Editor key protocols must cover expanded selection and repeated escalation

Problem

Several keyboard seams looked fine when tested with a single collapsed caret, but broke once selection shape or repeated key ownership entered the picture.

The failures were different on the surface, but the bug pattern was the same: the implementation only handled the first happy-path cursor state.

Symptoms

• Enter inside selected heading text created another heading instead of a paragraph.
• Backspace at the start of a non-empty first code line exploded the code block into paragraphs.
• Shift+Tab over multiple selected nested quote blocks only lifted one block.
• selectAll inside a table stopped at the table forever instead of escalating on the second invocation.

What Didn't Work

• Treating the protocol matrix as done once the collapsed-cursor cases were green.
• Assuming expanded selection uses the same code path as deleteBackward or insertBreak at a caret.
• Letting ownership helpers always claim the same structure again on repeated invocations.
• Testing only one selected block for multi-block structural commands.

Solution

Make the key seams selection-aware and escalation-aware:

• let splitReset run for same-block expanded selections, not just collapsed cursors
• keep code-block Backspace local at the first non-empty line and merge empty inner lines locally
• lift every selected nested quoted block on reverse Tab, deepest paths first
• escalate table selectAll from cell -> table -> document instead of stopping at table selection forever

The important part was not one specific plugin. It was closing the protocol blind spot across multiple owners.

Why This Works

Keyboard behavior is not defined only by the key and the node type.

It is also defined by:

• selection shape
• boundary position
• repeated ownership steps

If tests cover only collapsed selections and single invocations, the protocol looks complete while major real-world paths are still wrong.

Prevention

• For every structural key seam, add at least:
  • collapsed caret coverage
  • same-block expanded selection coverage
  • multi-block selection coverage when the command is structural
  • repeated invocation coverage when the behavior is hierarchical
• Treat deleteFragment as the real seam for expanded ⌫ / ⌦ behavior. Do not pretend deleteBackward alone covers selection deletion.
• When a command is supposed to peel structure one level at a time, add a test that proves repeated invocations advance to the next owner instead of looping on the same owner.

Verification

These checks passed:

bun test packages/core/src/lib/plugins/override/withBreakRules.spec.tsx packages/core/src/lib/plugins/override/withDeleteRules.spec.tsx packages/core/src/lib/plugins/override/withMergeRules.spec.tsx packages/code-block/src/lib/withCodeBlock.spec.tsx packages/table/src/lib/withTable.spec.tsx packages/indent/src/lib/withIndent.spec.tsx packages/list/src/lib/withList.spec.tsx
pnpm turbo build --filter=./packages/core --filter=./packages/basic-nodes --filter=./packages/code-block --filter=./packages/table --filter=./packages/indent --filter=./packages/list
pnpm turbo typecheck --filter=./packages/core --filter=./packages/basic-nodes --filter=./packages/code-block --filter=./packages/table --filter=./packages/indent --filter=./packages/list
pnpm lint:fix

Related Issues

• #4898
• Related learning: 2026-04-02-markdown-container-keyboard-rules-must-lift-one-level