Sticky Keys

Sticky keys enable you to have keys that stay pressed for a certain time or until another key is pressed and released. If the timeout expires or other keys are pressed, and the sticky key wasn’t released, it is handled as a regular key being held. Sticky keys are sometimes also referred to as “one shot keys”.

Enable Sticky Keys

from kmk.modules.sticky_keys import StickyKeys
sticky_keys = StickyKeys()
# optional: set a custom release timeout in ms (default: 1000ms)
# sticky_keys = StickyKeys(release_after=5000)
keyboard.modules.append(sticky_keys)

Keycodes

Keycode	Aliases	Description
`KC.SK(KC.ANY)`	`KC.STICKY`	make a sticky version of `KC.ANY`

KC.STICKY accepts any valid key code as argument, including modifiers and KMK internal keys like momentary layer shifts.

Custom Sticky Behavior

The full sticky key signature is as follows:

KC.SK(
    KC.ANY,              # the key to made sticky
    defer_release=False  # when to release the key
    retap_cancel=True    # repeated tap releases the key
)

`defer_release`

If False (default): release sticky key after the first interrupting key releases. If True: stay sticky until all keys are released. Useful when combined with non-sticky modifiers, layer keys, etc…

`repeat_cancel`

If True (default): Repeated tap releases the key and refreshes timeout. If False: Repeated tap refreshes the timeout.

Sticky Stacks

Sticky keys can be stacked, i.e. tapping a sticky key within the release timeout of another will reset the timeout off all previously tapped sticky keys and “stack” their effects. In this example if you tap SK_LCTL and then SK_LSFT followed by KC.TAB, the output will be ctrl+shift+tab.

SK_LCTL = KC.SK(KC.LCTL)
SK_LSFT = KC.SK(KC.LSFT)

keyboard.keymap = [[SK_LSFT, SK_LCTL, KC.TAB]]