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BreakingHigh impactOfficial migration guidesince 3.16.0landed 3.17.0-5.0.pre

Migrate ShortcutActivator and ShortcutManager to KeyEvent system

Framework · Official source

For some time now (years), Flutter has had two key event systems implemented. The new system reached parity with the old platform-specific raw key event system, and the raw system will be removed. To prepare for that, the Flutter APIs that use the old system are being modified, and for a select few of them we have decided to make breaking changes in the API in order to preserve the quality of the API.

Original behavior

In the original key event subsystem handling each platform's quirks in the framework and in client apps caused overly complex code, and the old system didn't properly represent the true state of key events on the system.

New behavior

Summary of APIs that have been affected:

Who is affected
affected:
Practical impact
Behaviour or API differences that can break builds or change runtime behaviour.
What action should I take?
Follow the official migration guide below, update affected call sites, run `dart fix --apply` where a fix is available, then run your tests.

Before and after (from the official guide)

dart+1−1
Before
1 class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
2 @override
3− bool accepts(RawKeyEvent event, RawKeyboard state) {
4 // ... (your implementation here)
5 returns false;
6 }
7 // ...
8 }
After
1 class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
2 @override
3+ bool accepts(KeyEvent event, HardwareKeyboard state) {
4 // ... (your implementation here)
5 returns false;
6 }
7 // ...
8 }
Raw before / after
class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
  @override
  bool accepts(RawKeyEvent event, RawKeyboard state) {
    // ... (your implementation here)
    returns false;
  }
  // ...
}
class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
  @override
  bool accepts(KeyEvent event, HardwareKeyboard state) {
    // ... (your implementation here)
    returns false;
  }
  // ...
}
Official migration guide (excerpt, © The Flutter Authors, CC BY 3.0)

APIs provided by the Flutter framework are already migrated. Migration is needed only if you're using any of the methods listed in the previous section.

Migrating your APIs that use ShortcutActivator or its subclasses.

Pass a KeyEvent instead of a RawKeyEvent to ShortcutActivator.accepts. This may mean switching where you get your key events from. Depending on where you get them, this can either mean switching to using Focus.onKeyEvent instead of Focus.onKey, or a similar change if using FocusScope, FocusNode or FocusScopeNode.

If you're using a RawKeyboardListener, switch to using a KeyboardListener instead. If you're accessing RawKeyboard directly, use HardwareKeyboard instead. You'll find that there are non-raw equivalents for all of the key event sources.

Migrating your APIs that extend ShortcutActivator

The ShortcutActivator.accepts method was modified to take a KeyEvent and a HardwareKeyboard instead of a RawKeyEvent and RawKeyboard.

Before:

class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
  @override
  bool accepts(RawKeyEvent event, RawKeyboard state) {
    // ... (your implementation here)
    returns false;
  }
  // ...
}

After:

class MyActivator extends ShortcutActivator {
  @override
  bool accepts(KeyEvent event, HardwareKeyboard state) {
    // ... (your implementation here)
    returns false;
  }
  // ...
}

Migrating your APIs that extend ShortcutManager

The ShortcutManager class was modified to take KeyEvents in handleKeypress instead of RawKeyEvents. One difference in the two APIs is that repeated keys are determined differently. In the RawKeyEvent case, the repeat member indicated a repeat, but in RawKeyEvent code, the event is a different type (KeyRepeatEvent).

Before:

class _MyShortcutManager extends ShortcutManager {
  @override
  KeyEventResult handleKeypress(BuildContext context, RawKeyEvent event) {
    if (event is! RawKeyDownEvent) {
      return KeyEventResult.ignored;
    }
    if (event.repeat) {
      // (Do something with repeated keys.)
    }
    // ... (your implementation here)
    return KeyEventResult.handled;
  }
}

After:

class _MyShortcutManager extends ShortcutManager {
  @override
  KeyEventResult handleKeypress(BuildContext context, KeyEvent event) {
    if (event is! KeyDownEvent && event is! KeyRepeatEvent) {
      return KeyEventResult.ignored;
    }
    if (event is KeyRepeatEvent) {
      // (Do something with repeated keys.)
    }
    // ... (your implementation here)
    return KeyEventResult.handled;
  }
}
Migration assistantAI-generated · grounded in cited sources
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Official migration guide·Verified classification (95%)

Listed in the official breaking-changes index (docs.flutter.dev/release/breaking-changes).

An official announcement or migration guide documents an intended behaviour or API change. A verified source change (git diff) shows code changed but does not by itself prove a public API is breaking. AI interpretations are labelled and never used to classify a change.

Source commit
b3045439b7c0
Source last updated
Oct 21, 2026
Last synchronized
Oct 21, 2026
Publication status
published
Publication history
  • Oct 21, 2026, 8:31 PM: new → published (ingestion) — Backed by an official breaking-change/migration guide.
AI explanationAI-generated · grounded in cited sources
AI explanations are not configured
Set AI_PROVIDER (for example to openai-compatible with a local Ollama or LM Studio endpoint) to enable grounded explanations. Everything else on this page works without an AI provider.
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