---
name: Command palette
slug: command-palette
category: component
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A keyboard-summoned overlay whose single search box finds and runs
  any command or destination in an application by name.
aliases:
  - name: command menu
    source: shadcn
  - name: omnibar
    source: blueprint
  - name: spotlight
    source: mantine
  - name: quick open
    source: vscode
  - name: launcher
tags:
  - keyboard
  - menus
  - overlays
  - search
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - combobox
    - search-field
    - keyboard-shortcut
    - keyboard-shortcuts-dialog
    - slash-command
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations:
  - system: shadcn
    name: Command
    url: https://ui.shadcn.com/docs/components/command
  - system: base-ui
    name: Autocomplete (command palette)
    url: https://base-ui.com/react/components/autocomplete
sources:
  - title: Command palette pattern, UX Patterns for Developers
    url: https://uxpatterns.dev/patterns/advanced/command-palette
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: one keystroke reaches every command by name
---

The palette is a keyboard-first index of everything an application can do.
`Ctrl+K` or `Cmd+K` opens it from anywhere in the product (VS Code, which made
the name ordinary, uses `Ctrl+Shift+P`), one field takes a loose string, and the
list narrows across commands, files, and destinations at once. It earns its
place when a product has more actions than its menus can hold, and it pays back
the people who use it most.

Structurally a palette is a modal dialog with a listbox inside it, so it owes
both sets of duties: focus enters the field on open, `Escape` closes, the arrow
keys move a highlight the input names with `aria-activedescendant`, and the
number of matches is announced rather than left to be seen.

Against a [combobox](/combobox), the machinery is the same and the result is
not. A combobox fills a field in a form and leaves a value behind. A palette
dismisses itself and something happens somewhere else, which is why its rows
read as verbs (*Rename project*, *Export as PDF*) rather than as nouns.

The word palette is inherited from graphics software, where a palette was a
floating tray of tools, so the current sense is close to a misnomer. Every
product renames it anyway: Blueprint's Omnibar borrows from Chrome's omnibox,
Mantine's Spotlight borrows from Apple's system search, VS Code splits the idea
into Command Palette and Quick Open, and Slack calls its version a quick
switcher. Most React implementations sit on cmdk, which shadcn ships as Command.