Mutt Cheat Sheet

Default Key Bindings

General Commands
q	exit the current menu
x	abort without saving
^g	cancel current action
?	list all keybindings for the current menu

The Message Index
m	Compose a new message
d	Delete the current message
D	Delete messages matching a pattern
u	Undelete a message
U	Undelete messages matching a pattern
C	Copy the current message to another mailbox
ALT+C	Decode then copy the current message to another mailbox
s	Save current message
ALT+s	Decode then save a message
r	Reply to sender
g	Reply to all recipients
L	Reply to mailing list
f	Forward message
b	Forward bounce
/	Search
ALT+/	Search in reverse
c	Change to a different mailbox/folder
F	Mark as important
N	Mark as new (not read)
l	Show messages matching a pattern
o	Change the current sort method
O	Reverse the sort method
t	Toggle the tag on a message
ALT+T	Toggle the tag on an entire message thread
T	Tag messages matching a pattern
^t	Untag messages matching a pattern
v	View-attachments
<Return>	Display-message
<Tab>	Jump to the next new message
@	Show the author’s full e-mail address
$	Save changes to mailbox
^l	Clear and redraw the screen
ALT+k	Mail a PGP public key to someone

The Pager (reading an email)
<Return>	Go down one line
<Space>	Display the next page/message
	Display the previous page/message
^	Jump to the top of the message
$	Jump to the bottom of the message
/	Search for a regular expression
ALT+/	Search backwards for a regular expression
n	Search for the next match of a regular expression
	Toggle search pattern coloring
S	Skip beyond quoted text
T	Toggle display of quoted text

Composer (setting the send options for an email)
y	Send message
P	Postpone message
w	Write the message to a folder
i	check spelling, if available
a	attach a file
A	attach a message
D	Detach a file
d	edit description on attachment
t	edit the To field
ALT+f	edit the From field
c	edit the Cc field
b	edit the Bcc field
s	edit the Subject
r	edit the Reply-To field
p	select PGP options
ALT+k	attach a PGP public key
^f	wipe PGP passphrase from memory
f	specify an ‘Fcc’ mailbox i.e. sent folder

^f = CTRL and the f key

ALT+f = ALT and the f key.

Tips and Tricks

Say you wanted to delete the first 100 messages

D
Delete messages matching: 1-100

Or if you wanted to move the first 100 messages to a local mailbox

T
Tag messages matching: ~m 1-100
;
tag-s
Save tagged to mailbox ('?' for list) = 102Service

Mutt will assume you want to save the messages to a mailbox named by the sender of the last email in the last message of the thread started with email ‘100’. If you change the way mutt displays email and do not have them sorted by thread, this behavior becomes just the sender of email ‘100’. To change the mailbox the messages are saved in, just delete the mailbox mutt provides and enter your own.

The moved (saved) messages will be marked for deletion.