Base Keymap

BaseKeymap adds essential keyboard shortcuts for basic editing operations. It wraps ProseMirror’s baseKeymap which provides Enter, Backspace, Delete, Select All, and platform-specific Emacs-style shortcuts on macOS.

Included in StarterKit by default.

Usage

BaseKeymap is included in StarterKit, so it works out of the box. To use it standalone:

Vanilla JS/TS

import { Editor, Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';
import '@domternal/theme';

const editor = new Editor({
  element: document.getElementById('editor')!,
  extensions: [Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap],
  content: '<p>Try pressing Enter, Backspace, or Mod-A to select all.</p>',
});

Angular

import { Component, signal } from '@angular/core';
import { DomternalEditorComponent } from '@domternal/angular';
import { Editor, Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-editor',
  imports: [DomternalEditorComponent],
  templateUrl: './editor.html',
})
export class EditorComponent {
  editor = signal<Editor | null>(null);
  extensions = [Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap];
  content = '<p>Try pressing Enter, Backspace, or Mod-A to select all.</p>';
}

editor.html

<domternal-editor
  [extensions]="extensions"
  [content]="content"
  (editorCreated)="editor.set($event)"
/>

React

import { Domternal } from '@domternal/react';
import { Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';

export default function Editor() {
  return (
    <Domternal
      extensions={[Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap]}
      content="<p>Try pressing Enter, Backspace, or Mod-A to select all.</p>"
    >
      <Domternal.Content />
    </Domternal>
  );
}

Headless

import { Editor, Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';

const editor = new Editor({
  element: document.getElementById('editor')!,
  extensions: [Document, Paragraph, Text, BaseKeymap],
  content: '<p>Try pressing Enter, Backspace, or Mod-A to select all.</p>',
});

To disable BaseKeymap in StarterKit:

StarterKit.configure({ baseKeymap: false })

Caution

Disabling BaseKeymap removes all standard editing shortcuts including Enter, Backspace, and Delete. You will need to provide your own keymap plugin or the editor will not respond to basic keyboard input.

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
enter	boolean	true	Whether to include an explicit Enter key binding

import { BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';

// Disable the explicit Enter binding (uses ProseMirror's default Enter instead)
StarterKit.configure({
  baseKeymap: { enter: false },
});

When enter is true (the default), BaseKeymap sets an explicit Enter binding that chains four ProseMirror commands in order:

1. newlineInCode - inserts a newline character if the cursor is inside a code block
2. createParagraphNear - creates a new paragraph adjacent to the current block if the cursor is at an edge
3. liftEmptyBlock - lifts an empty block out of its parent (e.g., pressing Enter in an empty blockquote exits the blockquote)
4. splitBlock - splits the current block at the cursor position (the standard paragraph-splitting behavior)

The chain tries each command in sequence and stops at the first one that succeeds.

When enter is false, the Enter binding from ProseMirror’s built-in baseKeymap is used as-is. Currently both produce the same chain of commands, but having an explicit binding allows Domternal to customize the Enter behavior independently in future versions.

Commands

BaseKeymap does not register any editor commands. All key bindings are applied directly via a ProseMirror keymap plugin.

Keyboard shortcuts

All platforms

Key	Command	Description
Enter	Chained enter	Insert newline in code, create paragraph near, lift empty block, or split block
Mod-Enter	exitCode	Exit a code block and create a paragraph after it
Backspace	backspace	Delete backward
Mod-Backspace	backspace	Delete backward
Shift-Backspace	backspace	Delete backward
Delete	del	Delete forward
Mod-Delete	del	Delete forward
Mod-a	selectAll	Select all content in the editor

Mod is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows/Linux.

macOS only

On macOS and iOS, ProseMirror’s baseKeymap includes additional bindings that map Emacs-style shortcuts to editing commands:

Key	Command	Description
Ctrl-h	backspace	Delete backward (Emacs)
Alt-Backspace	backspace	Delete backward
Ctrl-d	del	Delete forward (Emacs)
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace	del	Delete forward
Alt-Delete	del	Delete forward
Alt-d	del	Delete forward (Emacs)
Ctrl-a	selectTextblockStart	Move cursor to start of text block
Ctrl-e	selectTextblockEnd	Move cursor to end of text block

Input rules

BaseKeymap does not register any input rules.

Toolbar items

BaseKeymap does not register any toolbar items.

How it works

BaseKeymap creates a ProseMirror keymap plugin by spreading ProseMirror’s baseKeymap object (which is platform-aware) and optionally overriding the Enter key binding:

addProseMirrorPlugins() {
  const bindings = { ...baseKeymap };

  if (this.options.enter) {
    bindings['Enter'] = chainCommands(
      newlineInCode,
      createParagraphNear,
      liftEmptyBlock,
      splitBlock
    );
  }

  return [keymap(bindings)];
}

ProseMirror automatically detects the platform and uses either pcBaseKeymap (Windows/Linux) or macBaseKeymap (macOS/iOS), which includes the additional Emacs-style shortcuts listed above.

Exports

import { BaseKeymap } from '@domternal/core';
import type { BaseKeymapOptions } from '@domternal/core';

Export	Type	Description
BaseKeymap	Extension	The base keymap extension
BaseKeymapOptions	TypeScript type	Options for BaseKeymap.configure()

Source

@domternal/core - BaseKeymap.ts