tmux-dev

name	tmux-dev
description	This skill should be used when the user asks to "send keys to a tmux pane", "capture a tmux pane", "find my pane id", "address a tmux pane", "configure tmux options", "write a tmux format string", "create a tmux plugin", "add a tmux hook", "test my tmux plugin", "bind a tmux mouse click", or "create a tmux session programmatically". Covers tmux as an automation surface — pane/window/session unique IDs (`%N`/`@N`/`$N`), send-keys/capture-pane/pipe-pane, options and format strings, TPM plugins, hooks, and plugin testing patterns. Do NOT use for tmux display issues (TERM, colors-inside-tmux, Unicode) — use terminal-emulation. Do NOT use for sesh session orchestration — use environment-composition.
metadata	{"version":"1.0.0"}

tmux-dev

Overview

tmux is a multiplexer that runs on top of the terminal substrate (see terminal-emulation for $TERM, ANSI, Unicode concerns). This skill covers tmux as an automation and structural surface: how to address its entities uniquely, how to move data between panes, how its options and format strings work, and how its plugin/hook system extends behavior.

The skill answers questions like "what's my current pane ID and how do I send a command to a specific pane regardless of where it lives now?" and "why isn't my tmux plugin reacting to an option change?"

When to Use This Skill

• Need to find, label, or address a pane/window/session uniquely
• Need to send keystrokes or commands to another pane (send-keys)
• Need to capture or pipe output from a pane (capture-pane, pipe-pane)
• Configuring tmux options (server / session / window / pane scopes)
• Writing format strings (#{...}, #{?cond,a,b}, #{@user_var})
• Writing or debugging a tmux plugin (TPM, hooks, option-watching)
• Testing tmux plugin behavior (verifying dynamic updates, not configuring)
• Programmatically creating sessions, windows, or panes
• Mouse bindings, status-bar click ranges
• tmux session persistence, naming conventions, sesh integration at the tmux level

Stack Boundary

This skill is the multiplexer layer. It assumes the substrate works.

Belongs HERE (tmux-dev)	Belongs in terminal-emulation
Pane/window/session IDs (%N, @N, $N)	$TERM value, terminfo entry for tmux
send-keys, capture-pane, pipe-pane	Colors broken inside tmux pane
Options, format strings, hooks, TPM plugins	Box drawing renders as letters
tmux new-session, choose-tree, find-window	UTF-8 / locale issues inside tmux
Mouse status-bar bindings	Font glyph coverage

When in doubt, the test is: Does the issue change if I restart tmux but keep the same terminal emulator? If yes → tmux-dev. If no → terminal-emulation.

Core Capabilities

1. Unique Addressing — $N / @N / %N

tmux assigns a permanent unique ID to every session, window, and pane at creation. These IDs survive renames, moves between windows/sessions, and split-window/break-pane operations. They are stable until tmux kill-server.

Entity	ID format	Example	Listed by
Session	$N	$0	tmux list-sessions -F '#{session_id} #{session_name}'
Window	@N	@5	tmux list-windows -a -F '#{window_id} #{window_name}'
Pane	%N	%12	tmux list-panes -a -F '#{pane_id} #{pane_current_command}'

Any tmux command that takes -t target accepts these IDs:

tmux send-keys -t %12 'git status' Enter   # send to pane %12 wherever it is
tmux select-window -t @5                   # jump to window @5
tmux switch-client -t \$1                  # switch to session $1

Detailed reference: references/tmux_addressing.md (targeting recipes, persistence rules, listing across the server, finding "the pane I just split off").

2. Send / Receive Between Panes

Three primitives for moving data through tmux:

# Send keystrokes (literal text + key names)
tmux send-keys -t %12 'make build' Enter

# Capture current visible content of a pane (or full scrollback with -p -S -)
tmux capture-pane -t %12 -p

# Stream pane output to a file/command continuously
tmux pipe-pane -o -t %12 'cat >> /tmp/pane-%12.log'

# One-shot status message in a target pane
tmux display-message -t %12 'build done'

# Block until a named event fires (signal coordination)
tmux wait-for build-finished &
# ... build script calls: tmux wait-for -S build-finished

Use send-keys for input (driving a REPL, running commands). Use capture-pane for one-shot reads. Use pipe-pane for continuous output capture (logging, agent observation). Use wait-for for synchronization between panes/scripts.

