tmux Skill

Use tmux only when you need an interactive TTY. Prefer bash background mode for long-running, non-interactive tasks.

Quickstart (isolated socket)

SOCKET_DIR="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/codebuddy-tmux-sockets"
mkdir -p "$SOCKET_DIR"
SOCKET="$SOCKET_DIR/codebuddy.sock"
SESSION=codebuddy-python

tmux -S "$SOCKET" new -d -s "$SESSION" -n shell
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t "$SESSION":0.0 -- 'PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 python3 -q' Enter
tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t "$SESSION":0.0 -S -200

Socket convention

• Default socket dir: ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/codebuddy-tmux-sockets
• Default socket path: "$SOCKET_DIR/codebuddy.sock"

Targeting panes

• Target format: session:window.pane (defaults to :0.0)
• Keep names short; avoid spaces.

Finding sessions

• List sessions: {baseDir}/scripts/find-sessions.sh -S "$SOCKET"
• Scan all sockets: {baseDir}/scripts/find-sessions.sh --all

Sending input safely

• Literal sends: tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target -l -- "$cmd"
• Control keys: tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target C-c

Watching output

• Capture recent: tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t target -S -200
• Wait for prompts: {baseDir}/scripts/wait-for-text.sh -t session:0.0 -p 'pattern'

Cleanup

• Kill session: tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t "$SESSION"
• Kill all: tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-server

Helper: wait-for-text.sh

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