Now liveThe Skillselion MCP - thousands of ranked skills, loaded into your agent mid-task. No install.Get it →
steipete avatar

Tmux

  • 5.8k installs
  • 385k repo stars
  • Updated August 3, 2026
  • steipete/clawdis

Programmatic control interface for tmux terminal sessions, enabling reading pane state and sending keystrokes to automate interactive CLI workflows.

About

tmux is a terminal multiplexer control skill for agents and scripts managing interactive CLI sessions. Developers use it to automate workflows that require real-time interaction with long-running processes, capturing pane output, sending keys/text, and monitoring prompts. Key workflows include listing sessions/windows/panes, capturing full scrollback history, sending literal text or special keys (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+D), and waiting for specific prompt patterns before responding. Critical for testing scenarios where agent tooling must interact with interactive CLIs that don't support non-interactive flags, and for monitoring multi-pane setups that persist across SSH disconnects. --- name: tmux description: "Control tmux sessions/panes for interactive CLIs: list, capture output, send keys, paste text, monitor prompts." metadata: { "openclaw": { "emoji": "🧵", "os": ["darwin", "linux"], "requires": { "bins": ["tmux"] }, "install": [ { "id": "brew", "kind": "brew", "formula": "tmux", "bins": ["tmux"], "label": "Install tmux (brew)", }, ], }, } --- # tmux Use for existing interactive tmux sessions.

  • List, capture, and interact with existing tmux sessions, windows, and panes via target format (session:window.pane)
  • Send literal text, special keys (C-c, C-d, Escape), and Enter separately to handle paste/newline edge cases
  • Capture full scrollback history with -S - flag and parse output with grep/regex to detect prompts before responding
  • Create, rename, and kill sessions for ephemeral interactive workflows; sessions persist across SSH disconnects
  • Helper scripts (find-sessions.sh, wait-for-text.sh) simplify session discovery and prompt detection patterns

Tmux by the numbers

  • 5,815 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +187 installs in the week ending Aug 2, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #34 of 550 CLI & Terminal skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Aug 3, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
At a glance

tmux capabilities & compatibility

Capabilities
list and enumerate tmux sessions, windows, panes · capture pane output (current or full scrollback) · send literal text with proper escaping · send special keys (ctrl+c, ctrl+d, escape, enter · create, rename, kill tmux sessions · parse output for prompt detection and conditiona
Use cases
testing · debugging · orchestration
Platforms
macOS · Linux
Runs
Runs locally
Pricing
Free
From the docs

What tmux says it does

Use for existing interactive tmux sessions. For one-shot commands, use normal shell.
skill:steipete/clawdis#tmux.md
tmux sessions persist across SSH disconnects.
skill:steipete/clawdis#tmux.md
npx skills add https://github.com/steipete/clawdis --skill tmux

Add your badge

Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.

Listed on Skillselion
Installs5.8k
repo stars385k
Security audit3 / 3 scanners passed
Last updatedAugust 3, 2026
Repositorysteipete/clawdis

What it does

Automate interactive CLI workflows by controlling tmux sessions, capturing output, and sending keystrokes programmatically.

Who is it for?

Testing interactive CLIs, automating approval workflows, monitoring multi-pane sessions, handling prompts in unattended environments.

Skip if: Simple one-shot commands (use shell directly), fire-and-forget background jobs (use background execution), non-tmux interactive processes.

When should I use this skill?

Agent must interact with existing tmux session, detect prompt state, send input, or capture output from running process.

What you get

Automate interactive CLI workflows reliably by detecting state changes (prompts, errors, completion) and sending appropriate responses via tmux.

  • tmux CLI commands for session/window/pane control
  • output capture with full scrollback
  • prompt detection patterns

By the numbers

  • Target format supports 3-level hierarchy: session:window.pane
  • Documented 6+ tmux command families: list, capture, send, session mgmt, prompt checks, helpers
  • Supports full scrollback capture with -S - flag for historical output inspection

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

tmux

Use for existing interactive tmux sessions. For one-shot commands, use normal shell. For new non-interactive background jobs, use background execution.

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 -

Target format: session:window.pane, e.g. shared:0.0.

Send input

Literal text, then Enter:

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. Split text and Enter to avoid paste/newline surprises.

Sessions

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

Prompt checks

tmux capture-pane -t worker-3 -p | tail -20
tmux capture-pane -t worker-3 -p | rg "proceed|permission|Yes|No|❯"

Approve/select only when the prompt is understood:

tmux send-keys -t worker-3 -l -- "y"
tmux send-keys -t worker-3 Enter

Helpers

  • scripts/find-sessions.sh: discover sessions.
  • scripts/wait-for-text.sh: wait until pane output contains text.

Notes

  • capture-pane -p prints to stdout for scripts.
  • -S - captures full scrollback.
  • tmux sessions persist across SSH disconnects.

Related skills

Forks & variants (1)

Tmux has 1 known copy in the catalog totaling 44 installs. They canonicalize to this original listing.

FAQ

When should I use tmux vs shell execution?

Use tmux for existing interactive sessions requiring real-time responses and state checking. Use shell for one-shot commands. Use background execution for fire-and-forget jobs.

How do I avoid paste/newline issues when sending text?

Send literal text with `-l --` flag, then send Enter as a separate command to split text and newline handling.

How do I detect a prompt before responding?

Capture pane output with `capture-pane -t session:window.pane -p`, pipe to grep/rg for keywords like 'proceed|Yes|No|❯', then send response.

Is Tmux safe to install?

skills.sh reports 3 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

CLI & Terminaldevopstesting

This week in AI coding

Five minutes, every Monday - the tools, releases and tactics for developers.

unsubscribe anytime.