Sixteen Keys for Everything Gemini CLI Makes You Decide
The KM16 Macropad is a 16-key aluminium macropad with three rotary knobs, remapped entirely in a web browser through VIA, no firmware flashing, no compiling. For a desk running Gemini CLI, sixteen keys is enough room to cover accept, reject, pane navigation, and whatever else you repeat during a session, with keys left over.
What sixteen keys actually covers
Gemini CLI's review loop, brief, wait, review, accept or reject, only needs two dedicated keys at minimum. The other fourteen are where a macropad earns its price over a two-button device: switching panes, re-running a command, jumping between terminal tabs, or anything else you find yourself reaching for the mouse or a modifier-heavy shortcut to do several times an hour. With layers, the same sixteen physical keys can serve a second tool entirely, so the pad doesn't stop being useful the moment you close your Gemini CLI terminal.
How remapping actually works
VIA runs in the browser, so reassigning a key is a matter of clicking it in the interface and picking a new keystroke, nothing gets compiled, and no firmware gets flashed to the device. VIA also supports layers, so a held key can switch the whole pad to a second set of assignments: one layer for your Gemini CLI terminal, another for an editor or design tool, on the same sixteen keys.
The lighting is cosmetic, and that's fine
RGB underglow spills onto the desk and an RGB strip badge lights up the top edge; neither one changes how the pad functions during a Gemini CLI review, but it does make the KM16 easy to find by feel and easy to notice sitting next to your keyboard, which matters more than it sounds like on a cluttered desk.
Setting expectations for day one
It arrives with a designer-oriented stock layout that has nothing to do with a coding agent's review loop, so plan on spending roughly twenty minutes in VIA before it actually fits how you work. That's a one-time cost, not a recurring one, but it's real, don't expect it to be useful the moment it's out of the box.
Why the weight is a feature, not a complaint
The CNC-anodised aluminium body is noticeably heavy for something this size, and that's deliberate: it doesn't slide or lift off the desk when you hit a key harder than you meant to, which matters more on a macropad you're using dozens of times an hour than it would on a keyboard.
Who should look at a smaller pad instead
If sixteen keys is more than you'll ever assign, or your desk doesn't have the footprint to spare, the five-key EM Mini Pad covers a tighter set of shortcuts in a much smaller block. The three encoders are also worth planning for before you buy, a large knob plus two smaller ones along the top edge, useful for volume, scroll, or timeline scrub if your workflow around Gemini CLI involves any of those. Buy the KM16 when you expect to actually fill most of those sixteen slots, buying it for two keys' worth of use is buying more macropad than you need.
See full specs on the KM16 Macropad product page, or browse every Gemini CLI hardware guide.