Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and scraping pane output.
Use tmux only when you need an interactive TTY. Prefer exec background mode for long-running, non-interactive tasks.
SOCKET_DIR="${NANOBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR:-${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/nanobot-tmux-sockets}"
mkdir -p "$SOCKET_DIR"
SOCKET="$SOCKET_DIR/nanobot.sock"
SESSION=nanobot-python
tmux -S "$SOCKET" new -d -s "$SESSION" -n shell
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t "$SESSION":0.0 -- 'PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 python3 -q' Enter
tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t "$SESSION":0.0 -S -200
After starting a session, always print monitor commands:
To monitor:
tmux -S "$SOCKET" attach -t "$SESSION"
tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t "$SESSION":0.0 -S -200
NANOBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR environment variable."$NANOBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR/nanobot.sock".session:window.pane (defaults to :0.0).tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-sessions, tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-panes -a.tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target -l -- "$cmd".tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t target C-c.tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -J -t target -S -200.Ctrl+b d.PYTHON_BASIC_REPL=1 (non-basic REPL breaks send-keys flows).tmux excels at running multiple coding agents in parallel:
SOCKET="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/codex-army.sock"
# Create multiple sessions
for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
tmux -S "$SOCKET" new-session -d -s "agent-$i"
done
# Launch agents in different workdirs
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t agent-1 "cd /tmp/project1 && codex --yolo 'Fix bug X'" Enter
tmux -S "$SOCKET" send-keys -t agent-2 "cd /tmp/project2 && codex --yolo 'Fix bug Y'" Enter
# Poll for completion (check if prompt returned)
for sess in agent-1 agent-2; do
if tmux -S "$SOCKET" capture-pane -p -t "$sess" -S -3 | grep -q "❯"; then
echo "$sess: DONE"
else
echo "$sess: Running..."
fi
done
tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t "$SESSION".tmux -S "$SOCKET" list-sessions -F '#{session_name}' | xargs -r -n1 tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-session -t.tmux -S "$SOCKET" kill-server.