Tmux

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

Security Scan

The skill's files, instructions, and minimal requirements align with its stated purpose of controlling and scraping tmux sessions; nothing indicates unrelated or hidden behavior.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the actual behavior: the SKILL.md and included scripts only require tmux and provide commands and wrappers to list sessions, capture pane output, poll for text, and send keys. There are no unrelated binaries, network endpoints, or credentials requested.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions explicitly show using tmux commands to capture output and send keystrokes. The scripts and examples operate on tmux sessions/panes only and do not instruct reading arbitrary files, calling external network services, or exfiltrating data. They do, as intended, read pane output and send input to sessions the agent can access.

Install Mechanism

No install spec or external downloads — the skill is instruction-only with two small shell scripts. Nothing is written to disk by an installer and no remote code is fetched.

Credentials

The scripts read optional environment variables (OPENCLAW_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR and CLAWDBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR) to locate socket directories but these are not declared in requires.env. While this is not malicious, it means behavior can change if such env vars are set (for example enabling scan of all sockets under a directory via --all). The skill requests no credentials. Be aware that tmux access inherently allows reading/writing any sessions accessible to the user running the agent.

Persistence & Privilege

Skill is not always-enabled and does not modify other skills or system configuration. It requires only a user-level tmux binary and does not request elevated or persistent privileges.

Assessment

This skill is coherent with its purpose: it uses tmux to list sessions, capture pane text, poll for patterns, and send keystrokes. Before installing, consider: (1) tmux access equals the ability to read and send input to any tmux sessions the agent process can access — avoid using this skill on machines where other users' sensitive sessions may be available. (2) The scripts honor OPENCLAW_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR / CLAWDBOT_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR if set; ensure those env vars aren’t pointed at a broad or multi-user socket directory unless you intend the skill to scan them. (3) There are no network calls or credential requests, and no installer downloads. If you need stricter guarantees, review the two shell scripts yourself and run the agent under a user account that has only the intended tmux sessions available.

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)

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 -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