tmux

Reviewed 2026-10-13devopsPrompt / Rule# tmux # terminal # cli # automation # openclaw

OpenClaw's tmux skill: lets an AI agent list tmux sessions, read pane output, send keys and wait for prompts in interactive CLIs.

Security Reviewed

Local-only skill with two read-only helper scripts; the main risk is that the agent can type into and kill your tmux sessions.

What it looks like in Antigravity CLI

Works (steps corrected)Installed and worked read-only; you need tmux first, and an open CLI session needs /skills reload.Run by us on 2026-10-13 · agy 1.3.4, Gemini 3.8 Flash (High), macOS

How to get this result, step by step

1In the Antigravity CLI, paste the install message; it lists the download and waits for your OK.

Install the "tmux" skill for Google Antigravity.
Follow the steps at https://www.antigravityskills.org/install/tmux-skill.md (source: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/tree/main/skills/tmux).
Before running anything, show me what you will download and whether it includes scripts, and wait for my OK.
Install it into this project (.agents/skills/) unless I say global. When done, check that Antigravity lists it as an installed skill.

Antigravity CLI listing SKILL.md and two Bash scripts before installing the tmux skill

2Reload and list skills to check it is there.
```
/skills reload
/skills
```

3Ask about your sessions; it only reads them and types nothing.

List my tmux sessions and tell me which one is running the dev server. Do not type anything.

Antigravity CLI using tmux ls and capture-pane to find the session running a dev server

Full test log

Install method: Option 1 (pasted the agent prompt into agy in an empty project folder).

The test Mac had neither tmux nor Homebrew, so the page's brew install tmux hint did not apply; we built tmux 3.5a from its source release before testing.
The CLI asked before reading antigravityskills.org, api.github.com and raw.githubusercontent.com, then listed SKILL.md and the two Bash helper scripts (find-sessions.sh, wait-for-text.sh) and waited for OK.
It ran one approved command: a sparse clone of openclaw/openclaw into /tmp/openclaw, a copy of skills/tmux to .agents/skills/tmux, and deletion of /tmp/openclaw. Three files were installed.
It then tried to start a second agy process to check the install; we declined. In the open session the skill was not listed until /skills reload ("1 added: + tmux"); /skills then showed it under Workspace skills.
For the prompt below we had two sessions running: "shared" (a Python web server on port 8765) and "notes" (an idle shell). The agent asked before each command and ran only tmux ls, tmux list-panes -a and tmux capture-pane on each pane.

What we corrected on this page

tmux must be installed first. brew install tmux needs Homebrew; without it, use your system's package manager or build tmux from source.
The check step now says to run /skills reload in a CLI session that was already open.
We did not see whether the agent re-read SKILL.md for the session prompt; the commands it ran match the SKILL.md conventions (session:window.pane targets, capture-pane -p).

Install tmux in Google Antigravity

Antigravity loads skills from .agents/skills/ in your project or ~/.gemini/config/skills/ for all projects (official docs). Full guide

EasiestOption 1: paste this to your Antigravity agent

Install the "tmux" skill for Google Antigravity.
Follow the steps at https://www.antigravityskills.org/install/tmux-skill.md (source: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/tree/main/skills/tmux).
Before running anything, show me what you will download and whether it includes scripts, and wait for my OK.
Install it into this project (.agents/skills/) unless I say global. When done, check that Antigravity lists it as an installed skill.

The agent reads the install file, shows you what it will download and waits for your OK.

Option 2: install it yourself

1. Clone the source repo

git clone --depth 1 --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw /tmp/openclaw && git -C /tmp/openclaw sparse-checkout set skills

Download the repository that contains the skill into a temporary folder.

2. Copy into this workspace (project skill)
```
mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r /tmp/openclaw/skills/tmux .agents/skills/tmux
```
Run this from your project root. Antigravity reads workspace skills from <project>/.agents/skills/<folder>/.
3. Or install globally (all projects)
```
mkdir -p ~/.gemini/config/skills && cp -r /tmp/openclaw/skills/tmux ~/.gemini/config/skills/tmux
```
Use this instead of the previous step if you want the skill in every workspace. Antigravity reads global skills from ~/.gemini/config/skills/<folder>/.
4. Check that Antigravity sees it
Antigravity 2.0 app: start a new conversation and ask "What skills do you have?" (the app has no /skills command; typing / and the skill name also finds it, sometimes only after your first message). Antigravity CLI: run /skills; in a session that was already open, run /skills reload first. The skill is listed as tmux.

