tmux Skill (Clawdbot)

Use tmux only when you need an interactive TTY. Prefer bash background mode for long-running, non-interactive tasks.

Quickstart (isolated socket, bash tool)

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After starting a session, always print monitor commands:

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Socket convention

• - Use CLAWDBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR (default ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/clawdbot-tmux-sockets).
• Default socket path: "$CLAWDBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR/clawdbot.sock".

Targeting panes and naming

• - Target format: session:window.pane (defaults to :0.0).
• Keep names short; avoid spaces.
• Inspect: tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-sessions, tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-panes -a.

Finding sessions

• - List sessions on your socket: {baseDir}/scripts/find-sessions.sh -S "$SOCKET".
• Scan all sockets: {baseDir}/scripts/find-sessions.sh --all (uses CLAWDBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR).

Sending input safely

• - Prefer literal sends: tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target -l -- "$cmd".
• Control keys: tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target C-c.

Watching output

• - Capture recent history: tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t target -S -200.
• Wait for prompts: {baseDir}/scripts/wait-for-text.sh -t session:0.0 -p 'pattern'.
• Attaching is OK; detach with Ctrl+b d.

Spawning processes

• - For python REPLs, set PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 (non-basic REPL breaks send-keys flows).

Windows / WSL

• - tmux is supported on macOS/Linux. On Windows, use WSL and install tmux inside WSL.
• This skill is gated to darwin/linux and requires tmux on PATH.

Orchestrating Coding Agents (Codex, Claude Code)

tmux excels at running multiple coding agents in parallel:

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Tips:

• - Use separate git worktrees for parallel fixes (no branch conflicts)
• INLINECODE19 first before running codex in fresh clones
• Check for shell prompt (❯ or $) to detect completion
• Codex needs --yolo or --full-auto for non-interactive fixes

Cleanup

• - Kill a session: tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t "$SESSION".
• Kill all sessions on a socket: tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-sessions -F '#{session_name}' | xargs -r -n1 tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t.
• Remove everything on the private socket: tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-server.

Helper: wait-for-text.sh

INLINECODE27 polls a pane for a regex (or fixed string) with a timeout.

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• - -t/--target pane target (required)
• INLINECODE30/--pattern regex to match (required); add -F for fixed string
• INLINECODE33 timeout seconds (integer, default 15)
• INLINECODE34 poll interval seconds (default 0.5)
• INLINECODE35 history lines to search (integer, default 1000)