Terminal Tools Skill

Reference knowledge for tmux mastery and TUI tool control.

tmux Commands

Session Management

tmux ls                              # List all sessions
tmux new -s NAME                     # Create named session
tmux attach -t NAME                  # Attach to session
tmux kill-session -t NAME            # Kill session
tmux has-session -t NAME 2>/dev/null # Check if exists (exit code)

Window/Pane Management

tmux split-window -h                 # Split horizontal
tmux split-window -v                 # Split vertical
tmux split-window -h -l 30%          # Split with size
tmux select-pane -L/-R/-U/-D         # Navigate panes
tmux resize-pane -L/-R/-U/-D 10      # Resize pane

Capture & Send

# Capture pane content (CRITICAL for reading TUIs)
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p              # Print to stdout
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p -S -50       # Include 50 lines of scrollback
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p -S - -E -    # Entire scrollback

# Send keys (CRITICAL for controlling TUIs)
tmux send-keys -t SESSION "text"             # Send text (interpreted)
tmux send-keys -t SESSION -l "text"          # Send literal (preserves special chars)
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-c                # Ctrl+C
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-d                # Ctrl+D
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Enter              # Enter key
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Escape             # Escape key

# Special keys for TUI navigation
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Up/Down/Left/Right # Arrow keys
tmux send-keys -t SESSION NPage              # Page Down
tmux send-keys -t SESSION PPage              # Page Up
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Home/End           # Home/End
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Tab                # Tab
tmux send-keys -t SESSION BTab               # Shift+Tab
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Space              # Space

Timing Pattern

# Always delay between send-keys and capture/submit
tmux send-keys -t SESSION -l "prompt text"
sleep 0.3  # CRITICAL: prevents race conditions
tmux send-keys -t SESSION Enter

TUI Tool Keybindings

btop / htop (System Monitors)

Key	Action
f	Filter processes
/	Search
k	Kill process
t	Tree view toggle
s	Sort options
h	Help
q	Quit
Up/Down	Navigate
F6	Sort by column (htop)
F9	Kill (htop)

Useful captures:

# Get top CPU process
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep -E "^\s+\d+.*[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\s*$" | head -5

lazygit (Git TUI)

Key	Action
1-5	Jump to panel (Status/Files/Branches/Commits/Stash)
j/k	Navigate up/down
Enter	Expand/view
Space	Stage/unstage file
c	Commit
p	Push
P	Pull
a	Stage all
d	View diff
/	Search
?	Help
q	Quit

Useful captures:

# Get current branch
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep -E "^\*.*main|master" | head -1

# Get modified files count
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep -E "M\s+\w" | wc -l

lnav (Log Navigator)

Key	Action
/	Search regex
n/N	Next/prev match
e/E	Next/prev error
w/W	Next/prev warning
f	Filter
Tab	Focus panels
g/G	Top/bottom
q	Quit
:	Command mode

Useful captures:

# Count errors in view
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep -i "error" | wc -l

TFE (Terminal File Explorer)

Key	Action
Tab	Toggle focus left/right pane
Up/Down	Navigate files (left) or scroll preview (right)
NPage/PPage	Page down/up in preview
Enter	Open/select file
r	Refresh
h	Toggle hidden files
/	Search
q	Quit

Useful captures:

# Get selected file
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep "Selected:" | head -1

# Get scroll position
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep -oE "[0-9]+/[0-9]+ \([0-9]+%\)"

gitlogue (Git Replay)

Key	Action
n	Next commit
p	Previous commit
Space	Pause/resume
r	Random commit
q	Quit

Useful info:

# Get current commit being shown
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep "hash:" | head -1

jless (JSON Viewer)

Key	Action
h/j/k/l	Navigate (vim-style)
J/K	Jump to next/prev sibling
Space	Toggle collapse/expand
c	Collapse all
e	Expand all
yy	Yank value
yp	Yank path (great for jq!)
yk	Yank key
/	Search forward
?	Search backward
n/N	Next/prev match
q	Quit

Useful captures:

# Spawn jless with JSON
spawn with command: "curl -s api.example.com | jless"

# Get current path in JSON
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep "Path:" | head -1

yazi (File Browser)

Key	Action
h/j/k/l	Navigate (vim-style)
Enter	Open file/directory
q	Quit
y	Yank (copy)
x	Cut
p	Paste
d	Delete (trash)
D	Delete permanently
a	Create file
A	Create directory
r	Rename
Space	Toggle selection
v	Visual mode
/	Search
z	Jump to directory (zoxide)
~	Go home

Useful captures:

# Get current directory
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | head -1

procs (Process Viewer)

Key	Action
Up/Down	Navigate
q	Quit
/	Search

CLI flags (non-interactive):

procs --tree              # Show process tree
procs --watch             # Live updating
procs node                # Filter by name
procs --sortd cpu         # Sort by CPU descending

Useful captures:

# Get process info (non-TUI, easier to parse)
procs --tree | head -20
procs node | grep -v "^$"

dust (Disk Usage)

Non-interactive - run and capture output:

dust -d 2 /path           # Depth 2
dust -n 10 /path          # Top 10 items
dust -r /path             # Reverse order (smallest first)

Useful captures:

# Find biggest directories
dust -d 1 ~ | head -15

tokei (Code Statistics)

Non-interactive - run and capture output:

tokei /path               # Full stats
tokei /path --compact     # Compact view
tokei /path -s lines      # Sort by lines
tokei /path -e node_modules -e dist  # Exclude dirs

Useful captures:

# Get code summary
tokei /path --compact | tail -5

hyperfine (Benchmarking)

Non-interactive - run and capture output:

hyperfine 'command1' 'command2'           # Compare two commands
hyperfine --warmup 3 'command'            # With warmup runs
hyperfine --min-runs 10 'command'         # Minimum runs
hyperfine --export-markdown results.md 'cmd'  # Export results

Useful captures:

# Benchmark and get summary
hyperfine --min-runs 5 'npm run build' 2>&1 | tail -10

delta (Git Diff Pager)

Integrates with git automatically when configured. Not a TUI but enhances lazygit:

# Add to ~/.gitconfig
[core]
    pager = delta
[delta]
    navigate = true
    side-by-side = true
    line-numbers = true

General TUI Patterns

Quitting any TUI:

tmux send-keys -t SESSION q          # Most TUIs
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-c        # Force exit
tmux send-keys -t SESSION ":q" Enter # Vim-style

Refreshing view:

tmux send-keys -t SESSION r          # Many TUIs support 'r'
tmux send-keys -t SESSION C-l        # Clear/refresh screen

Navigation pattern:

# Scroll down, capture, check content
tmux send-keys -t SESSION NPage
sleep 0.2
tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p | grep "pattern"

TabzChrome Session Naming

Sessions spawned by TabzChrome follow this pattern:

ctt-{name-slug}-{uuid}

Examples:
ctt-claude-frontend-abc123
ctt-tui-btop-def456
ctt-docs-readme-ghi789

Listing TabzChrome sessions:

tmux ls | grep "^ctt-"

Finding specific tool sessions:

tmux ls | grep "^ctt-tui-"      # TUI tools
tmux ls | grep "^ctt-claude-"   # Claude workers
tmux ls | grep "^ctt-docs-"     # Doc viewers