Terminal Tools Skill

Reference knowledge for tmux mastery and TUI tool control.

tmux Quick Reference

Session Management

tmux ls                              # List all sessions
tmux new -s NAME                     # Create named session
tmux attach -t NAME                  # Attach to session
tmux kill-session -t NAME            # Kill session
tmux has-session -t NAME 2>/dev/null # Check if exists (exit code)

Capture & Send (Critical)

# Capture pane content
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p              # Print to stdout
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p -S -50       # Include 50 lines scrollback
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p -S - -E -    # Entire scrollback

# Send keys
tmux send-keys -t SESSION "text"             # Send text (interpreted)
tmux send-keys -t SESSION -l "text"          # Send literal
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-c                # Ctrl+C
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Enter              # Enter key
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Escape             # Escape key

# Navigation keys
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Up/Down/Left/Right
tmux send-keys -t SESSION NPage              # Page Down
tmux send-keys -t SESSION PPage              # Page Up
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Tab/BTab           # Tab/Shift+Tab

Timing Pattern (Critical)

# Always delay between send-keys and capture/submit
tmux send-keys -t SESSION -l "prompt text"
sleep 0.3  # CRITICAL: prevents race conditions
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Enter

Sending Multi-line Content (Critical)

# WRONG: send-keys with multi-line content can corrupt terminal
tmux send-keys -t SESSION -l "$LONG_PROMPT"  # May trigger copy mode!

# RIGHT: use load-buffer + paste-buffer for multi-line content
printf '%s' "$LONG_PROMPT" | tmux load-buffer -
tmux paste-buffer -t "$SESSION"
sleep 0.3
tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION" C-m

# Alternative: use temp file for very long content
PROMPT_FILE=$(mktemp)
cat > "$PROMPT_FILE" << 'PROMPT_EOF'
Your multi-line prompt here...
Can include special chars, quotes, backticks safely.
PROMPT_EOF
tmux load-buffer "$PROMPT_FILE"
tmux paste-buffer -t "$SESSION"
tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION" C-m
rm "$PROMPT_FILE"

Why this matters: send-keys -l still processes content through the shell, and special characters (backticks, nested quotes, escape sequences) can trigger tmux copy mode or corrupt terminal state. load-buffer bypasses this entirely.

When to use which:

Window/Pane

tmux split-window -h                 # Split horizontal
tmux split-window -v                 # Split vertical
tmux split-window -h -l 30%          # Split with size
tmux select-pane -L/-R/-U/-D         # Navigate panes
tmux resize-pane -L/-R/-U/-D 10      # Resize pane

TUI Quick Reference

Full keybindings: references/tui-keybindings.md

Common Keys (Most TUIs)

Quit Any TUI

tmux send-keys -t SESSION q          # Most TUIs
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-c        # Force exit
tmux send-keys -t SESSION ":q" Enter # Vim-style

Refresh View

tmux send-keys -t SESSION r          # Many TUIs support 'r'
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-l        # Clear/refresh screen

TabzChrome Session Naming

Sessions spawned by TabzChrome:

ctt-{name-slug}-{uuid}

Examples:
ctt-claude-frontend-abc123
ctt-tui-btop-def456

Find sessions:

tmux ls | grep "^ctt-"         # All TabzChrome sessions
tmux ls | grep "^ctt-tui-"     # TUI tools
tmux ls | grep "^ctt-claude-"  # Claude workers

Common TUI Tools

CLI Tools (Non-Interactive)

# Process info
procs --tree              # Process tree
procs node                # Filter by name

# Disk usage
dust -d 2 /path           # Depth 2
dust -n 10 /path          # Top 10 items

# Code stats
tokei /path --compact     # Quick stats

# Benchmarking
hyperfine 'cmd1' 'cmd2'   # Compare commands

Navigation Pattern

# Scroll down, capture, check content
tmux send-keys -t SESSION NPage
sleep 0.2
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep "pattern"

Reference Files