A Macropad for Terminal Commands
The KM16 Macropad ($119) is sixteen keycaps on an anodised aluminium body with one large knob and two small ones. Sat beside a terminal, it turns the handful of commands you run all day into single presses. That is genuinely all it does: it is a keyboard with fewer keys, and understanding exactly what a keyboard can send is most of getting value out of one.
What can a macropad actually send to a terminal?
Keystrokes. That covers two different things and they are worth separating. The first is a shortcut, a key or combination your terminal or editor already listens for: interrupt, clear, split a pane, accept a suggestion. The second is a string, where the pad types out a run of characters as if you had typed them yourself.
The second one is where people get bitten. A key that types your test command and then presses return is convenient. A key that types something destructive and presses return is a trap you built yourself and will eventually stand on. Our rule: keys may type, but only one key gets to press return, and it never lives at the edge of the pad where a sleeve can find it.
Which commands earn a key?
Count what you actually repeat rather than what feels important. For most people running an agent in a terminal the honest list is short: interrupt the run, clear the screen, accept, reject, and switch between two panes. Add the one project command you type more than any other, which is usually the tests.
Everything else belongs on the keyboard. A macropad pays for itself through repetition, so a key you press twice a day costs more in remembering than it saves in typing. Start with four bindings, live with them for a week, and add a fifth only when you catch yourself reaching for something that is not there.
What is the knob for?
Scrolling, mostly. Agent output is long and arrives faster than you read it, and a knob is a better instrument than a key for moving through it because you can go slowly and stop where you meant to. Volume is the other common assignment.
The KM16 has one large knob and two small ones. The EM Mini Pad ($75) is a very small, very heavy anodised aluminium block with five keys and a knurled knob, which suits a desk that is already full. The Left-Hand Pad ($49) is a twelve-key macropad, four columns by three rows, with two rotary knobs, sold for macOS.
How do I program it?
The supplier's card for the KM16 confirms VIA remapping, which means you set the keys in a configurator and the pad then remembers them itself, with nothing left running afterwards. That is the arrangement you want, because it means the pad behaves identically on any machine you plug it into.
Other pads come with their own utility. The thing to check on any listing is not the hardware but which operating systems the configuration tool supports. The pad will present itself as a keyboard everywhere. The software you set it up with may not run everywhere.
Which one should I buy?
If you want room to grow and a knob you will genuinely use, the KM16 at $119. If desk space is the constraint, the EM Mini Pad at $75 is heavy enough that it will not slide when you hit it, and it runs wired over USB-C or over Bluetooth. If you want a block of keys and two knobs for your left hand on a Mac, the Left-Hand Pad at $49.
The bindings themselves are covered in more detail in what is a macropad actually for in programming.