tmux is awesome

i recently started using tmux, a terminal multiplexer that splits a single terminal into multiple sessions, each with its own windows, and each window splittable into panes. it’s awesome. one tip before diving in: if you’re on mac, run it inside iterm2 rather than the default terminal app.

for me, still fairly new to it, the win is opening a window per project with a single command, hub. it kills any existing projects session and rebuilds tmux from scratch, each window already cd’d into the right directory:

hub() {
  local s="projects"
  tmux has-session -t "$s" 2>/dev/null && tmux kill-session -t "$s"

  tmux set-option -g allow-rename off
  tmux set-option -g automatic-rename off
  tmux new-session -d -s "$s" -n "web-app" -c "$HOME/workspace/web-app"
  tmux new-window -t "$s" -n "design-system" -c "$HOME/workspace/design-system"
  tmux new-window -t "$s" -n "api" -c "$HOME/workspace/api"
  tmux new-window -t "$s" -n "chat" -c "$HOME/workspace/chat"
  tmux select-window -t "$s:0"

  tmux attach -t "$s"
}

from there i switch between projects with prefix + n, and split each project’s window into panes that stay open all day: claude code, opencode, the dev server, a shell for git.

[projects]  0:web-app*  1:design-system  2:api  3:chat

┌── claude ────────────┬── opencode ──────────┐
│ refactoring the auth │ ~ planning the v2    │
│ middleware…          │   ingestion pass     │
├── dev server ────────┼── git ───────────────┤
│ ▲ ready on :3000     │ $ git status         │
│ ✓ compiled in 240ms  │ ✔ nothing to commit  │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

right now i’m also learning neovim, the goal being that i never have to leave the terminal at all. i still keep vs code open next to it for actual editing while the nvim muscle memory catches up. but even before that’s done, even with no real ide in the picture, this setup is a straight 100% productivity gain over what i had before. and it’s just so beautiful to look at.

if you want to get into tmux and neovim, typecraft.dev has a free course that’s genuinely excellent. 👍