The iOS command bar

A touch keyboard has no Esc, no Ctrl, no arrow keys and no Tab. A terminal needs all four. The command bar is the row above the keyboard that puts them back, plus the things you actually reach for on a phone.

What is on it

Keys	Esc, Ctrl, Tab, arrows and the other keys the touch keyboard lacks
Upload	files, photo library, or the camera — see Sending files
Paste	the clipboard into the session
Mic	voice input
Keyboard	show and hide the keyboard without losing your place
Clear	wipe a half-typed prompt

It is configurable, per tool

The rows are not fixed. Open the Command Center editor from the bar and build the layout you want — and it is stored per tool, because what you need in Claude is not what you need in a shell.

Typical use: put the approve and deny keys for your agent’s permission prompts on the first row, so answering from a lock screen is one tap rather than a hunt.

Compact mode shrinks the buttons when you would rather have more terminal than more bar.

Why not just the keyboard

Because the most common mobile interaction with an agent is not typing a paragraph. It is answering: yes, no, option 2, Esc, Ctrl-C. Those are single taps if the bar is set up, and a fight with a touch keyboard if it is not.

Details

• Button rows are stored per tool on the device (IOSCommandCenterStorage), and compact mode under ios_command_bar_compact_mode.
• Every button in a mode shares one height, so no row is visually taller than another.
• The mic button lives in the bar, but the transcript bubble renders at card level so it can overlay the terminal without resizing it — the terminal never reflows mid-dictation.
• Voice needs your own OpenAI key; the bar offers the setup sheet when it is missing.
• macOS has no command bar; it has keyboard control instead.