What the Keyboard action does
The Keyboard action simulates a real keypress on the computer where the Stream Deck plugin is installed — the same as if you had pressed the keys yourself. Use it to fire app shortcuts, media controls, or window-manager shortcuts from a button instead of memorizing them.
Enter the combination in the Keyboard Shortcut field, joining modifiers and a key with a plus sign, for example Cmd+Shift+4 or Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The Shell action's Press Keyboard Shortcut option runs through this same handler, so it behaves identically no matter which provider you added it from.
- Modifiers: Cmd/Command, Ctrl/Control, Alt (Option also works on macOS and Linux), and Shift. Cmd maps to the Windows key on a Windows host and to Command on macOS.
Special keys and typos
Named keys are recognized by name: Enter/Return, Tab, Space, Delete/Backspace, Escape, the arrow keys, F1 through F12, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. Anything else is sent as a single printable character, so combine multiple keys with separate Keyboard steps rather than one long shortcut string.
A modifier the action does not recognize — a typo like cmnd — fails the step outright instead of silently doing nothing, so a mistake shows up in activity as a clear error instead of a shortcut that quietly never fires.
Platform mechanics
Each OS delivers the keypress a different way: macOS goes through AppleScript and System Events, Windows goes through PowerShell's SendKeys, and Linux uses ydotool on Wayland or xdotool on X11, chosen automatically from your session type. Neither ydotool nor xdotool ships with Conductor Deck — install one of them first if you are on Linux and shortcuts are not landing.
Because this is a real simulated keypress, it goes to whichever window currently has focus, the same as if you had typed it yourself. Bring the target app to the front before the button fires unless the shortcut is one your OS treats as global regardless of focus.