Overlays & Surfaces · Menus
Command Palette
also known as cmd+k, command bar, quick actions
A command palette is an overlay with a search box that lets users type to find and run commands, jump to items, or trigger actions without hunting through menus. Popularized by code editors (Sublime, VS Code) and now common in tools like Notion, Linear, and Figma, it's opened by a shortcut such as Cmd/Ctrl+K or Cmd+Shift+P. It's built for keyboard-first power users.
See it live — shadcn/ui · MUI · Ant Design
Don't confuse it with
A command palette is a searchable, keyboard-driven launcher for actions across the whole app; a menu is a fixed, browsable list of options in one place. It's presented as a modal overlay but its purpose is fuzzy-search execution, not a static list.
In the wild
Pressing Cmd+K in Linear opens its command palette to run any action.