Show search-key & prefix in search boxes if search is enabled (GSoC 2026)

[azad2003-ai]

Bug description

How is the bug triggered?

How can you reproduce the bug?
1.

What did you expect to happen?

How are you running the application?

Please include as many of the following as possible:

• Zulip-terminal version:
  eg. a specific version (0.7.0), or if running from main also ideally the git ref
• Zulip server version(s):
  eg. Zulip Cloud, the version you are running self-hosted, or the Zulip Community server (chat.zulip.org)
• Operating system (and version):
  eg. Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, macOS, WSL in Windows, Docker
• Python version (and implementation):
  eg. 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, ... (implementation is likely to be eg. CPython, or PyPy)

If possible, please provide details from the About menu: (hotkey: Meta + ?)
(this can provide some of the details above)

[yummyPancake2607]

@zulipbot I want to work on this issue

Here is what I will do:

Identify search boxes and shortcuts
I will go through Zulip Terminal and list all existing search boxes (streams, topics, messages, users, etc.), and for each one confirm the keyboard shortcut that opens it and what kind of search syntax/prefix it uses (for example, stream:, topic:, or general full‑text search).
​

Decide how to show “key & prefix”
I will design a short, consistent hint format to show in or next to each search box, such as Search streams (key: q) or Search messages (prefix: stream:), making sure this fits cleanly into the existing Zulip Terminal UI and follows its current style for placeholders/help text.
​

Update the search UI code
I will modify the code that renders each search box so that, when search is enabled, it displays the corresponding hint including the search key and/or prefix; when search is not available, it will hide the hint or show an appropriate disabled message.
​

Respect “search enabled” conditions
I will identify the configuration or state that determines whether each search box is actually enabled in a given context, and use that to control whether the hint is shown, so users only see key/prefix hints when that search really works.
​

Test in different scenarios
I will test each search box in Zulip Terminal: opening it with the shortcut key, checking that the correct key and prefix appear, and verifying that the layout still works in small terminals and other edge cases where space is limited or search may be disabled.

[yummyPancake2607]

@zulipbot claim

[zulipbot]

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