3. Find / Label / Select

tmux choose-tree -Z                  # interactive session+window+pane picker (full-screen)
tmux find-window 'pattern'           # jump to first window whose name/title matches
tmux display-panes                   # overlay numeric labels on every pane; press number to select
tmux rename-window -t %12 'logs'     # name the window holding pane %12
tmux rename-session -t \$1 'work'    # rename session $1

display-panes is the fastest "show me what's where" view. choose-tree -Z is the navigator. find-window is search.

4. Options & Format Strings

Four option scopes — server (-s), session (-g default), window (-w), pane (-p) — with a precedence chain. User variables use the @ prefix.

tmux set-option -gp @theme 'dark'                        # session-default user var
tmux show-options -gv @theme                             # → dark
tmux display-message -p '#{?#{==:#{@theme},dark},🌑,☀️}'  # conditional format

See references/tmux_options_and_formats.md for scopes, precedence, conditional/math format syntax, common variables, and debugging unevaluated #{} tokens.

5. Plugins & Hooks

TPM plugins live in ~/.config/tmux/plugins/. Hooks fire on tmux events; plugins use them to react to state:

tmux set-hook -g after-new-window 'run-shell "$HOME/.config/tmux/scripts/on-new-window.sh"'

See references/tmux_plugins.md for TPM layout, hook event taxonomy, option-watching patterns (format re-evaluation, refresh-client triggers), and the testing protocol below.

6. Testing: Verify vs Configure vs Debug

The most common tmux plugin failure mode (from #41) is misidentifying the task type. Pick one before acting:

• Verify — behavior should already work; trigger it and observe (do NOT edit config)
• Configure — set up new behavior; edit, source-file, then verify
• Debug — behavior is broken; hypothesis-driven cycle (state expected, run one action, compare)

Full task-type table and the hypothesis-driven debug template are in references/tmux_plugins.md.

Diagnostic Process

1. Identify the entity layer — is this about a pane, window, session, or the server?
2. Get the unique ID — tmux display-message -p '#{pane_id} #{window_id} #{session_id}' from the relevant pane
3. List the landscape — tmux list-panes -a -F '#{pane_id} #{window_id} #{session_id} #{pane_current_command}'
4. For options/formats — tmux show-options -A (all scopes), tmux display-message -p '#{var}' to evaluate a single variable
5. For plugin debugging — check hook firing with set-hook -g <event> 'display-message "fired: <event>"' temporarily

Common Use Cases

"Send git status to pane %3"

tmux send-keys -t %3 'git status' Enter

"Capture the last 50 lines from another pane"

tmux capture-pane -t %12 -p -S -50

"Find which pane is running my dev server"

tmux list-panes -a -F '#{pane_id} #{pane_current_command} #{pane_title}' | rg 'node|npm|bun|cargo|rails'

"Open a session picker with sesh"

See references/tmux_session_management.md for the full sesh + fzf keybinding pattern (M-backtick), and the modes table (Ctrl-a all, Ctrl-t tmux, Ctrl-g configs, Ctrl-x zoxide, Ctrl-f find, Ctrl-d kill).

"Add a per-segment mouse click in the status bar"

See references/tmux_mouse_bindings.md for named status ranges (#[range=user|name]), the correct event (MouseDown1Status, NOT MouseDown1StatusRight), and the fallthrough required to keep window-clicking working.

"Test that my plugin reacts to a user-option change"

Use the hypothesis-driven template in §6. Verify, don't reconfigure.

Resources

references/

• tmux_addressing.md — unique-ID deep dive; targeting recipes; persistence semantics; listing the server
• tmux_options_and_formats.md — option scopes (server/session/window/pane); user vars (@); format string syntax; conditionals; common variables; debugging
• tmux_plugins.md — TPM layout; hook event taxonomy; option-watching recipe; testing template
• tmux_mouse_bindings.md — named status ranges, correct mouse events, diagnostic technique, live binding vs bootstrap
• tmux_session_management.md — sesh integration, naming conventions, direnv environment setup, pane logging, session persistence

Related Skills

• terminal-emulation — for tmux display issues (TERM, colors, Unicode inside tmux)
• environment-composition — for sesh session orchestration on top of tmux
• signals-monitoring — for signal handling inside scripts that tmux spawns (trap, SIGTERM cleanup)
• zsh-dev — for zsh functions that wrap tmux commands (e.g., tmux send-keys wrappers)