diff --git a/docs/keyboard-protocol.rst b/docs/keyboard-protocol.rst
index ee30aa9ce..539f53693 100644
--- a/docs/keyboard-protocol.rst
+++ b/docs/keyboard-protocol.rst
@@ -240,7 +240,11 @@ represented in one of the following two forms::
 This makes it very easy to parse key events in an application. In particular,
 :kbd:`ctrl+c` will no longer generate the ``SIGINT`` signal, but instead be
 delivers as a ``CSI u`` escape code. This has the nice side effect of making it
-much easier to integrate into the application event loop.
+much easier to integrate into the application event loop. The only exceptions
+are the :kbd:`Enter, Tab and Backspace` keys which still generate the same
+bytes as in legacy mode this is to allow the user to type and execute commands
+in the shell such as ``reset`` after a program that sets this mode crashes
+without clearing it.
 
 .. _report_events:
 
diff --git a/kitty/key_encoding.c b/kitty/key_encoding.c
index eace1d24f..ddfb92874 100644
--- a/kitty/key_encoding.c
+++ b/kitty/key_encoding.c
@@ -150,15 +150,15 @@ encode_function_key(const KeyEvent *ev, char *output) {
             default: break;
         }
     }
-    if (ev->mods.value == ALT) {
+    if (ev->mods.value == ALT && !ev->disambiguate) {
         switch(key_number) {
             case GLFW_FKEY_TAB: SIMPLE("\x1b\t");
             case GLFW_FKEY_ENTER: SIMPLE("\x1b\r");
             case GLFW_FKEY_BACKSPACE: SIMPLE("\x1b\x7f");
         }
     }
-    if (ev->mods.value == SHIFT && key_number == GLFW_FKEY_TAB) { SIMPLE("\x1b[Z"); }
-    if (ev->mods.value == CTRL && key_number == GLFW_FKEY_BACKSPACE) { SIMPLE("\x08"); }
+    if (ev->mods.value == SHIFT && key_number == GLFW_FKEY_TAB && !ev->disambiguate) { SIMPLE("\x1b[Z"); }
+    if (ev->mods.value == CTRL && key_number == GLFW_FKEY_BACKSPACE && !ev->disambiguate) { SIMPLE("\x08"); }
 #undef SIMPLE
 
 #define S(number, trailer) key_number = number; csi_trailer = trailer; break
diff --git a/kitty_tests/keys.py b/kitty_tests/keys.py
index f49fa329a..b50449d14 100644
--- a/kitty_tests/keys.py
+++ b/kitty_tests/keys.py
@@ -399,7 +399,11 @@ class TestKeys(BaseTest):
         # test disambiguate
         dq = partial(enc, key_encoding_flags=0b1)
         ae(dq(ord('a')), 'a')
-        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_ESCAPE), csi(num=27))  # esc
+        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_ESCAPE), csi(num=27))
+        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_ENTER), '\r')
+        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_ENTER, mods=shift), csi(shift, 13))
+        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_TAB), '\t')
+        ae(dq(defines.GLFW_FKEY_BACKSPACE), '\x7f')
         for mods in (ctrl, alt, ctrl | shift, alt | shift):
             ae(dq(ord('a'), mods=mods), csi(mods, ord('a')))
         ae(dq(ord(' '), mods=ctrl), csi(ctrl, ord(' ')))