tmux

name

tmux

description

Run commands in tmux whenever they run long or need eyes on them — anything expected to take more than ~30–60s (training runs, ML experiments, builds, servers), anything worth observing mid-run (progress logs, monitoring output), and anything interactive (sudo prompts, REPLs, wizards), locally or on a remote host. Always reach for this instead of a fire-and-forget Bash call in those cases — the human can attach and step in at any time.

tmux

A command runs in tmux — never as a blocking one-shot Bash call — when any of these hold: it runs longer than ~30–60s, its live output is worth watching (training progress, monitoring), or it's interactive (sudo prompts, REPLs, wizards). The session survives independently, scrollback is readable by agent and human alike, and either can step in mid-run. Quick one-shot commands — ssh host cat file, a fast build — stay plain Bash: the criteria decide, not the transport.

Sessions

• tms claude — create or attach the default shared session.
• Check before sending: the shared session may be busy with another agent's process. tmux list-panes -t claude -F '#{pane_current_command}' — anything but a shell name means occupied. Then create your own session named for the activity (tmux new-session -d -s <activity>, e.g. train-resnet) and tell the user its name.
• Send a command: tmux send-keys -t <session> -l 'command' then tmux send-keys -t <session> Enter
• Read output: tmux capture-pane -p -J -t <session> -S -50 (-J joins wrapped lines)

Remote (SSH)

Always quote the full tmux command so spaces survive the remote shell:

ssh host "tmux send-keys -t claude -l 'command'"
ssh host "tmux send-keys -t claude Enter"
ssh host "tmux capture-pane -p -J -t claude -S -50"

Interactive prompts

Poll for the prompt before sending input — don't race it. Use bin/tmux-wait-for-text where available, or loop on capture-pane until the expected text (sudo prompt, confirmation, wizard question) appears, then send.

Human access

The user can always attach directly: tmux attach -t claude locally, or ssh host -t "tmux attach -t claude" remotely — mention the session name when you start something they might want to watch.