Requires tmux on PATH. The skill metadata suggests brew install tmux, which needs Homebrew; on Linux use your package manager. The skill is meant for macOS and Linux.

Using Claude Code, Cursor or Codex? See other assistants below.

What is tmux?

The tmux skill lets an AI agent work with terminal programs that are already running inside tmux: it lists sessions, reads what a pane is printing, types text or keys into it and waits for a prompt to appear. It is for developers who keep long builds, dev servers or other coding agents running in tmux and want their agent to watch or answer them. It ships in the bundled skills/ folder of the OpenClaw project. What we counted at commit 493b90b: 3 files, 7,841 bytes in total (SKILL.md 2,564 bytes, scripts/find-sessions.sh 2,983 bytes, scripts/wait-for-text.sh 2,294 bytes). wait-for-text.sh polls a pane every 0.5 s, looks at the last 1,000 lines and gives up after 15 s by default (all three are flags). tmux is one of 49 skill folders in OpenClaw's skills/ directory, next to mcporter, which is also reviewed on this site. Unlike agent-manager-style skills that start and orchestrate their own agents, this one is aimed at existing sessions: the SKILL.md says to use a normal shell for one-shot commands.

How to use tmux?

Install tmux, copy the skill folder into your agent's skills directory, then ask the agent to work with a named session, e.g. "check what the build in session shared is printing". The agent targets panes as session:window.pane (shared:0.0), reads them with tmux capture-pane -p (add -S - for full scrollback) and types with send-keys -l, sending Enter separately to avoid paste surprises. To know when a command has finished, the SKILL.md shows a random-nonce marker that wait-for-text.sh waits for, so old output cannot match.

Key features of tmux

✓Lists sessions, windows and panes (tmux ls, list-windows, list-panes)
✓Captures pane output, including full scrollback with -S -
✓Sends literal text with send-keys -l and special keys such as C-c, C-d and Escape
✓scripts/find-sessions.sh lists sessions on one socket or on all sockets in a directory, with an optional name filter
✓scripts/wait-for-text.sh polls a pane until a regex or fixed string appears, with a timeout
✓Documents a nonce-based completion marker so old output does not match

When to use tmux

1Watching a long-running build or dev server in a tmux pane
2Answering prompts in an interactive CLI running inside tmux
3Driving another coding agent that runs in a tmux session
4Keeping work alive across SSH disconnects

Installation & Setup Guide

Agent Rules / Prompt Setup

Follow these steps (taken from the project's own docs) to configure tmux in your development environment.

Step 1: OpenClaw: already bundledopenclaw

openclaw skills info tmux

Source: openclaw docs/cli/skills.md. tmux ships in OpenClaw's bundled skills/ folder; openclaw skills check shows whether its requirement (the tmux binary) is met.

Step 2: Claude Code (manual copy)claude

git clone --depth 1 --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw /tmp/openclaw && git -C /tmp/openclaw sparse-checkout set skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/openclaw/skills/tmux ~/.claude/skills/tmux

The repo documents no Claude Code install. Source for the path: Claude Code skills docs (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills), personal skills in ~/.claude/skills/.

Step 3: Codex (skill-installer)codex

$skill-installer install https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/tree/main/skills/tmux

Not documented by OpenClaw. Source: openai/skills README ("provide the GitHub directory URL") and its skill-installer SKILL.md, which installs into $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex afterwards.

Step 4: Cursor: not documentedcursor

Neither the skill nor the OpenClaw docs we read mention Cursor, so we do not list a Cursor command.

Usage Example & Verification

Prompt / Request Example

1) README example (SKILL.md, Prompt checks): tmux capture-pane -t worker-3 -p | rg "proceed|permission|Yes|No"
-> What happens: the agent reads the pane of session worker-3 and checks whether a program is waiting for a yes/no answer; it should send y + Enter only when it understands the prompt.

