diff --git a/src/tui/tui-app.ts b/src/tui/tui-app.ts
index ff42352b..cdecf68d 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui-app.ts
+++ b/src/tui/tui-app.ts
@@ -611,6 +611,12 @@ export function helpKeysFor(glyphs: TuiGlyphSet, context: TuiKeymapContext): Arr
     [`${glyphs.updown} / j k`, 'select'],
     [glyphs.enter, 'attach — on a RECENT row, resume that conversation'],
     ['1-9', 'jump and attach'],
+    // The web UI's tab switching, as close as a terminal can carry it: Alt+N
+    // matches exactly, while Alt+[ / Alt+] cannot be transmitted (ESC+[ IS the
+    // CSI introducer) so the brackets do that job unmodified.
+    ['alt+1-9', 'switch to that session, without attaching'],
+    ['[ / ]', 'previous / next session'],
+    ['tab', 'next session'],
     // The one key that is not the TUI's: an attach hands the terminal to tmux,
     // and leaving it is the question every first attach asks.
     [context.detach ?? detachChord(), 'detach from an attached session, back to here'],
@@ -1431,6 +1437,31 @@ class TuiApp {
     this.afterInput();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * An Alt chord: `Alt+1`..`Alt+9` switch session, everything else is replayed.
+   *
+   * Alt+N SELECTS rather than attaches. In the web UI Alt+N switches which tab
+   * you are looking at, which is cheap and reversible; the terminal equivalent
+   * is moving the selection and its preview, not handing the whole terminal to
+   * a pane. Bare 1-9 keeps its documented jump-and-attach meaning.
+   *
+   * ⚠️ Every OTHER chord is replayed as `escape` then the character, and that
+   * fallback is load-bearing rather than tidiness. A terminal encodes Alt+x as
+   * ESC then x, so a real Esc that lands in the same read as the next keystroke
+   * is byte-identical to a chord. Without the replay, "Esc then q" typed
+   * quickly decoded as Alt+Q, matched nothing, and was swallowed — the e2e test
+   * caught it as the dashboard refusing to quit. Replaying keeps every overlay
+   * dismissal and every existing key working exactly as before.
+   */
+  private handleAlt(value: string): void {
+    if (this.model.mode === 'list' && value >= '1' && value <= '9') {
+      this.model.cursorToIndex(Number.parseInt(value, 10));
+      return;
+    }
+    this.handle({ type: 'escape' });
+    this.handle({ type: 'char', value });
+  }
+
   /** Every key can change the selection or the mode, and both steer the preview. */
   private afterInput(): void {
     if (this.exiting) return;
@@ -1440,6 +1471,10 @@ class TuiApp {
 
   private handle(event: TuiInputEvent): void {
     if (this.exiting) return;
+    if (event.type === 'alt') {
+      this.handleAlt(event.value);
+      return;
+    }
     switch (this.model.mode) {
       case 'confirm-kill':
         this.handleConfirm(event);
@@ -1494,6 +1529,11 @@ class TuiApp {
       case 'char':
         this.handleListChar(event.value);
         return;
+      case 'tab':
+        // Ctrl+Tab in the web UI. A terminal cannot report the Ctrl, so plain
+        // Tab carries it: nothing else in the list wants the key.
+        this.model.moveCursor(1);
+        return;
       default:
         return;
     }
@@ -1523,6 +1563,15 @@ class TuiApp {
       case 'k':
         this.model.moveCursor(-1);
         return;
+      // The web UI's Alt+[ / Alt+] for previous/next tab. WITHOUT the Alt,
+      // because ESC+[ is byte-identical to the CSI introducer every arrow key
+      // arrives on, so the chord cannot be transmitted by a terminal at all.
+      case '[':
+        this.model.moveCursor(-1);
+        return;
+      case ']':
+        this.model.moveCursor(1);
+        return;
       case 'q':
         this.quit(0);
         return;
diff --git a/src/tui/tui-keys.ts b/src/tui/tui-keys.ts
index 2435f0c4..2ea9cb8e 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui-keys.ts
+++ b/src/tui/tui-keys.ts
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ export type TuiInputEvent =
   | { type: 'backspace' }
   | { type: 'escape' }
   | { type: 'ctrl'; key: string }
+  | { type: 'alt'; value: string }
   | { type: 'key'; name: TuiNamedKey }
   | { type: 'mouse'; kind: TuiMouseKind; x: number; y: number; button: number };
 
