tmux

Use for interactive commands that are already running in tmux or need a persistent terminal. Use normal terminal execution for one-shot commands.

Prerequisite

command -v tmux

If the command is absent, tell the user that tmux must be installed; do not silently install it.

Basics

tmux ls
tmux list-windows -t shared
tmux list-panes -t shared:0
tmux capture-pane -t shared:0.0 -p
tmux capture-pane -t shared:0.0 -p -S -

Targets use session:window.pane, for example shared:0.0.

Send input

Send literal text and Enter separately:

tmux send-keys -t shared:0.0 -l -- "Please continue"
tmux send-keys -t shared:0.0 Enter

Special keys:

tmux send-keys -t shared:0.0 C-c
tmux send-keys -t shared:0.0 C-d
tmux send-keys -t shared:0.0 Escape

Use -l -- for arbitrary text. Never approve a confirmation prompt until its target and consequences are understood.

Sessions

tmux new-session -d -s worker
tmux rename-session -t old new
tmux kill-session -t worker

Killing a session is destructive. Do it only when the user requested that outcome or the session was created solely for the current task and is no longer needed.

Helpers

skill_view returns this Skill's baseDirectory. Use it to run:

• <baseDirectory>/scripts/find-sessions.sh to discover sessions, including custom socket paths.
• <baseDirectory>/scripts/wait-for-text.sh to wait until pane output contains a pattern.

capture-pane -p writes to stdout, -S - includes full scrollback, and tmux sessions persist across SSH disconnects.