tmux Skill

Use tmux as a programmable terminal multiplexer for interactive work, background tasks, and service management. Works on Linux and macOS with stock tmux; uses a private socket to avoid interfering with your personal tmux configuration.

Quickstart (isolated socket)

# Create a new session
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create my-task "echo 'Hello World'" task

# List all sessions
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts list

# Capture output
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture pi-task-my-task-20250107-123456

# Kill a session
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts kill pi-task-my-task-20250107-123456

Socket Convention

• Socket Directory: ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/pi-tmux-sockets
• Default Socket: /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock
• Environment Variable: PI_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR (optional override)

All Agent sessions use a private socket to avoid conflicts with your personal tmux configuration.

Session Naming

Sessions are named using the pattern: pi-{category}-{name}-{timestamp}

• Categories:

  • task: Temporary sub-tasks (compilation, testing)
  • service: Long-running services (dev servers, databases)
  • agent: Agent-specific tasks (training, data processing)

• Examples:

  • pi-task-compile-20250107-123456
  • pi-service-dev-server-20250107-123456
  • pi-agent-training-20250107-123456

CLI Commands

Create Session

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create <name> <command> [category]

Creates a new tmux session and automatically prints the monitoring command.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create compile "make clean && make all" task

List Sessions

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts list [filter]

Lists all sessions with status and last activity time.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts list
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts list service

Session Status

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts status <id>

Shows detailed information about a session.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts status pi-task-compile-20250107-123456

Send Keys

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts send <id> <keys>

Sends keystrokes to a session. Uses literal mode to avoid shell escaping.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts send pi-task-python-20250107-123456 "print('Hello')"

Capture Output

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture <id> [lines]

Captures pane output (default: 200 lines).

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture pi-task-compile-20250107-123456 500

Kill Session

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts kill <id>

Terminates a tmux session.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts kill pi-task-compile-20250107-123456

Cleanup Old Sessions

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts cleanup [hours]

Removes inactive sessions older than the specified age (default: 24 hours).

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts cleanup
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts cleanup 48

Attach to Session

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts attach <id>

Prints the command to attach to a session interactively.

Example:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts attach pi-task-python-20250107-123456
# Output: tmux -S /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock attach -t pi-task-python-20250107-123456

Sync Sessions

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts sync

Synchronizes session status with tmux actual state.

Session Persistence

Session information is stored in ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/pi-tmux-sessions.json. This allows:

• Cross-session recovery
• State tracking across Agent restarts
• Automatic cleanup of stale sessions

Storage Format:

{
  "sessions": {
    "pi-task-compile-20250107-123456": {
      "id": "pi-task-compile-20250107-123456",
      "name": "compile",
      "category": "task",
      "socket": "/tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock",
      "target": "pi-task-compile-20250107-123456:0.0",
      "command": "make clean && make all",
      "status": "running",
      "createdAt": "2025-01-07T12:34:56Z",
      "lastActivityAt": "2025-01-07T12:35:00Z"
    }
  },
  "lastSync": "2025-01-07T12:35:00Z"
}

Use Cases

Sub-task Execution

Execute temporary tasks that require monitoring:

# Start compilation
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create compile "make all" task

# Wait for completion (in script)
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture pi-task-compile-20250107-123456 | grep "Build successful"

# Get result
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture pi-task-compile-20250107-123456

# Cleanup
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts kill pi-task-compile-20250107-123456

Long-running Tasks

Run tasks in the background and check progress later:

# Start training
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create training "python train.py --epochs 100" task

# Check progress later
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts list
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts capture pi-task-training-20250107-123456

Service Management

Start development servers or services:

# Start dev server
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create dev-server "npm run dev" service

# Monitor logs
tmux -S /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock attach -t pi-service-dev-server-20250107-123456

# Stop when done
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts kill pi-service-dev-server-20250107-123456

Interactive Tools

Use interactive tools like Python REPL, gdb, or databases:

# Python REPL (always use PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1)
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts create python "PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 python3 -q" task

# Send commands
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts send pi-task-python-20250107-123456 "print('Hello')"
bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts send pi-task-python-20250107-123456 "2 + 2"

Status Detection

Sessions have three possible states:

• running: Process is active with recent output
• idle: Process exists but no recent output
• exited: Process has terminated

Status is automatically synced with tmux actual state.

Automatic Cleanup

By default, sessions inactive for more than 24 hours are automatically cleaned up. You can:

• Trigger manual cleanup:

  bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts cleanup [hours]
  

• Disable auto-cleanup in code:

  const tmux = new TmuxManager({ autoCleanup: false });
  

Helper Scripts

wait-for-text.sh

Polls a pane for a regex pattern with timeout.

./scripts/wait-for-text.sh -t session:0.0 -p 'pattern' [-F] [-T 20] [-i 0.5] [-l 2000]

• -t/--target: Pane target (required)
• -p/--pattern: Regex to match (required); add -F for fixed string
• -T: Timeout in seconds (default: 15)
• -i: Poll interval in seconds (default: 0.5)
• -l: History lines to search (default: 1000)

find-sessions.sh

Lists tmux sessions with metadata.

./scripts/find-sessions.sh -S "$SOCKET"
./scripts/find-sessions.sh --all  # Scan all sockets

Examples

See the examples/ directory for complete examples:

• python-repl.ts: Interactive Python REPL
• long-task.ts: Long-running task with progress
• start-service.ts: Service management

TypeScript API

You can also use the TypeScript API directly:

import { TmuxManager } from "~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts";

const tmux = new TmuxManager();

// Create session
const session = await tmux.createSession('compile', 'make all', 'task');

// Wait for output
const success = await tmux.waitForText(session.target, 'Build successful', { timeout: 60 });

// Capture output
const output = await tmux.capturePane(session.target, 200);

// Cleanup
await tmux.killSession(session.id);

Monitoring Sessions

After creating a session, ALWAYS tell the user how to monitor it:

To monitor this session yourself:
  tmux -S /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock attach -t pi-task-compile-20250107-123456

Or to capture the output once:
  tmux -S /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock capture-pane -p -J -t pi-task-compile-20250107-123456:0.0 -S -200

This must be printed immediately after session creation and at the end of the tool loop.

Security Considerations

• Uses private socket path to avoid conflicts
• Sends keys in literal mode (-l) to prevent shell injection
• Checks tmux actual state before cleanup
• Requires explicit confirmation for destructive operations

Troubleshooting

Session not found

Run sync to update session state:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts sync

Cannot attach to session

Ensure tmux is installed and the socket path is correct:

tmux -S /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/pi.sock attach -t <session-id>

Sessions not cleaning up

Manually trigger cleanup:

bun ~/.pi/agent/skills/tmux/lib.ts cleanup

Permission denied on socket

Check socket directory permissions:

ls -la /tmp/pi-tmux-sockets/

Requirements

• tmux (Linux/macOS)
• Bun runtime
• Bash (for helper scripts)