keyboard-shortcuts

name	keyboard-shortcuts
description	Inspect and edit KGlobalAccel keyboard shortcuts (global hotkeys) on KDE Plasma. Use when the user wants to bind, unbind, or audit a Meta/Ctrl/Alt key combination, or troubleshoot a shortcut that stopped firing.

KGlobalAccel Shortcuts

Plasma global shortcuts are stored in ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc and managed by the kglobalaccel daemon.

Inspect

# List all shortcuts grouped by component
grep -E '^\[|^[A-Za-z]' ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc | less

# What is bound to a key combo? (D-Bus)
qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /kglobalaccel org.kde.KGlobalAccel.allMainComponents

Edit a shortcut

Format in kglobalshortcutsrc:

ShortcutName=<active>,<default>,<friendly name>
# e.g.
Activate Krunner=Alt+Space,Alt+Space,Search

• <active>=none to unbind.
• Two comma-separated combos can be set, e.g. Meta+R\tAlt+F2.

Use the kwriteconfig-edit skill for safe edits:

kwriteconfig6 --file kglobalshortcutsrc --group "krunner.desktop" \
  --key "_launch" "Alt+Space,Alt+Space,KRunner"

Then reload:

qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /kglobalaccel org.kde.KGlobalAccel.reloadConfiguration
# or restart the daemon
kquitapp6 kglobalaccel && kstart kglobalaccel

Custom command shortcuts (khotkeys)

Khotkeys / kglobalaccel custom shortcuts live in ~/.config/khotkeysrc. Editing this file directly is fragile — prefer the System Settings UI for new entries, then version-control the resulting file. Applying changes:

qdbus org.kde.kded6 /modules/khotkeys reread_configuration

Notes

• On Wayland, Plasma owns the global shortcut keymap; X11-only tools (xbindkeys) won't work.
• For per-application accelerators, see ~/.config/kdeglobals [Shortcuts] and per-app *shortcutsrc files.