Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

I gave up on it once I discovered https://zellij.dev/

Just even for how tab and panes are setup, and how it's good for scrolling and text selection with your mouse for copy pasting.

I left tmux for zellij after several unsuccessful attempts to get Shift+Enter working.

Was quite impressed initially and invested weeks in building new muscle memory, but somehow Zellij crashed with panic more than once, leaving all my processes orphaned. Decided to go back to tmux, and found a simple fix for my Shift+Enter issue.

In case anyone is looking for it, the fix is "bind-key -T root S-Enter send-keys C-j" borrowed from https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/6072.

Guys, did you know about tmux control mode? It tells the host terminal to treat tmux tabs as actual tabs in the terminal. That means that things like scrollback, tab navigation, copy paste, keyboard shortcuts, etc are all handled natively, and you can visually see all your tmux tabs! It doesn't have great support across all terminals, but it does work great in iTerm 2.

Try `tmux -CC` in iTerm.

For a tmux novice like me, this was a total game changer :)

For me, this is missing

    bind-key -n M-n new-window
    bind-key -n M-1 select-window -t :1
    bind-key -n M-2 select-window -t :2
    bind-key -n M-3 select-window -t :3
    bind-key -n M-4 select-window -t :4
    bind-key -n M-5 select-window -t :5
    bind-key -n M-6 select-window -t :6
    bind-key -n M-7 select-window -t :7
    bind-key -n M-8 select-window -t :8
    bind-key -n M-9 select-window -t :9

Also if you want a vi-like copy mode (where you can select and copy stuff) that opens using Alt-/:

    bind-key -n M-/ copy-mode
    set -g status-keys vi
    set-window-option -g mode-keys vi

    # v to trigger selection
    bind-key -T copy-mode-vi v send-keys -X begin-selection
    
    # wl-copy if you use wayland
    # mouse selection in copy mode to copy
    bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "wl-copy"
    # y to copy
    bind-key -T copy-mode-vi y send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "wl-copy"

You can also put the config into ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf

edit: And if you want a powerline-style design:

    set -g pane-border-style "fg=colour252"
    set -g pane-active-border-style "fg=colour25"
    set -g status-style "bg=default,fg=default"
    set -g status-left "#[fg=colour231,bg=colour25,bold] #S #[fg=colour25,bg=default,nobold]"
    set -g status-right "#[fg=colour67,bg=default]#[fg=colour231,bg=colour67] %Y-%m-%d  %H:%M #[fg=colour25,bg=colour67]#[fg=colour231,bg=colour25,bold] #h "
    setw -g window-status-format "#[fg=colour243,bg=default] #I  #W "
    setw -g window-status-current-format "#[fg=colour28,bg=default,reverse]#[fg=colour231,bg=colour28,bold,noreverse] #I  #W #[fg=colour28,bg=default,noreverse]"

For the "pretty" argument - sure, why not, but as to changing keybinds... Well, it's like this: ^a is for screen, ^b is for tmux. You can remap everything to your taste, but you're not going to build tmux muscle memory. You're going to remember your own, erm, thing. Why does this matter? For a localhost admin it doesn't, but if you work on many systems, often either fresh or not your own, you need to be agile and you're not going to have the time or opportunity to drop your own dotfiles, plus the systems will be locked down, offline or both, and so it pays off to learn the tool at its defaults. Why nicm went for %/" I will never understand, but he did, and that's that. After screen I had X and Xpra and and Terminator at hand for nearly two decades straight and couldn't be bothered moving to tmux, and when I did, I was considering remapping it to Terminator, but I resisted, and I don't regret it. My personal config has some colours, notably different background for the active pane, a UNIX timestamp clock and mouse on and some buffer and title tweaks, but no keybind changes. But to each their own.

I had my tmux customized to the point I forgot how to use it on a clean install which is a problem when I'm sshing into a server.

I wish it had better defaults but now I run it as is. After a while you get used to it. The only thing I always have to change is the mouse scroll and my brain cannot retain the exact command.

I've been thoroughly impressed with tmux control mode[0] in iTerm2. This lets you manage remote terminal windows with your local window management provider. It is currently in the process of being implemented in ghostty[1] as well, can't wait!

