---
title: "Command bar"
description: "Open pages, search your tabs, history and bookmarks, and run any Lilo command from one place with the command bar, without leaving the keyboard."
sidebar:
order: 3
---
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
1. **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.
2. **Pick a result**
Use ↑ and ↓ to move through the results: open tabs, Spaces, bookmarks, history, actions and search suggestions.
3. **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](/guides/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](/guides/split-view) beside the current tab | Tabs, bookmarks, web pages |
| ⇧↩ | Open it in a [Peek](/guides/peek-and-little-window) 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](/guides/tabs-and-folders#lock-a-folder).