you could make shortcut bash scripts with qvm-run. bash would then tab complete for you. see the man page (either 'man qvm-run' or see here, https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dom0-tools/qvm-run/ ) and the desktop files in ~/.local/share/applications in dom0.
theres nothing in qubes preventing this. its already in the repo. but, its best not to add anything to dom0.
Q (upper-left) / system tools / keyboard
there you can add a shortcut to terminal so you dont even need your mouse to pull it up.
this is very wrong
Thanks for the ideas. I was really hoping for something "smooth" (work-flow and looking) like synapse or Gnome-Do _but_ not if it compromises sec and as you said, putting things in dom0 isn't a great idea.
This is a bit of a side question but I think its realated and given what you said likely has the same answer but is it possible to have a clipboard manager (eg clipman, kilpper, or copyq) work across VMs? The assumption is "no" but hope springs eternal ;)