[0] https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/Control-Mode

[1] https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/issues/1935#issuecomm...

> Less awkward prefix keys

> Probably the most common change among tmux users is to change the prefix from the rather awkward C-b to something that’s a little more accessible.

I like the awkwardness of the default prefix key. I have almost never activated it by accident.

> Intuitive Split Commands

> Another thing I personally find quite difficult to remember is the pane splitting commands." to split vertically and % to split horizontally just doesn’t work for my brain.

This is super intuitive to me. two ' in parallel means splitting horizontally. two ° split by an almost horizontal line means splitting vertically.

> Easy Config Reloads

I reloaded config over a few hundreds of times in my first week learning tmux a decade ago. I only reloaded config once in the last 5 years if I recall correctly. It's not something you should memorize.

I love tmux! It's perfectly usable! You only need a 400-line custom-built configuration file[1]!

[1] https://doc.xn0.org/.tmux.conf

Disclaimer: I am being silly but serious. tmux is absolutely not user-friendly out of the box. It is, however, extremely nice after an absurd amount of tweaking, which is either an endorsement or a damning, depending on your perspective.

I read "tmux 2: mouse-free productivity" in a weekend years ago and it may be, pound-for-pound, one of the more impactful books on my productivity.

Seems like they are keeping up-to-date too: https://bookshop.org/p/books/tmux-3-productive-mouse-free-de...

I like having a red bar for tmux running as root and a blue one for running it as a normal user, e.g. for root:

    set -g status-style "bg=red"

    set -g status-justify absolute-centre
    set -g status-position top

I highly recommend just turning the mouse on, it's amazing for resizing panels and the rightclick menu is nice.

  set -g mouse on

  setw -g aggressive-resize on

If you're interested in an out of the box multiplexer. https://zellij.dev/ is great. I've been using it for about a year now and loving it.

One nice thing about tmux is it also supports include files in its config.

This lets you put your theme colors in a different file, such as `source-file "~/.config/tmux/theme.conf"` and then your theme switching external script or tool can symlink a specific theme's tmux file to that path.

That's what I do in my dotfiles:

    # Main tmux config
    https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/master/.config/tmux/tmux.conf

    # One of the theme files
    https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/master/themes/tokyonight-moon/tmux.conf

Why make C-a your prefix key? Just because it's the default in 'screen'? I use C-a a lot to go to BOL, just like C-e to go to EOL. I also use C-b a lot with C-f.

The obvious choice is C-z.

You rarely suspend processes and when you do, C-zC-z is pretty quick. For other combos, it pays to have control and z close to each other so that when your little finger and ring finger operate C-z then your other fingers can freely type whatever follows the prefix without having to unwind your fingers back from the keyboard first.

I have used tmux, tmuxup, fzf and direnv to automate my workflow. It's pointed to the work folder, contains a project picker, invokes shell with defaults (npm run dev, python manage.py runserver etc), and fires up cursor - saving a lot of keystrokes for project initialization.

I have written about the process here: https://kashifaziz.me/blog/tmux-dev-workflow/

My two favorite tmux QoL improvements are enabling seamless navigation between neovim and tmux (there are many plugins but i use this one https://github.com/aserowy/tmux.nvim) and extrakto which lets you fuzzy select anything in the tmux buffer and insert into the cursor or copy it to the clipboard. (https://github.com/laktak/extrakto)

I prefer to hide the status bar entirely, and use an fzf-powered named window switcher to navigate between windows.

https://github.com/cmpadden/dotfiles/blob/6e767691a6b1295260...

I use c-q for prefix key because it doesn’t conflict with common zsh and vim bindings.

Because the author suggested swapping caps lock and control key, I also recommend mapping escape key at the control key and change the behavior based on whether another key is pressed. For example, if you press control + a, it sends c-a, but if you only press control key and then release, it sends escape. It makes your vim life (and in general) a lot easier. You don’t have to compete the most variable real estate on the keyboard, right next to the A key.

For most bindings like moving, resizing, and splitting,I emulate vim bindings.

