diff --git a/packages/core/src/server/cliShortcuts.ts b/packages/core/src/server/cliShortcuts.ts
index 3b8c502125..9a70ecf6ef 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/server/cliShortcuts.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/server/cliShortcuts.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ import type { CliShortcut, NormalizedConfig } from '../types/config';
 export const isCliShortcutsEnabled = (config: NormalizedConfig): boolean =>
   config.dev.cliShortcuts && isTTY('stdin');
 
+// Normalize user input so shortcuts are case-insensitive
+// and still work with accidental surrounding whitespace.
+export const normalizeShortcutInput = (input: string): string =>
+  input.trim().toLowerCase();
+
 export async function setupCliShortcuts({
   help = true,
   openPage,
@@ -84,6 +89,8 @@ export async function setupCliShortcuts({
   });
 
   rl.on('line', (input) => {
+    input = normalizeShortcutInput(input);
+
     if (input === 'h') {
       let message = `\n  ${color.bold(color.blue('Shortcuts:'))}\n`;
       for (const shortcut of shortcuts) {
diff --git a/packages/core/tests/cliShortcuts.test.ts b/packages/core/tests/cliShortcuts.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6cdf31bfa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core/tests/cliShortcuts.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import { normalizeShortcutInput } from '../src/server/cliShortcuts';
+
+test('normalizeShortcutInput', () => {
+  expect(normalizeShortcutInput('h')).toBe('h');
+  expect(normalizeShortcutInput(' H ')).toBe('h');
+  expect(normalizeShortcutInput('\to\t')).toBe('o');
+  expect(normalizeShortcutInput('  Q')).toBe('q');
+});