Command bar
Open pages, search your tabs, history and bookmarks, and run any Lilo command from one place with the command bar, without leaving the keyboard.
The command bar is the field over the page where you type an address, find a tab you already have open, reopen a page from your history or run a Lilo command. This page shows how to open it, narrow what it searches, and act on a result without reaching for the mouse.
Open the command bar
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Open a page in a new tab | Press ⌘T (File > New Tab). Lilo opens a blank tab with the command bar over it. |
| Replace the current page | Press ⌘L (File > Open Location…). The command bar opens on the page’s address, selected. |
| Reopen an archived tab | Choose History > Archived Tabs…. |
Press Esc to close it. Closing the command bar of a new tab without picking anything closes that blank tab too, unless it is the only one.
If an extension replaces Chrome’s new tab page, ⌘T opens that page instead, except in a Private Space.
Go to a page or search the web
Type
Type an address, a site name or a search. When the top result is a page, Lilo completes its address after your text; press ⇥ or → to accept the completion, or ⌫ to drop it.
Pick a result
Use ↑ and ↓ to move through the results: open tabs, Spaces, bookmarks, history, actions and search suggestions.
Open it
Press ↩. A page already open in a tab switches to that tab instead of opening a second copy.
Anything that is not an address goes to your search engine, Google unless you chose another in Settings > General > Search engine. Under Search engines you can give an engine a keyword: type the keyword, a space and your query to search that engine once. Search suggestions sends what you type to the search engine to show its suggestions; turn it off and what you type stays on your Mac. Either way, while you type a search with one of the four built-in engines (Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing or Brave Search), Lilo opens a connection to it ahead of time, without sending your text.
Narrow the search with a prefix
Start with one character to search only one kind of result. The scope shows as a token at the start of the field; ⌫ at the start of the field removes it and keeps your text.
| Prefix | Searches |
|---|---|
: |
Lilo’s actions |
> |
Terminal: runs a shell command in a new terminal tab |
@ |
Open tabs of the current Space |
# |
Bookmarks in this Space |
/ |
History |
< |
Archived tabs of the current Space |
The > scope appears only while terminal tabs are on (see Terminal).
Act on a result
The footer of the command bar names the keys the selected result answers to.
| Keys | What they do | Works on |
|---|---|---|
| ↩ | Open or switch to it | Every result |
| ⌘↩ | Open it in a new tab | Pages and searches |
| ⌥↩ | Open it in a split view beside the current tab | Tabs, bookmarks, web pages |
| ⇧↩ | Open it in a Peek over the current tab | Web pages |
| ⌘C | Copy its link | Anything with an address |
| ⌘⌫ | Close the tab, or remove the page from history | Open tabs, history |
| ⌘M | Move the tab to another Space | Open tabs |
Run a command
Type : and part of a command’s name, such as : split or : reader, then press ↩. The actions include New Space, Private Space, New Split View, Separate Split View, Clear Unpinned Tabs, Reopen Closed Tab, Pin or Unpin Tab, Duplicate Tab, Reader View, Translate Page, Capture Full Page, Copy Page URL, Show History, Show Downloads and Settings. Each row shows its keyboard shortcut when it has one.
Without a prefix, a fixed list of about 90 phrases runs a command directly when you type one exactly and press ↩, such as new tab, close tab, reload page, split view or copy link. Almost all are English; a few are French, such as copier le lien or vue partagée. Only phrases of two words or more work this way, and only these exact phrases, not every command’s name. A single word such as reload goes to your search engine when you press ↩, but the commands it matches are listed under Actions, where you can pick one with the arrow keys; after :, it runs the command.
What it shows before you type
- When you open it, with ⌘T, or with ⌘L once you clear the field: this Space’s Bookmarks as tiles, Recent History, Open Tabs of this Space and two Quick Actions.
- When it sits in place on a blank tab, as on a window that opens on a blank tab, on a blank tab you switch to, or on the only tab after Esc: Frequent Sites, the sites your recent history goes back to most, as tiles, and Recent Conversations when you have conversations with agents.
- After a prefix: the empty list of that scope, such as your open tabs after
@or your recent history after/.
Limits
- Tab and bookmark results come from the current Space only. To reach another Space, type its name and pick it under Spaces; after
:, the row reads Switch to and the Space’s name. - A locked folder’s tabs never appear by name. When one matches, the command bar shows a single Results in row for the folder, which offers to unlock it. See Lock a folder.