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CapsLock Guide

Install CapsLock Enhancement, understand Hyper and its sixteen control planes, and look up every mapping.

CapsLock Enhancement turns ⇪ into two keys at once: tap it for ⎋, or hold it as the ✱ Hyper modifier. Combine Hyper with the four left-side modifiers to address sixteen control planes without moving your hands away from the keyboard’s hot zone.

CapsLock control plane zero
Control plane 0: the layout you get by holding ⇪ on its own. Fifteen more planes sit behind the left-side modifiers.
CapsLock control plane zero
Control plane 0: the layout you get by holding ⇪ on its own. Fifteen more planes sit behind the left-side modifiers.
Tip

The interactive configurator reads the current V3 JSON. It is the fastest way to inspect one key on any plane, or to change an application shortcut and export a configuration you can import straight away.

Ten families of keys

The keyboard map above is colour-coded by purpose, so a key’s neighbourhood tells you roughly what it does before you look anything up. The configuration ships as ten independent Karabiner rules, one per family, and you enable them one by one.

The ten rules in capslock.json, and how many mappings each one carries
Family Colour What it does Mappings
Basic Blue Tap ⇪ for ⎋, hold it for ✱ Hyper, plus input-source switching 4
Navigation Pink Vim-style movement, selection, tab and window switching, pointer and wheel 102
Deletion Brown NM,. delete by character, word or line without moving your hand 12
MouseKey Keypad The numeric keypad as a complete mouse 63
Window Azure Close and cycle tabs, windows, apps and desktops; sleep, lock, log out 19
Application Yellow Launch or focus six applications across three planes 18
Terminal Green Terminal signals, IDE run controls, Vim and Tmux prefixes, Codex and Claude 10
Clipboard Purple Five extra text clipboards on 6–0 10
Shifter Orange Brackets, braces and code punctuation within reach of the home row 16
Functional Cyan Screenshots, media, brightness, keyboard light and volume 28

Pick a path

Read in order if this is your first visit, or jump straight to the family you need. Every page ends with a link to the next one.

Install & Hyper

Install Karabiner-Elements, import CapsLock Enhancement, and understand tap, hold, and control planes.

Navigation & Mouse

Move and select text, delete by semantic unit, and control the pointer or wheel without leaving the keyboard.

Developer Workflows

Switch applications and windows, launch tools, send terminal commands, use extra clipboards, and type code symbols.

System & Reference

Function keys, screenshots, symbols, control-plane notation, versions, customization, and troubleshooting.