Also, -r flag for bind-key command is impotent, because it enables to repeat commands like changing the pane size or move focus. You don’t have to press prefix key each time.

If you want to get fancy look with minimal setting, use plugins like nord tmux theme.

One way to make tmux way more usable is to use tmux-fingers, which provides hint-based mouse-free copypaste capabilities

https://github.com/morantron/tmux-fingers

(disclaimer: I'm the developer of the plugin)

There’s many ways tmux could be used, but when it is part of IDE the most important usability tweaks that make tmux rock for me personally are:

— session configuration save/recall (with pane layout for each tab and directory for each pane[0]),

— nvim integration (for seamless split navigation and so that I can create or reattach to a tmux session in an nvim float, even though that nvim usually runs inside tmux),

— a bind to force-reload a pane if (when!) a command hangs.

For switching between tabs, I find that the ideal bind is simply Cmd + pane number. There’s never more than ten tabs that I’d often want to switch to within a single session. The highest number is probably four tabs. Each tab is typically assigned a high-level part of the project.

[0] I always forget what terminology a given multiplexer uses, so let’s just call them “panes” and “tabs”.

Could never get mouse copy to work well (using mac at moment). When I make text selection, selects yellow and upon release goes to terminal prompt. I had one config work at one point and it kept selecting from all panes, not just one the one I'm in. Any ideas?

Gave up on making it pretty... But my tip is to read the manual so you know what you put in your config instead of just copy paste.

I love tmux, does exactly what I need it to do and doesn't try too hard to make the terminal a place with unicorns and fancy GUI magic.

Ctrl-a interferes with readline shortcuts. I've been using Ctrl-<Space>: nothing, as far as I know, binds to that.

    unbind C-b
    set-option -g prefix C-Space
    bind-key C-Space send-prefix

I run tmux inside Termux on my phone to manage a couple of long-running Node projects. It's one of those setups that sounds cursed until you realize it just works. Session persistence is the killer feature when your terminal lives on a device that might close the app at any time.

Big fan of all of the items mentioned here. I love the "intuitive split commands" -- I'll add that.

For the vim/nvim fans out there, I try my best to add "vim-style" key bindings for navigating between panes, so that e.g. ctrl-h, ctrl-j, ctrl-k, and ctrl-l can be used to move around qukcly. My dotfiles are here:

https://github.com/jay-khatri/dotfiles/blob/main/.tmux.conf

I stopped using tmux when I started using kitty terminal with native split windows. I prefer the native window management of kitty, but I do miss the session saving of tmux (e.g. if I accidentally close a tab).

Hard agree on intuitive splits, I do this as well.

My hotkey is the backtick, `, rather than a chord.

The one thing I still struggle with - because it happens rarely - is easily copying the contents, full or partial, of a particular pane.

The tricky part for me is getting it to behave with other fancy TUI stuff. eg both tmux and neovim stuff want to use the bottom row in terminal and neither seem to have the intelligence built in to compensate

I don't get it. I don't want a 1970s teletype interface in 2026 just to have persistent command line sessions.

Where's the 2026 windowed version that feels exactly like a native terminal/iTerm/ghostty app but keeps sessions alive and lets me reconnect to them, no middle man with Ctrl keys for control.

I know this post will get a lot of hate responses. I don't care. Respond by fax

I prefer to use tmux non-interactively. For example, I use it for running daemons in the foreground, (textmode) screen scraping and scripting text-only browser

I do almost all interactive work while detached from tmux (personal preference)

I also rely on tmux buffers for a textmode "clipboard". I do not use x11

I've been using tmux since 2011 well before it became popular. I only use a fraction of its features

What I don't see discussed is why tmux (and screen) are still a thing, when we have windowed desktops for 40+ years now.

Disconnecting a session's lifetime from the connection's lifetime hardly need such lengthy tutorial.

And displaying and arranging multiple virtual terminals was supposed to be the job of the terminal emulator and the windowing system.

I like to have an IBM 3270 style status bar on the bottom.

    set-option -gq status-style "fg=brightblue,overline"

I love that most tmux features are programmatic and unix-oriented.