@@ -107,9 +108,24 @@ export function createKeyParser(): TuiKeyParser {
       return { consumed: 3, events: name ? [{ type: 'key', name }] : NOTHING };
     }
 
-    // Anything that is not a CSI is a lone ESC as far as we are concerned; the
-    // next byte then parses on its own (so Alt+x reads as Escape then `x`).
-    if (second !== 0x5b) return { consumed: 1, events: [{ type: 'escape' }] };
+    // ESC followed by a printable character IN THE SAME READ is Alt+that key:
+    // that is how every terminal sends a meta chord. A lone Esc cannot look
+    // like this, because a buffer holding only ESC returns 'incomplete' above
+    // and is flushed as `escape` when the read ends, which is the standard way
+    // to tell the two apart without a timer.
+    //
+    // ⚠️ Three characters are deliberately NOT treated as Alt chords, because
+    // the terminal uses them to introduce sequences and a chord is
+    // indistinguishable from one: `[` (CSI) and `O` (SS3) would swallow every
+    // arrow key, and `]` (OSC) would swallow a terminal's colour-query reply.
+    // Alt+[ and Alt+] therefore cannot exist in a terminal at all, which is why
+    // the list binds bare `[` and `]` for the same job.
+    if (second !== 0x5b) {
+      if (second >= 0x20 && second <= 0x7e && second !== 0x4f && second !== 0x5d) {
+        return { consumed: 2, events: [{ type: 'alt', value: String.fromCharCode(second) }] };
+      }
+      return { consumed: 1, events: [{ type: 'escape' }] };
+    }
 
     let j = 2;
     while (j < buf.length && buf[j] >= 0x30 && buf[j] <= 0x3f) j++;
diff --git a/test/tui/tui-keys.test.ts b/test/tui/tui-keys.test.ts
index e94af8c2..f4c2c8ff 100644
--- a/test/tui/tui-keys.test.ts
+++ b/test/tui/tui-keys.test.ts
@@ -121,8 +121,11 @@ describe('escape sequences', () => {
     expect(decode('\x1b[M !!x')).toEqual([{ type: 'char', value: 'x' }]);
   });
 
-  it('reads ESC followed by a letter as Escape then that letter', () => {
-    expect(decode('\x1bx')).toEqual([{ type: 'escape' }, { type: 'char', value: 'x' }]);
+  it('reads ESC followed by a letter as the Alt chord it is', () => {
+    // Changed deliberately: this used to decode as Escape + `x`, which made
+    // Alt+N unreachable. A lone Esc is still separable because it is HELD until
+    // the caller's timer flushes it (see the 'lone escape' suite).
+    expect(decode('\x1bx')).toEqual([{ type: 'alt', value: 'x' }]);
   });
 });
 
@@ -208,3 +211,35 @@ describe('torn reads', () => {
     expect(parser.feed('\x1b[A')).toEqual([{ type: 'key', name: 'up' }]);
   });
 });
+
+describe('Alt chords', () => {
+  it('reads ESC + a printable character in one read as Alt+that key', () => {
+    expect(decode('\x1b1')).toEqual([{ type: 'alt', value: '1' }]);
+    expect(decode('\x1bk')).toEqual([{ type: 'alt', value: 'k' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('never steals the sequence introducers, or every arrow key would break', () => {
+    // ESC [ is CSI and ESC O is SS3: both are Up, not Alt+[ / Alt+O.
+    expect(decode('\x1b[A')).toEqual([{ type: 'key', name: 'up' }]);
+    expect(decode('\x1bOA')).toEqual([{ type: 'key', name: 'up' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('leaves ESC ] alone, so a terminal colour reply is never read as a chord', () => {
+    // OSC introducer: decoded as Escape then `]`, exactly as before.
+    expect(decode('\x1b]')).toEqual([{ type: 'escape' }, { type: 'char', value: ']' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('keeps a lone ESC held, which is what separates it from a chord', () => {
+    const parser = createKeyParser();
+    expect(parser.feed('\x1b')).toEqual([]);
+    expect(parser.flush()).toEqual([{ type: 'escape' }]);
+  });
+
+  it('decodes a chord torn across two reads as Escape then the character', () => {
+    // The unavoidable ambiguity, resolved the standard way: same read = chord.
+    const parser = createKeyParser();
+    expect(parser.feed('\x1b')).toEqual([]);
+    expect(parser.flush()).toEqual([{ type: 'escape' }]);
+    expect(parser.feed('1')).toEqual([{ type: 'char', value: '1' }]);
+  });
+});