |
The palette overlays the workspace; focus shifts to the input field.
Fuzzy search
Type any substring of an action's title, description, or category. Matches rank by relevance — exact-prefix on title beats mid-string in description.
Examples:
| Type | Surfaces |
|---|---|
dark | Theme: Dark + any other action with "dark" in the title |
bpm | Master: Set BPM + Transport: Set BPM |
play | Transport: Play + DSP: Run + Sequencer: Play + Recorder: Start + DSP: Run |
recorder | Every recorder.* action |
mcp | The palette.run / palette.list / palette.describe meta-actions |
Empty search shows recent + pinned actions (if any) followed by alphabetical.
What's in the palette
Only actions that declare a run handler (the UI-callable path). MCP-only actions (mcpRun without run) don't show up — they're intentionally not user-driveable from the palette (the human surface is the related UI; the AI surface is MCP).
In practice that's:
- All theme-set actions (
Theme: Dark/Light/Cyberpunk/System). - Transport (
Transport: Play/Stop). - Master + Mixer (
Master: Set Volume,Mixer: Set, etc.). - All DSP-Builder, Sequencer, Recorder dual-path actions.
- Module management (
Modules: Add/Close/ etc.). - Hub actions (
Hub: Open,Auth: Login, ...).
Roughly ~80 actions of the ~130 registered.
Action previews
Some actions render a small preview swatch in the palette row — currently the theme picker shows a gradient swatch matching the theme it sets:
| Action | Preview |
|---|---|
Theme: Dark | Dark gradient swatch |
Theme: Light | Light gradient swatch |
Theme: Cyberpunk | Magenta → purple → cyan gradient |
Theme: System | Split light / dark gradient |
The preview surface is extensible — extensions can declare a custom preview renderer per action.
Keyboard navigation
Inside the palette:
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
↓ / ↑ | Move selection through filtered results |
Enter | Run the selected action |
Escape | Dismiss (no action) |
Tab | Cycle through recent and all filters (planned) |
Mouse: hover highlights, click runs.
Activity capture
Every palette invocation lands in the Activity rail panel just like an MCP call or a UI click. Surface is tagged palette. Replay-able, audit-able — the same trace surface the assistant + external MCP clients land in.
Why a palette exists alongside menus + shortcuts + the AI
Three reasons:
- Discoverability — keyboard shortcuts are fast once you know them, but you have to learn them first. The palette fuzzy-searches the entire surface; type what you want, get there.
- AI parity — every palette entry is also a registry action. If you can do it in the palette, the AI can do it too. The palette doubles as documentation of what's possible.
- Friction-free access — no menu hunting, no chrome to read, no spatial scanning. Two keystrokes + a search term + Enter.
For the AI side of this same registry, see § 1 and § 3.
Where to go from here
- § 1 (The AI Assistant) — the same registry, called by the model.
- § 3 (MCP) — the same registry, called from outside the IDE.
- FaustWave — Reference § Keyboard shortcuts — the persistent-shortcut surface for the most-used actions.