> # reload config file (change file location to your the tmux.conf you want to use) > bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Just seems fun.

That said, I still use zellij. I like the scroll info, the default bindings, and the fact it plays nicely with my setup of fish+alac. I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point, but this works for me.

One thing that often gets overlooked in the tmux vs. alternatives debate is that tmux's staying power is largely about ubiquity on remote servers. Zellij is great on your local machine where you control the environment, but if you're doing a lot of work via ssh on machines you don't own, tmux is almost certainly already installed. The muscle memory transfers too.

That said, I'd push back on the idea that the default tmux config is just "ugly". The real usability issue is that the keybindings are so divorced from how people intuitively think about splits and windows that even experienced users can't remember them. The visual defaults are just a symptom of the deeper problem that it was designed for someone who already had a mental model built around screen.

My main gripe with tmux is the nested use case (tmux session on my local machine, in which I ssh to another machine, only to tmux attach within the remote machine too). Is there a terminal multiplexer/session daemon that supports nested sessions out of the box with ease?

The only reason I don't use tmux is because of how annoying it is to look at scrollback. Am I using it wrong?

The scrolling behavior in tmux has always annoyed me. Every time I have to press a shortcut to enter copy/scroll mode, and then exit it again. At the same time, using Ctrl+A to select all is always cumbersome.

In modern TUI editors, scrolling and select-all don’t seem to be issues at all. I can use them almost unconsciously in a way similar to GUI applications—for example, Micro or TUIs from OpenCode. Does anyone know how to solve these problems?

At some point I switched to "oh my tmux" which seems to cover most of the customisations I needed https://github.com/gpakosz/.tmux

I gave up on Tmux due to issues w/reboot & session storage not working after.

I used the resurrect and continuum (one to save/restore, the other to save between sessions). Everytime I would reboot, the sessions no longer worked, and I'd have to delete the saved sessions.

Just trying to use Wezterms tabs panels like windows/panels. I don't do the SSH Session save/restore from remote so don't need that feature, and thus not too worried.

I appreciate that tmux has theoretical advantages over screen, but man does the implementation suck. On Mac it still seems like there's no way to copy text if you have mouse mode on (at least in code-server).

Though I also customize my tmux setup, the best way to use tmux is just to learn and remember the basics. Once you change the prefix bind or any other basic binds, you will have hard time on a new machine.

Btw, you can place tmux config at ~/.config/tmux/tmux.cong. No reason to clutter home dir.

Any guides for tmux configuration that works well with Emacs? The use of Ctrl and Meta for basic operations conflicts with a lot of Emacs commands.

I really really like tmux, probably i'll try Zellij at some point but its always my default on a new server to install tmux, copy oh my tmux and vimrc configs. then voila I have everything. I have to say I feel magical most of the time i'm using it

I would love to have a way to switch sessions easily, like with panes where I just click or have more shortcuts available

I'm constantly fighting with tmux copying. I want it to perform like native copying, but in mouse mode it seems to copy more characters than I want, copy newlines when I don't want them, and doesn't copy to clipboard in tmux-in-tmux situations.

I would also describe haventerminal.com as making tmux pretty and usable! but without any setup steps, first class support for agents, and management of multiple machines. Disclaimer: It's a macOS app we just launched and it ships its own open source session persistence.

I've always written my code in vim and preferred CLIs in general, but I really want a GUI for the terminal itself, including tmux. iTerm2 makes it nice for example, even if it's only to use the meta/super key instead of the heavily overloaded control.

I used tmux for quite some time, and just stopped using it one day. I realized that whatever tmux brings can be done better by a good terminal.

I also hated dealing with all the wrong colors, escape character support, missing chars and messed up terminal buffers

my favorite thing to do with tmux is using a sessionizer script[0] (credit for the idea/original implementation goes to ThePrimeagen). allows for fzf-ing my projects and creating a separate session for each one. especially handy for bouncing around when working on features/fixes that span multiple repos

for (neo)vim users, flattening vim splits and tmux panes into the same level for switching with ctrl+hjkl is handy too

[0](https://github.com/tolly-xyz/dotfiles/blob/main/.local%2Fbin...)