Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and scraping pane output.
Control tmux sessions by sending keystrokes and reading output. Essential for managing Claude Code sessions.
✅ USE this skill when:
❌ DON'T use this skill when:
exec tool directlyexec with background:trueexec toolexec with tmux new-session| Session | Purpose |
|---|---|
shared | Primary interactive session |
worker-2 - worker-8 | Parallel worker sessions |
tmux list-sessions
tmux ls
# Last 20 lines of pane
tmux capture-pane -t shared -p | tail -20
# Entire scrollback
tmux capture-pane -t shared -p -S -
# Specific pane in window
tmux capture-pane -t shared:0.0 -p
# Send text (doesn't press Enter)
tmux send-keys -t shared "hello"
# Send text + Enter
tmux send-keys -t shared "y" Enter
# Send special keys
tmux send-keys -t shared Enter
tmux send-keys -t shared Escape
tmux send-keys -t shared C-c # Ctrl+C
tmux send-keys -t shared C-d # Ctrl+D (EOF)
tmux send-keys -t shared C-z # Ctrl+Z (suspend)
# Select window
tmux select-window -t shared:0
# Select pane
tmux select-pane -t shared:0.1
# List windows
tmux list-windows -t shared
# Create new session
tmux new-session -d -s newsession
# Kill session
tmux kill-session -t sessionname
# Rename session
tmux rename-session -t old new
For interactive TUIs (Claude Code, Codex, etc.), split text and Enter into separate sends to avoid paste/multiline edge cases:
tmux send-keys -t shared -l -- "Please apply the patch in src/foo.ts"
sleep 0.1
tmux send-keys -t shared Enter
# Look for prompts
tmux capture-pane -t worker-3 -p | tail -10 | grep -E "❯|Yes.*No|proceed|permission"
# Send 'y' and Enter
tmux send-keys -t worker-3 'y' Enter
# Or select numbered option
tmux send-keys -t worker-3 '2' Enter
for s in shared worker-2 worker-3 worker-4 worker-5 worker-6 worker-7 worker-8; do
echo "=== $s ==="
tmux capture-pane -t $s -p 2>/dev/null | tail -5
done
tmux send-keys -t worker-4 "Fix the bug in auth.js" Enter
capture-pane -p to print to stdout (essential for scripting)-S - captures entire scrollback historysession:window.pane (e.g., shared:0.0)