fix(shortcuts): match ⌘⌥ shortcuts by layout-aware key, not physical position

[haacked]

Problem

On non-QWERTY keyboard layouts (Dvorak, AZERTY, etc.), ⌘⌥ (command+option) shortcuts fired the wrong action because the shortcut engine resolved the pressed letter from the physical key position (event.code) instead of the layout-aware event.key. On Dvorak the key labelled "C" sits where QWERTY has "I", so a ⌘⌥C press was matched as if it were ⌘⌥I — landing the user on the wrong destination.

Since every app shortcut uses command+option (baseModifier), this affected all of them on non-QWERTY layouts.

Changes

shortcutLogic now prefers event.key (correct on every layout) when matching the ⌘⌥ chord. It only consults the physical event.code for the macOS quirk the branch was originally written for — where holding Option turns event.key into a special glyph or dead key (e.g. ⌥K → "˚") — and never when event.key already gives a usable letter or digit. This brings the engine in line with the older useKeyboardHotkeys hook, which already matches on event.key.

How did you test this code?

Added shortcutLogic.test.ts with two cases:

• Layout-aware matching — a Dvorak-style event (event.key: 'c', event.code: 'KeyI') triggers the ⌘⌥C shortcut and not ⌘⌥I. This fails if the engine reverts to matching on event.code.
• macOS Option-glyph fallback — an event whose event.key is the glyph "˚" with event.code: 'KeyK' still triggers ⌘⌥K. This fails if the physical-key fallback is dropped, which would break Option shortcuts on macOS.

No existing test covered shortcutLogic, so neither regression was previously caught. I was unable to run the JS test suite in this environment (no node_modules/toolchain available) — CI will execute the tests.

Docs update

No docs change — internal keyboard-handling behavior only.

🤖 Agent context

Autonomy: Human-driven (agent-assisted)

Authored by the PostHog Slack app from a Slack thread. Traced the regression: the current shortcut engine (shortcutLogic, introduced in #41677) reimplemented keyboard handling from scratch and reintroduced physical-key (event.code) matching in its Option branch, whereas the older useKeyboardHotkeys hook it sits alongside matches on the layout-aware event.key. Fix keeps the macOS Option-dead-key fallback (the branch's original purpose) but gates it so it only triggers when event.key isn't already a usable letter/digit.

Skill invoked: /writing-tests (to gate the added regression tests).

---

Created with PostHog from a Slack thread

[github-actions]

Hey @haacked! 👋

It looks like your git author email on this PR isn't your @posthog.com address (haacked@gmail.com). Since you're on the PostHog team, it's worth pointing your local git author email at your @posthog.com address. Why it matters:

• Consistent work identity in git history — internal tooling that attributes commits to team members keys off your @posthog.com address.
• Keeps team contributions easy to tell apart from external community ones when scanning history.

You can fix it for this repo with:

git config user.email "you@posthog.com"

Or set it globally with git config --global user.email "you@posthog.com". No need to redo this PR — just a nudge for next time. 🙂

[github-actions]

🤖 CI report

✅ Bundle size — 🟢 -19 B (-0.0%)

Uncompressed size of every built .js bundle, compared against the base branch.

Total: 64.82 MiB · 🟢 -19 B (-0.0%)

No file changed by more than 1000 B.

_{Posted automatically by build-bundle-size-report · uncompressed bytes from dist-report}

✅ Eager graph — within budget

How much code each root ships on the eager path — downloaded and parsed before the surface is interactive. Measured from the esbuild output chunks (post-tree-shake, static imports only); lazy import() / React.lazy chunks are not counted.

Root	Eager (shipped)	Δ vs base	Budget
entry (logged-out pages, app bootstrap) src/index.tsx	1.22 MiB · 22 files	no change	███░░░░░░░ 28.4% of 4.29 MiB
authenticated shell (every logged-in page) src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx	8.14 MiB · 2,987 files	🟢 -19 B (-0.0%)	█████████░ 88.0% of 9.25 MiB

🟢 node_modules/monaco-editor/ stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 node_modules/monaco-editor/ stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx

Largest files eagerly shipped from src/index.tsx

Size	File
126.8 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1/node_modules/react-dom/cjs/react-dom.production.min.js
24.6 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/buffer@6.0.3/node_modules/buffer/index.js
6.3 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/react@18.3.1/node_modules/react/cjs/react.production.min.js
4.5 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/@jspm+core@2.1.0/node_modules/@jspm/core/nodelibs/browser/process.js
3.9 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/scheduler@0.23.2/node_modules/scheduler/cjs/scheduler.production.min.js
1.4 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/base64-js@1.5.1/node_modules/base64-js/index.js
1.3 KiB	src/RootErrorBoundary.tsx
912 B	../node_modules/.pnpm/ieee754@1.2.1/node_modules/ieee754/index.js
789 B	src/scenes/ChunkLoadErrorBoundary.tsx
762 B	src/index.tsx

Largest files eagerly shipped from src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx

Size	File
281.3 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/posthog-js@1.403.0/node_modules/posthog-js/dist/rrweb.js
267.7 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/@posthog+icons@0.38.0_react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1__react@18.3.1/node_modules/@posthog/icons/dist/posthog-icons.es.js
235.5 KiB	src/taxonomy/core-filter-definitions-by-group.json
223.0 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/posthog-js@1.403.0/node_modules/posthog-js/dist/module.js
164.0 KiB	src/queries/validators.js
154.3 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/re2js@0.4.1/node_modules/re2js/build/index.esm.js
126.8 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1/node_modules/react-dom/cjs/react-dom.production.min.js
105.8 KiB	src/lib/api.ts
93.3 KiB	../node_modules/.pnpm/prosemirror-view@1.40.1/node_modules/prosemirror-view/dist/index.js
92.7 KiB	../packages/quill/packages/quill/dist/index.js

_{Posted automatically by check-eager-graph · sizes are eager output bytes (shipped, post-tree-shake) from the esbuild metafile · part of #32479}

✅ Dist folder size — 🔺 +1.8 KiB (+0.0%)

Total size of the built frontend/dist folder (all assets), compared against the base branch.

Total: 1327.22 MiB · 🔺 +1.8 KiB (+0.0%)

[trunk-io]

     

Failed Test	Failure Summary	Logs
shortcutLogic falls back to the physical key only when Option turns event.key into a non-letter glyph	A mock function was expected to be called once but was not called during the test.	Logs ↗︎
shortcutLogic matches ⌘⌥ shortcuts by the layout-aware key, not the physical key position	A mock function was expected to be called once but was not called during the test.	Logs ↗︎

View Full Report ↗︎ ⋅ Docs

[haacked]

Closing — this was opened against the wrong repo. The reported bug (Dvorak Cmd+C navigating to the inbox) is in PostHog/code, where the Inbox shortcut is mod+i matched by react-hotkeys-hook's physical-key (event.code) logic. The real fix is PostHog/code#3525. The change here was an incidental, unrelated hardening of this app's own shortcut engine and isn't needed.