fut

name	fut
description	Control Fut, a project-oriented terminal multiplexer. Use when the user explicitly mentions Fut or asks to inspect or manage Fut resources, create background terminals, send or collect terminal I/O, or coordinate reported coding-agent activity.

Fut

Use Fut's noun-first CLI to inspect and control sessions, workspaces, tabs, panes, terminals, and integrated coding agents without changing visual focus.

Discover the installed CLI

Treat the installed binary as authoritative. Inspect the relevant command before using it:

fut --help
fut pane --help
fut pane split --help
fut terminal --help
fut agent --help
fut agent prompt --help
fut agent skill

Do not run bare fut for discovery; it opens the current directory and attaches interactively. Do not assume commands from tmux, Herdr, or another Fut release exist.

Resolve explicit targets

Processes inside Fut inherit a complete resource chain:

printf '%s\n' \
  "$FUT_SESSION_ID" \
  "$FUT_WORKSPACE_ID" \
  "$FUT_TAB_ID" \
  "$FUT_PANE_ID" \
  "$FUT_TERMINAL_ID"
fut --json context

context treats FUT_TERMINAL_ID as the stable identity and resolves its current live ancestry from the daemon. Ancestor variables describe the spawn location and may be stale after a pane move. Treat missing_context, invalid_context, stale_context, and closing_context as typed failures; do not fill gaps from another client's focus.

Look up any known resource UUID explicitly, including from outside Fut:

fut --json get "$resource_id"
fut --json list
fut --json agent list

If a client reports that its protocol does not match the running daemon, do not give up on read-only inspection. Find the daemon process which owns FUT_SOCKET, resolve that process's executable, and use that exact binary with --socket "$FUT_SOCKET" for get, list, agent get, agent read, and terminal read. On macOS, lsof -p DAEMON_PID shows the executable as its txt entry. Never use this fallback for mutations or lifecycle reports; restart Fut so the normal fut on PATH matches the daemon first.

Read IDs from JSON responses. Creation commands put the new resource IDs under .result.selected; agent commands use .result.agent or .result.agents. Pass those IDs explicitly to every later command. Check the exit status, parse successful JSON from stdout, and parse a structured JSON error from stderr on failure.

For direct human use inside Fut, layout commands may omit the applicable current ID (tab new, tab rename NAME, pane split right, pane close, and similar forms). Automation should retain returned explicit IDs whenever it owns a particular resource; omitted-ID mutations are guarded against ancestry changes by the daemon.

Create a background terminal

Split beside an existing pane to stay in the same tab. Omit --cwd to inherit the anchor pane's current directory. The command creates the pane in the background and never selects it in a client:

fut --json pane split "$FUT_PANE_ID" right -- codex
fut --json pane split "$FUT_PANE_ID" down --cwd /path/to/project -- zsh

Record .result.selected.pane_id and .result.selected.terminal_id immediately. Use pane new when a tab ID, rather than an anchor pane, is the intended scope:

fut --json pane new "$FUT_TAB_ID" --cwd "$PWD" -- codex

Arguments after -- are a child argument vector. Wait for a launched agent's integration report before expecting it in agent list; inspect its explicit terminal ID with agent get.

Control an ordinary terminal

Submit one literal shell command plus Enter atomically:

fut --json terminal run "$terminal_id" 'mise run test'

Use lower-level input only when atomic command submission is not appropriate:

fut --json terminal send-text "$terminal_id" 'draft text'
fut --json terminal send-keys "$terminal_id" ctrl+c

send-text does not press Enter. send-keys accepts named keys, characters, and chords exposed by installed help.

Collect bounded output without attaching:

fut --json terminal read "$terminal_id"
fut --json terminal read "$terminal_id" --source recent-unwrapped --lines 200
fut --json terminal wait-output "$terminal_id" --literal 'READY' --timeout 30s
fut --json terminal wait-output "$terminal_id" --regex 'done [0-9]+' --timeout 2m

Prefer one daemon-side wait-output deadline to polling. Treat output_timeout, terminal_exited, invalid regexes, and output limits as typed outcomes.

Retire a disposable workspace

After an external tool has permanently removed the current workspace's backing directory, request asynchronous retirement instead of leaving the terminal in a deleted working directory:

fut --json workspace retire
fut --json workspace retire "$workspace_id"

Retirement is acknowledged before Fut terminates the workspace's terminals. The inferred form validates the caller's live terminal context. Use ordinary workspace close when the caller must wait for confirmed process termination; use retirement when the caller is itself inside the target being closed.

Coordinate an integrated agent

An integrated agent is a terminal that has reported semantic lifecycle state. Discover and inspect it without focus changes:

fut --json agent list
fut --json agent get "$terminal_id"
fut --json agent read "$terminal_id" --source recent-unwrapped --lines 200

Submit a prompt atomically. Add --wait and --timeout when the result is needed:

fut --json agent prompt "$terminal_id" 'Review the failing test.'
fut --json agent prompt "$terminal_id" 'Review it, fix it, and report tests.' --wait --timeout 2m
fut --json agent prompt "$terminal_id" --stdin < detailed-prompt.md

Prefer --stdin for multiline or generated prompts so their contents never need to be interpolated into a shell argument.

prompt --wait is the fresh-prompt barrier: it requires a new working report after submission before accepting a later completed, blocked, or idle state. Inspect .result.activity.state; blocked is a successful structured outcome, so surface its output or blocker instead of treating exit status zero as completion or blindly retrying.

Wait for work already in progress separately:

fut --json agent wait "$terminal_id" --timeout 2m

Standalone agent wait may return an already settled state immediately. It does not establish a fresh prompt barrier. Treat not_an_agent, agent_busy, agent_timeout, agent_events_lagged, and terminal_exited as typed failures.

Report lifecycle from an integration

Only an integration for the process in that terminal should report lifecycle:

fut --json agent report idle --terminal-id "$FUT_TERMINAL_ID" --source codex
fut --json agent report working --terminal-id "$FUT_TERMINAL_ID" --source codex --agent-session-id "$agent_session_id" --turn-id "$turn_id"
fut --json agent report blocked --terminal-id "$FUT_TERMINAL_ID" --source codex --agent-session-id "$agent_session_id" --turn-id "$turn_id"
fut --json agent report completed --terminal-id "$FUT_TERMINAL_ID" --source codex --agent-session-id "$agent_session_id" --turn-id "$turn_id"

Inside Fut, --terminal-id may be omitted because FUT_TERMINAL_ID is used. Do not manufacture reports on behalf of another agent or infer semantic state from its screen.

Handle alternate-screen programs

Recent history is unavailable while a full-screen program uses the alternate screen. Fall back to its visible viewport:

fut --json agent read "$terminal_id" --source visible
fut --json terminal read "$terminal_id" --source visible

Prefer agent read for integrated agents because it includes lifecycle and availability. Use raw terminal read, send-text, and send-keys for an unintegrated interactive program. Never screen-scrape a completion state when lifecycle reports are available.

Clean up only owned resources

Keep the pane and terminal IDs returned by creation. Collect final output and state before closing the pane:

fut --json agent get "$created_terminal_id"
fut --json agent read "$created_terminal_id" --source recent-unwrapped --lines 200
fut --json pane close "$created_pane_id"

If the process is not an integrated agent, use terminal read before closing. Close only resources created for the current task unless the user explicitly requests broader cleanup. Never select, attach to, or visually focus a resource merely to inspect, control, wait for, or close it.