The three shortcuts you press most with an agent

Watch someone work with a coding agent for an hour and the keyboard traffic collapses into three actions, repeated. This comes from our own desks rather than a study, and we have not measured it across other people, so read it as a shape rather than a finding. It is also why the Pedal Three exists in the form it does.

One: stop

The key you press most is the one that interrupts. You see the agent take a wrong turn in the second line of its plan, and every further second is work you will have to unpick. In terminal tools this is usually Esc. In editors it is usually a stop control near the chat box, which is worse, because it is a trip to the mouse at the exact moment you wanted speed.

Stop is the best argument for a physical button we know of. It is frequent, it is time critical, and your eyes are on the screen when you need it, not on your hands.

Two: decide

Accept or reject. On a good day this is a rhythm: read, accept, read, reject, read, accept. It is two keys used in alternation, which is what hands are worst at when the two keys need different modifiers, and what two separate buttons or two pedals are good at.

It is also the one to think twice about. A button that approves without reading is not a productivity gain, it is a faster way to ship code nobody looked at. Bind it, and keep reading.

Three: switch

Switching mode, model or context. In terminal tools this is often a cycling key or a slash command. In editors it is usually a menu. It happens less often than the first two, but it costs the most each time, because a menu takes your hand to the mouse and your eyes off the code. This is the one people are surprised by. It feels rare, and then you count.

What about typing the prompt itself?

That is the fourth thing, and it is not a shortcut, it is a paragraph. It is why dictation keeps appearing in this conversation: the prompt is the only part of the loop that is long form, and the only part where a microphone genuinely beats a keyboard. If you dictate, then starting and stopping the microphone joins the list above, and it is usually the most awkward reach of the four.

So what does this mean for the desk?

Three actions, one of which is a pair, means four inputs at most. That is a three key pad, a small macropad, or three pedals if your hands are busy holding the problem. It is a much smaller purchase than the shortcut lists imply. Before you spend anything, count your own presses for a morning: if stop and accept are not in your top three, buy something else, or nothing.

If your hands are the busy part, your feet are still free: Pedal Three, three ribbed pedals on a curved steel base.