Tmux Session Pilot

The problem

Standard agents fail when they encounter interactive CLI tools like SSH, REPLs, or database consoles that require a persistent terminal state. Running one-shot commands often loses the session context or drops input when programs aren't ready to receive it.

What it does

• Manages persistent terminal sessions using tmux to drive long-running interactive processes.
• Sends specific keystrokes, including control sequences like Ctrl-C or Enter, to interactive programs.
• Captures and reads terminal output, including specific pane contents and scrollback history.
• Orchestrates complex terminal layouts by splitting, resizing, and addressing multiple panes.
• Pastes large multi-line scripts or buffers to avoid input buffer overflows.

Frameworks & tools

Requires tmux 2.9 or higher. Works with any CLI-based REPL, SSH, htop, and database shells.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Managing tmux via raw prompts often leads to quoting errors and dropped input. This skill implements specific polling patterns and buffer management to ensure the agent waits for prompts and handles multi-line scripts without corruption.

Use cases

• Managing remote servers via persistent SSH sessions without losing state.
• Interacting with Python, Node.js, or SQL REPLs to debug code in real-time.
• Monitoring logs in one pane while executing commands in another.
• Automating setup scripts that require interactive user confirmation.

Known limitations

Does not support GUI applications. Not suitable for multiplexing security-sensitive sessions that must remain unreadable to other local users on the system.