Yes, that is exactly what is going on. The difference here is that there is a shortcut " I I", i.e., two consecutive presses of the I key ( jupyterlab/plugin.json at b89064d77803c4b10fe2fc44d885507d2aa3051a · jupyterlab/jupyterlab · GitHub ). Jlab waits for a second or so to see if you are going to press a second I or not. You’ll need to disable that shortcut of you want immediate action on a single press.