# @solid-primitives/keyboard
> A library of reactive promitives helping handling user's keyboard input.
Latest version **1.3.7** (published 2026-07-04) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads
## Install
```sh
npm install @solid-primitives/keyboard
pnpm add @solid-primitives/keyboard
yarn add @solid-primitives/keyboard
bun add @solid-primitives/keyboard
```
## Health
**Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active.
Positive: has types; esm support; no vulnerabilities; recently updated; high maintenance score; high quality score.
Warnings: low downloads.
## Facts
| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.3.7 |
| Published | 2026-07-04 |
| First published | 2022-06-19 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | ESM |
| Dependencies | 3 |
| Unpacked size | 24.9 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 1559 |
| Author | Damian Tarnwski |
| Maintainers | davedbase, lexlohr, thetarnav. |
| Keywords | solid, primitives, keyboard, keystroke, hotkey |
## Links
- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard
- Repository: https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives
- Homepage: https://primitives.solidjs.community/package/keyboard
- Issues: https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard
## Dependencies (3)
- [@solid-primitives/utils](https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/utils.md) ^6.4.1
- [@solid-primitives/rootless](https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/rootless.md) ^1.5.4
- [@solid-primitives/event-listener](https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/event-listener.md) ^2.4.6
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## Recent versions
- 1.3.7 (latest) — 2026-07-04
- 2.0.0-next.5 (next) — 2026-08-12
- 1.0.9-beta.0 (beta) — 2023-03-03
- 2.0.0-next.4 — 2026-07-18
- 2.0.0-next.3 — 2026-07-06
- 1.3.6 — 2026-07-04
- 2.0.0-next.2 — 2026-07-04
- 2.0.0-next.1 — 2026-07-04
- 2.0.0-next.0 — 2026-06-26
- 1.3.5 — 2026-02-24
- 1.3.4 — 2026-02-21
- 1.3.3 — 2025-06-30
- 1.3.2 — 2025-06-29
- 1.3.1 — 2025-04-27
- 1.3.0 — 2025-01-22
- … 24 more at https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard/versions
## README
# @solid-primitives/keyboard
[](https://lerna.js.org/)
[](https://bundlephobia.com/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard)
[](https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives#contribution-process)
A library of reactive promitives helping handling user's keyboard input.
- [`useKeyDownEvent`](#usekeydownevent) — Provides a signal with the last keydown event.
- [`useKeyDownList`](#usekeydownlist) — Provides a signal with the list of currently held keys
- [`useCurrentlyHeldKey`](#usecurrentlyheldkey) — Provides a signal with the currently held single key.
- [`useKeyDownSequence`](#usekeydownsequence) — Provides a signal with a sequence of currently held keys, as they were pressed down and up.
- [`createKeyHold`](#createkeyhold) — Provides a signal indicating if provided key is currently being held down.
- [`createShortcut`](#createshortcut) — Creates a keyboard shotcut observer.
## Installation
```bash
npm install @solid-primitives/keyboard
# or
pnpm add @solid-primitives/keyboard
# or
yarn add @solid-primitives/keyboard
```
## `useKeyDownEvent`
Provides a signal with the last keydown event.
This is a [singleton root](https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives/tree/main/packages/rootless#createSingletonRoot) primitive that will reuse event listeners and signals across dependents.
### How to use it
`useKeyDownEvent` takes no arguments, and returns a signal with the last keydown event.
```tsx
import { useKeyDownEvent } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
const event = useKeyDownEvent();
createEffect(() => {
const e = event();
console.log(e); // => KeyboardEvent | null
if (e) {
console.log(e.key); // => "Q" | "ALT" | ... or null
e.preventDefault(); // prevent default behavior or last keydown event
}
});
```
## `useKeyDownList`
Provides a signal with the list of currently held keys, ordered from least recent to most recent.
This is a [singleton root](https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives/tree/main/packages/rootless#createSingletonRoot) primitive that will reuse event listeners and signals across dependents.
### How to use it
`useKeyDownList` takes no arguments, and returns a signal with the list of currently held keys
```tsx
import { useKeyDownList } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
const keys = useKeyDownList();
createEffect(() => {
console.log(keys()); // => string[] — list of currently held keys
});
{key => {key}};
```
## `useCurrentlyHeldKey`
Provides a signal with the currently held single key. Pressing any other key at the same time will reset the signal to `null`.
This is a [singleton root](https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives/tree/main/packages/rootless#createSingletonRoot) primitive that will reuse event listeners and signals across dependents.
### How to use it
`useCurrentlyHeldKey` takes no arguments, and returns a signal with the currently held single key.
```tsx
import { useCurrentlyHeldKey } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
const key = useCurrentlyHeldKey();
createEffect(() => {
console.log(key()); // => string | null — currently held key
});
```
## `useKeyDownSequence`
Provides a signal with a sequence of currently held keys, as they were pressed down and up.
This is a [singleton root](https://github.com/solidjs-community/solid-primitives/tree/main/packages/rootless#createSingletonRoot) primitive that will reuse event listeners and signals across dependents.
### How to use it
`useKeyDownSequence` takes no arguments, and returns a single signal.
```tsx
import { useKeyDownSequence } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
const sequence = useKeyDownSequence();
createEffect(() => {
console.log(sequence()); // => string[][] — sequence of currently held keys
});
// example sequence of pressing Ctrl + Shift + A
// [["Control"], ["Control", "Shift"], ["Control", "Shift", "A"]]
```
## `createKeyHold`
Provides a `boolean` signal indicating if provided key is currently being held down.
Holding multiple keys at the same time will return `false` — holding only the specified one will return `true`.
### How to use it
`createKeyHold` takes two arguments:
- `key` keyboard key to listen for
- `options` additional configuration:
- `preventDefault` — call `e.preventDefault()` on the keyboard event, when the specified key is pressed. _(Defaults to `true`)_
```tsx
import { createKeyHold } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
const pressing = createKeyHold("Alt", { preventDefault: false });
Is pressing Alt? {pressing() ? "YES" : "NO"}
;
```
## `createShortcut`
Creates a keyboard shotcut observer. The provided callback will be called when the specified keys are pressed.
### How to use it
`createShortcut` takes three arguments:
- `keys` — list of keys to listen for
- `callback` — callback to call when the specified keys are pressed
- `options` — additional configuration:
- `preventDefault` — call `e.preventDefault()` on the keyboard event, when the specified key is pressed. _(Defaults to `true`)_
- `requireReset` — If `true`, the shortcut will only be triggered once until all of the keys stop being pressed. Disabled by default.
```tsx
import { createShortcut } from "@solid-primitives/keyboard";
createShortcut(
["Control", "Shift", "A"],
() => {
console.log("Shortcut triggered");
},
{ preventDefault: false, requireReset: true },
);
```
### Preventing default
When `preventDefault` is `true`, `e.preventDefault()` will be called not only on the keydown event that has triggered the callback, but it will **optimistically** also prevent the default behavior of every previous keydown that will have the possibility to lead to the shortcut being pressed.
E.g. when listening for `Control + Shift + A`, all three keydown events will be prevented.
## DEMO
Working demo of some of the primitives in keyboard package:
https://codesandbox.io/s/solid-primitives-keyboard-demo-s2l84k?file=/index.tsx
## Changelog
See [CHANGELOG.md](./CHANGELOG.md)
---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/@solid-primitives/keyboard · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._