| name | drop-user-in-file |
| description | Hand the keyboard to the user so they can edit a file themselves mid-session, in a real nvim popup, then read back what they changed. Use when the user says things like "drop me into <file>", "let me hand-edit X", "open X in nvim for me", "I'll edit this part myself", "pause so I can tweak it", or otherwise wants to make manual edits rather than have you make them. Requires tmux + nvim. |
drop-user-in-file
Float an interactive nvim session in a tmux display-popup at PATH:LINE,
block until the user :qs, then print the before/after unified diff. Use it
whenever the user wants to make an edit by hand instead of dictating it to you —
prose they'd rather write themselves, a fiddly value, a judgement call about
wording, etc.
How to run
Invoke the bundled script via Bash with a long timeout (it blocks for the
whole edit session — the user may take minutes):
~/.claude/skills/drop-user-in-file/drop-user-in-file PATH [LINE]
PATH — file to open (relative paths resolve against the current working
directory; the file is created if it doesn't exist yet).LINE — optional line number to open at (default 1).- Set the Bash tool
timeout to something generous, e.g. 600000 (10 min),
so the call doesn't time out while the user is typing.
After it returns, read the printed unified diff to see exactly what they
changed, and continue from there. Do not re-open the file to "verify" — the diff
is the source of truth.
What it does / how it works
- Runs from Claude's TTY-less Bash subshell, but
tmux display-popup talks to
the tmux server, which paints the popup onto the user's attached client.
display-popup -E blocks the invoking shell until nvim exits, so the tool
call naturally waits for the edit to finish.
- Window-gated: if this Claude's tmux window isn't the one the user is
currently viewing, the popup does not ambush whatever they're looking at.
Instead the window is renamed
✎ EDIT WAITING — … and the popup only appears
once they switch back to it. (No desktop notification, by design.)
- The popup is top-anchored and leaves ~20 rows at the bottom uncovered so the
user can still read your latest message while editing.
- On return it diffs a pre-edit backup against the saved file and prints the
full unified diff (never truncated). It reports
no changes if they :q
without saving, and notes if the file still doesn't exist afterwards.
Requirements & failure modes
- Must be inside tmux — exits with an error if
$TMUX is unset (Claude's
Bash subshell has no TTY of its own; tmux is what renders nvim on screen).
- nvim must be on PATH — exits with an error otherwise.
If either is missing, tell the user the requirement rather than retrying.
