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June 26, 2026

Keyboard shortcuts for annotation queues

Nikita Kabardin

Process an annotation queue without the mouse: arrow through items, jump between score fields, pick options with number keys, and complete with Cmd+Enter.

Annotation is repetitive by design: open an item, score a few dimensions, maybe leave a comment, move on. Do that two hundred times with a mouse and the round-trips are the slow part. Annotation queues are now fully keyboard-driven, so you can keep your hands on the keys and just go.

The scheme is spreadsheet-style, with a navigate mode and an edit mode. Shortcuts stay out of your way while you are typing in a text field or while a dialog is open:

• → / ← move to the next and previous item in the queue
• ↑ / ↓ move between score fields, wrapping at the ends
• 1–9 select the Nth option on a categorical or boolean field
• Enter commits a value or opens a dropdown
• Esc steps out of a text field back to field navigation
• Cmd/Ctrl + Enter completes the item and advances to the next
• ? opens the full cheatsheet

The hints are built in, so you don't have to memorize the table: number badges show up on categorical options when a field is focused, the ↑/↓ legend sits beside the score list, and the ⌘↵ / Ctrl↵ hint rides on the Mark Completed button. Out-of-range numeric scores are caught before the item advances.

The score-field keys also work in the inline Annotate drawer on trace, observation, and session pages, so quick one-off annotations are faster too.

See the annotation queue docs for the full list.