tmux

★ 3

by firecrawl · part of firecrawl/openclaw

Remote-control tmux sessions for interactive CLIs by sending keystrokes and scraping pane output.

🔥🔥🔥✓ VerifiedFreeQuick setup

🧰 Not standalone. This skill ships with firecrawl/openclaw and only works together with that tool — install the tool first, then add this skill.

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.

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 exec tool directly
Starting new background processes → use exec with background:true
Non-interactive scripts → use exec tool
The process isn't in tmux
You need to create a new tmux session → use exec with tmux 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)

# 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 -p to 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