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What is blank-trigger-mode in OpenCues?

Q: What is blank-trigger-mode in OpenCues?

blank-trigger-mode controls when a typed _ actually fires its blank. immediate, the default, triggers the moment the underscore lands at the end of your buffer. spaced waits for a confirming space after the underscore, which is the mode to pick if you write markdown, because it lets _italic_ complete without a blank firing mid-word.

blank-trigger-mode controls when a typed _ actually fires its blank. immediate, the default, triggers the moment the underscore lands at the end of your buffer. spaced waits for a confirming space after the underscore, which is the mode to pick if you write markdown, because it lets _italic_ complete without a blank firing mid-word.

The problem it solves

In markdown surfaces (Reddit comments, GitHub issues, Discord, anywhere _ means emphasis), typing _italic_ would fire the blank on the first underscore before you can type the closing one. spaced mode defers the trigger until a space follows, so a bare _ is just a character. The docs' summary of the semantics is exactly two clauses: bare _ is inert; _ followed by a space confirms intent and fires.

The trade, stated plainly

Mode	Behaviour	Cost
`immediate` (default)	`_` fires the instant you type it	`_italic_` gets interrupted
`spaced`	`_` fires only once a space follows	One extra keystroke per intentional blank

The default stays immediate to preserve the snappy original behaviour for existing users; markdown-heavy writers (Reddit, GitHub, Discord, any editor that interprets underscores) are the audience the docs point at spaced.

Edge behaviour worth knowing

Any whitespace confirms: weather _ followed by a space or a newline both fire in spaced mode.
A mid-buffer underscore (hello _ world with the cursor elsewhere) fires in neither mode; triggering is about the end of the buffer.
A completed _italic_ never fires in spaced mode, and even _italic_ with a trailing space is refused by a word-boundary check, so emphasis-wrapped words don't turn into accidental blanks.
The mode gates every trigger path consistently, including the keyboard intercept that value blanks like volume and brightness use.

How it works underneath

A _ can reach the runtime through more than one door: the immediate keystroke intercept that value blanks use, the debounce bypass that fires a blank without waiting, and the scheduled re-check that runs a moment after you pause. The scalar gates all of them consistently, so there is no path where a bare underscore sneaks through in spaced mode. In spaced mode the conditions simply tighten from "buffer ends with _" to "buffer ends with _ plus whitespace".

Setting it

blank-trigger-mode: spaced in ~/.cues/OPENCUES.md (hot-reload, ~2 seconds), or cycle it via opencues settings _. If a blank ever seems dead, this scalar is the second thing to check after keyword position: in spaced mode an unconfirmed _ sitting at the end of your text is working as designed, waiting for its space. The blank-not-firing checklist walks the full diagnosis order.