zmx

name	zmx
description	Use when starting dev servers, watchers, tilt, or any process expected to outlive the conversation. Provides zmx session management patterns for long-lived processes.

zmx Process Management

Session Rules

• Check zmx list --short before creating sessions — duplicates cause port conflicts and confusing output
• Derive session name from git rev-parse --show-toplevel — hardcoded names collide when multiple agent instances run concurrently
• Use zmx run to send commands without attaching — zmx attach blocks the agent's shell and makes it unresponsive
• Use separate sessions with a common project prefix for multiple processes

One project = one session prefix. Multiple processes = multiple sessions sharing the prefix.

Session Naming

PROJECT=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" || basename "$PWD")

All subsequent examples assume PROJECT is set. Session names follow ${PROJECT}-<role>:

• myapp-server, myapp-tests, myapp-tilt

Starting Processes

SESSION="${PROJECT}-server"

# Idempotent: skip if already running
if ! zmx list --short 2>/dev/null | grep -q "^${SESSION}$"; then
  zmx run "$SESSION" 'npm run dev'
fi

For multiple processes, loop over name:command pairs:

for name_cmd in "server:npm run dev" "tests:npm run test:watch"; do
  name="${name_cmd%%:*}"
  cmd="${name_cmd#*:}"
  SESSION="${PROJECT}-${name}"
  if ! zmx list --short 2>/dev/null | grep -q "^${SESSION}$"; then
    zmx run "$SESSION" "$cmd"
  fi
done

Sending Commands

# Run a command in a session (creates session if needed)
zmx run "${PROJECT}-main" 'cat README.md'

# Pipe via stdin
echo "ls -lah" | zmx r "${PROJECT}-main"

Monitoring Output

zmx history "${PROJECT}-server"                              # full scrollback
zmx history "${PROJECT}-server" | tail -50                   # last 50 lines
zmx history "${PROJECT}-server" | rg -i "error|fail"         # check for errors
zmx history "${PROJECT}-server" | rg -i "listening|ready"    # check for ready

Waiting for Completion

zmx wait "${PROJECT}-tests"                                  # block until done
zmx wait "${PROJECT}-build" "${PROJECT}-lint"                 # wait for multiple

Lifecycle

zmx list                                                     # all sessions
zmx list --short                                             # names only
zmx kill "${PROJECT}-server"                                 # kill one session

# Kill all project sessions
zmx list --short 2>/dev/null | grep "^${PROJECT}-" | while read -r s; do
  zmx kill "$s"
done

Isolation

• Only kill sessions matching the current project prefix — other agent instances may have their own sessions running
• Always verify the session name before kill operations

When to Use zmx

Scenario	Use zmx?
tilt up	Yes, always
Dev server (npm run dev, rails s)	Yes
File watcher (npm run watch)	Yes
Test watcher (npm run test:watch)	Yes
Database server	Yes
One-shot build (npm run build)	No
Quick command (<10s)	No
Need stdout directly in conversation	No

Waiting for Readiness (bounded, last resort)

zmx has no blocking readiness primitive — zmx wait blocks on completion, not on a "ready" line — so a single bounded loop with an explicit iteration cap stands in for the one blocking wait. This is not a license to poll: run it once per startup, and if a check returns nothing new twice, stop and reassess instead of burning the cap.

for i in {1..30}; do
  if zmx history "${PROJECT}-server" 2>/dev/null | tail -20 | rg -q "listening|ready"; then
    echo "Server ready"
    break
  fi
  sleep 1
done