2) README example (SKILL.md, Helpers): scripts/wait-for-text.sh -t shared:0.0 -p "$marker" -F -T 30
-> What happens: after sending a command that prints a unique OPENCLAW_DONE_<nonce> marker, the script polls the pane until the marker appears or 30 s pass, then exits 0 or prints the last lines and exits 1.

3) Our example: "List my tmux sessions and tell me which one is running the dev server. Do not type anything."
-> What happens: the agent runs scripts/find-sessions.sh (or tmux ls) and capture-pane on each pane; read-only, nothing is sent.

Installation Confirmation Method

Run tmux -V to confirm tmux is installed, then run /skills in the Antigravity CLI (or ask "What skills do you have?" in the Antigravity 2.0 app) and look for tmux. Asking "list my tmux sessions" should make the agent run tmux ls or find-sessions.sh.

Security Review

Static review

Reviewed Date

2026-10-13

Audited Ref / Commit

493b90b2ba91d6d70e7b6784e475ff15f0aa891c

Reviewer

antigravityskills.org (static code review)

Local-only skill with two read-only helper scripts; the main risk is that the agent can type into and kill your tmux sessions.

Full review: scope, findings, risks

Audit Scope:skills/tmux/SKILL.md, scripts/find-sessions.sh and scripts/wait-for-text.sh (all read in full), repository LICENSE, skills/ folder listing, at commit 493b90b. skills/tmux is unchanged at HEAD da26377 (checked 2026-10-13). Static review only; nothing was executed.

Key Findings:SKILL.md is instructions only; the two scripts are plain Bash using set -euo pipefail No network calls (no curl, wget, http URLs) in the folder Scripts only run tmux list-sessions / capture-pane, grep, date and sleep; no file writes Optional env var OPENCLAW_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR; no API keys

Identified Operational Risks & Permissions:Agent can send arbitrary keystrokes to any pane it can reach, including approving prompts or C-c kill-session is documented and would end running work

skills/tmux/SKILL.md is a set of tmux command examples with no code of its own. skills/tmux/scripts/find-sessions.sh calls tmux list-sessions on the default socket, a named socket, a socket path, or every socket under OPENCLAW_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR, and prints the result. skills/tmux/scripts/wait-for-text.sh loops over tmux capture-pane and grep until a pattern appears or a timeout passes. Neither script writes files, makes network requests, or uses eval. No API keys are needed. The practical risk is behavioral: the SKILL.md shows send-keys and kill-session, so an agent can type into or end any session it can reach; the skill advises approving prompts only when they are understood.

Operational Notes & Known Limitations

Known Limitations

•Requires the tmux binary; the skill metadata lists macOS (darwin) and Linux only, so no native Windows support
•Only works with tmux sessions; it does not manage plain terminal windows or screen
•The prompt-check example pipes output to rg, so ripgrep must be installed for that example
•find-sessions.sh --all scans OPENCLAW_TMUX_SOCKET_DIR (default ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/openclaw-tmux-sockets), an OpenClaw-specific location; outside OpenClaw use the default socket or -L/-S
•wait-for-text.sh also matches echoed input and scrollback, which is why the SKILL.md insists on the split nonce marker for completion checks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the tmux skill safe?

The two Bash scripts only call tmux, grep, date and sleep: no network, no file writes, no eval, no API keys. The real risk is what it enables: the agent can type into any tmux pane it can reach and the SKILL.md documents tmux kill-session. It advises approving prompts only when they are understood.

How do I install the tmux skill in Antigravity?

Sparse-clone openclaw/openclaw (skills/), copy skills/tmux to .agents/skills/tmux or ~/.gemini/config/skills/tmux, then ask "What skills do you have?" (Antigravity CLI: /skills) to confirm. Or paste the one-line agent prompt above.

Does it start new tmux sessions?

It documents new-session -d, rename-session and kill-session, but it is meant for existing interactive sessions; one-shot jobs should use a normal shell.

Does it work on Windows?

The skill metadata lists only darwin and linux. tmux itself is not a native Windows program.

Supported Platforms

antigravityclaudecodex

View Source on GitHub

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