tolaria/docs/adr/0020-keyboard-first-design.md

type, id, title, status, date

type	id	title	status	date
ADR	0020	Keyboard-first design principle	active	2026-03-01

Context

Laputa is a productivity tool for knowledge workers who spend most of their time typing. Mouse-heavy interactions interrupt flow. Every feature should be reachable without touching the mouse, and the app must be fully testable via keyboard events (important for Playwright automation and accessibility).

Decision

Every feature must be reachable via keyboard. Every command palette entry must also appear in the macOS menu bar (File / Edit / View / Note / Vault / Window). This is both a design principle and a QA requirement. Navigation, note switching, panel toggling, search, and all commands work via keyboard shortcuts or the Cmd+K command palette.

Options considered

• Option A (chosen): Keyboard-first with menu bar parity — full keyboard accessibility, menu bar for discoverability, testable via Playwright keyboard events. Downside: more work per feature (must wire shortcut + menu item + command palette entry).
• Option B: Mouse-primary with some shortcuts — faster to implement. Downside: poor flow for power users, harder to automate testing.
• Option C: Keyboard-only (no menu bar) — simplest. Downside: poor discoverability, macOS HIG violation.

Consequences

• useCommandRegistry + useAppCommands build a centralized command registry with labels, shortcuts, and handlers.
• CommandPalette (Cmd+K) fuzzy-searches all registered commands.
• menu.rs defines the native macOS menu bar with accelerators matching keyboard shortcuts.
• useAppKeyboard registers global keyboard shortcuts.
• useMenuEvents bridges menu bar clicks to command handlers.
• QA uses osascript keyboard events for native testing — no mouse, no cliclick.
• macOS gotcha: Option+N produces special characters — use e.code or Cmd+N instead.
• Re-evaluation trigger: if a non-macOS platform (Windows, Linux) is supported and needs different menu/shortcut conventions.