tmux

name	tmux
description	Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and capturing pane output.
always	false
metadata	{"clawlite":{"emoji":"🧵","requires":{"bins":["tmux"]},"os":["linux","darwin"]}}
command	tmux

tmux

Use tmux only when an interactive TTY is required. Prefer exec background mode for non-interactive long jobs.

Socket convention

SOCKET_DIR="${CLAWLITE_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR:-${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/clawlite-tmux-sockets}"
mkdir -p "$SOCKET_DIR"
SOCKET="$SOCKET_DIR/clawlite.sock"
SESSION=clawlite-shell

tmux -S "$SOCKET" new -d -s "$SESSION" -n shell
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t "$SESSION":0.0 -- 'PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 python3 -q' Enter
tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t "$SESSION":0.0 -S -200

Keep one socket per workflow or agent. That makes discovery, retries, and cleanup deterministic.

Finding sessions

Inspect one socket directly:

bash clawlite/skills/tmux/scripts/find-sessions.sh -S "$SOCKET"

Scan every socket under CLAWLITE_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR:

bash clawlite/skills/tmux/scripts/find-sessions.sh --all

The output is always socket:session, one row per line.

Watching output

Wait for a prompt or completion marker:

bash clawlite/skills/tmux/scripts/wait-for-text.sh -S "$SOCKET" -t "$SESSION":0.0 -p '\$' -T 5

Use fixed-string mode when the marker should not be treated as regex:

bash clawlite/skills/tmux/scripts/wait-for-text.sh -S "$SOCKET" -t "$SESSION":0.0 -F 'BUILD SUCCESS' -T 30 -i 1 -l 400

Orchestrating Coding Agents

Create a dedicated socket and session per agent:

SOCKET="$SOCKET_DIR/agent-1.sock"
SESSION=agent-1

tmux -S "$SOCKET" new -d -s "$SESSION" -n shell
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t "$SESSION":0.0 -l -- "pytest -q"
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t "$SESSION":0.0 Enter
bash clawlite/skills/tmux/scripts/wait-for-text.sh -S "$SOCKET" -t "$SESSION":0.0 -p 'passed|failed' -T 120 -l 500

Prefer send-keys -l for literal commands, then send Enter separately. Capture pane history before reusing or tearing down a session.

Cleanup complete

Stop a single session:

tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t "$SESSION"

Stop the whole socket server when nothing else should remain:

tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-server

Remove stale socket files only after tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-sessions or has-session confirms that no server is alive on that socket.