Tmux

What it does

This skill enables an AI agent to manage and interact with Tmux, a terminal multiplexer. It allows the agent to create, list, attach to, and control multiple terminal sessions within a single window. The agent can execute commands in these sessions, capture their output, and even automate workflows like running development servers or tests in the background. This is particularly useful for remote work and managing long-running processes.

When to use it

• Running a development server while performing other tasks on your local machine.
• Executing automated tests and capturing their output for analysis.
• Managing multiple services (frontend, backend, database) within separate terminal windows.
• Keeping background processes running even when you disconnect from a remote server.
• Automating repetitive tasks that require interacting with the command line.

Key capabilities

• Creating new Tmux sessions with custom names and working directories.
• Listing existing Tmux sessions, including detailed information about their windows.
• Sending commands to specific sessions or windows within a session.
• Capturing output from terminal panes, including history.
• Killing individual sessions or the entire Tmux server.
• Attaching to existing sessions or creating new ones if they don't exist.
• Managing windows and panes within a session (creating, selecting, killing).

Example prompts

• "Create a new tmux session named 'devserver' in the /project directory running npm run dev."
• "List all active tmux sessions."
• "Capture the last 50 lines of output from the 'tests' tmux session and save them to test-output.txt."

Tips & gotchas

• Prerequisites: Tmux must be installed on the system where the agent is running (using brew install tmux or apt install tmux).
• The skill relies on precise command syntax; errors in commands can lead to unexpected behavior.
• Be mindful of session and window names, as they are used for targeting commands and capturing output.