terminal-monitor

name	terminal-monitor
description	Utility skill for opening a named terminal pane (tmux or iTerm2) to monitor a subagent or team member's output in real time. Supports both Agent tool (subagents) and TeamCreate tool (Claude teams). Call this skill before launching any Agent or team member, passing mode, label, pane-name, and the relevant output target as context. Detects terminal type once per session and reuses it across calls.
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"Wesley Egberto","version":"1.0.0","domain":"developer-experience","scope":"utility","role":"helper","triggers":"open pane, monitor agent, terminal pane, tmux pane, iterm pane, monitor team, team pane, subagent pane","related-skills":"java-feature-development, react-feature-development, node-feature-development"}

Terminal Monitor — Utility Skill

Opens a dedicated terminal pane (tmux or iTerm2) to let the user follow a subagent's or team member's output in real time.

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Parameters (passed by the calling skill via context)

Parameter	Required	Description
mode	yes	subagent or team
label	yes	Header text displayed in the pane
pane-name	yes	Short name for the tab/window
output-file	if mode: subagent	File to tail (written by the agent)
team-name	if mode: team	Team name (used to locate .team/<team-name>/)
team-member	optional	Specific team member to monitor; omit to show full team activity

---

Protocol

Execute the steps below every time this skill is called.

Step 1 — Detect terminal type (once per session)

If the terminal type has NOT been detected yet in this session, run:

if [ -n "$TMUX" ]; then
  echo "tmux"
elif [ -n "$ITERM_SESSION_ID" ] || [ "$TERM_PROGRAM" = "iTerm.app" ]; then
  echo "iterm2"
else
  echo "none"
fi

Store the result as TERMINAL_TYPE. On subsequent calls reuse the stored value — do NOT re-detect.

If TERMINAL_TYPE is none, print once (not on every call):

Terminal multiplexer not detected (no tmux session, ITERM_SESSION_ID not set).
Agents will run without dedicated panes.
To enable live monitoring: run Claude inside a tmux session or use iTerm2.

Then return immediately — skip Steps 2 and 3.

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Step 2 — Build the monitoring command

mode: subagent — tail the output file as soon as it appears:

echo '=== <label> ==='; \
until [ -f <output-file> ]; do sleep 1; done; \
tail -f <output-file>

mode: team, with team-member — tail that member's output file:

echo '=== <label> ==='; \
until [ -f .team/<team-name>/<team-member>.md ]; do sleep 1; done; \
tail -f .team/<team-name>/<team-member>.md

mode: team, without team-member — watch the team directory for activity:

echo '=== <label> ==='; \
watch -n 2 "ls -lt .team/<team-name>/ 2>/dev/null | head -20"

---

Step 3 — Open the pane

tmux:

# Ensure the monitoring session exists (only first call creates it)
tmux has-session -t agent-monitor 2>/dev/null || \
  tmux new-session -d -s agent-monitor -n "orchestrator"

# Open a named window running the monitoring command
tmux new-window -t agent-monitor -n "<pane-name>" \
  "MONITORING_CMD; exec bash"

Replace MONITORING_CMD with the command built in Step 2.

iTerm2 (via AppleScript):

tell application "iTerm2"
  tell current window
    create tab with default profile
    tell current session
      set name to "<pane-name>"
      write text "MONITORING_CMD"
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

Replace MONITORING_CMD with the command built in Step 2.

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Step 4 — Return to caller

After opening the pane, return control to the calling skill immediately. The pane runs independently; the calling skill proceeds to launch the agent or team member without waiting.