
tmux
✓ Official★ 3by firecrawl · part of firecrawl/openclaw
Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and scraping pane output.
This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates — you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.
by firecrawl
Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and scraping pane output.
npx skills add https://github.com/firecrawl/openclaw --skill tmux
Download ZIPGitHub3
tmux Session Control
Control tmux sessions by sending keystrokes and reading output. Essential for managing Claude Code sessions.
When to Use
✅ USE this skill when:
-
Monitoring Claude/Codex sessions in tmux
-
Sending input to interactive terminal applications
-
Scraping output from long-running processes in tmux
-
Navigating tmux panes/windows programmatically
-
Checking on background work in existing sessions
When NOT to Use
❌ DON'T use this skill when:
-
Running one-off shell commands → use
exectool directly -
Starting new background processes → use
execwithbackground:true -
Non-interactive scripts → use
exectool -
The process isn't in tmux
-
You need to create a new tmux session → use
execwithtmux new-session
Example Sessions
Session Purpose
shared Primary interactive session
worker-2 - worker-8 Parallel worker sessions
Common Commands
List Sessions
tmux list-sessions
tmux ls
Capture Output
# 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 Keys
# 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)
Window/Pane Navigation
# Select window
tmux select-window -t shared:0
# Select pane
tmux select-pane -t shared:0.1
# List windows
tmux list-windows -t shared
Session Management
# Create new session
tmux new-session -d -s newsession
# Kill session
tmux kill-session -t sessionname
# Rename session
tmux rename-session -t old new
Sending Input Safely
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
Claude Code Session Patterns
Check if Session Needs Input
# Look for prompts
tmux capture-pane -t worker-3 -p | tail -10 | grep -E "❯|Yes.*No|proceed|permission"
Approve Claude Code Prompt
# Send 'y' and Enter
tmux send-keys -t worker-3 'y' Enter
# Or select numbered option
tmux send-keys -t worker-3 '2' Enter
Check All Sessions Status
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
Send Task to Session
tmux send-keys -t worker-4 "Fix the bug in auth.js" Enter
Notes
-
Use
capture-pane -pto print to stdout (essential for scripting) -
-S -captures entire scrollback history -
Target format:
session:window.pane(e.g.,shared:0.0) -
Sessions persist across SSH disconnects
npx skills add https://github.com/firecrawl/openclaw --skill tmuxRun this in your project — your agent picks the skill up automatically.
No common issues documented yet. If you hit a problem, the repository's GitHub Issues page is the best place to look.