tmux Cheat Sheet

tmux Cheat Sheet

Every keybinding and command from the tutorial, organised for fast lookup. Bookmark this page.

The prefix key is Ctrl+a — the iSu dev server standard. All “in tmux” keystrokes mean: press Ctrl+a, release, then press the next key.

On vanilla tmux?

If you’re on a fresh tmux install elsewhere (no remap in ~/.tmux.conf), the upstream default prefix is Ctrl+b — substitute it wherever this page shows Ctrl+a. The keys after the prefix and the resulting actions are identical regardless of which prefix you’ve configured. See the Introduction for how to check yours.

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🐚 From the shell (outside tmux)

Command	Action
tmux new -s NAME	Create session named NAME and attach
tmux ls	List all running sessions
tmux attach -t NAME	Reattach to session NAME
tmux kill-session -t NAME	Destroy session NAME
tmux kill-server	Destroy every tmux session (heavy hand)
tmux -CC new -s NAME	iTerm2 control mode: native iTerm2 windows reflect tmux state
echo $TMUX	Inside tmux: prints socket path. Outside: blank.

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📦 Sessions

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a d	Detach from current session
Ctrl+a $	Rename current session
Ctrl+a s	Interactive session picker (tree view)
Ctrl+a w	Window picker across all sessions
Ctrl+a L	Toggle to last session
Ctrl+a (	Switch to previous session (alphabetic)
Ctrl+a )	Switch to next session (alphabetic)

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🪟 Windows

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a c	Create new window
Ctrl+a ,	Rename current window
Ctrl+a n	Next window
Ctrl+a p	Previous window
Ctrl+a 0–9	Jump to window by number
Ctrl+a w	Interactive window picker
Ctrl+a &	Kill current window (confirms)
Ctrl+a !	Promote current pane to its own window

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✂️ Panes

Splits

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a %	Split vertically (left/right) — default binding
Ctrl+a "	Split horizontally (top/bottom) — default binding
Ctrl+a |	Split vertically — recommended config (memorable)
Ctrl+a -	Split horizontally — recommended config (memorable)

Navigation

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a ←/→/↑/↓	Move focus to pane in that direction
Ctrl+a h/j/k/l	Same, vim-style — recommended config
Ctrl+a q	Flash pane numbers (press number to jump)
Ctrl+a o	Cycle to next pane
Ctrl+a ;	Toggle to last active pane

Manipulation

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a z	Zoom toggle — current pane fills window
Ctrl+a x	Kill current pane (confirms)
Ctrl+a {	Swap with previous pane
Ctrl+a }	Swap with next pane
Ctrl+a Space	Cycle through built-in layouts

Resize

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a Alt+arrow	Resize by 5 cells in that direction
Ctrl+a Ctrl+arrow	Resize by 1 cell (fine adjustment)
Ctrl+a H/J/K/L	Resize by 5, vim-style, repeatable — recommended config

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📋 Copy mode

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a [	Enter copy mode
Ctrl+a ]	Paste most recently copied buffer
arrow keys / h j k l	Move cursor (vi-mode-keys)
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll a page
Ctrl+u / Ctrl+d	Scroll half a page
g / G	Jump to top / bottom
/	Search forward
?	Search backward
n / N	Next / previous match
v	Begin selection — recommended config
y	Copy selection and exit — recommended config
q or Esc	Exit copy mode without copying

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⚙️ Config & command prompt

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a :	Open tmux command prompt (run a tmux command interactively)
Ctrl+a r	Reload ~/.tmux.conf — recommended config
Ctrl+a ?	Show all current key bindings
Ctrl+a t	Show a clock in the current pane

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📚 Built-in layouts (cycle with Ctrl+a Space)

Layout	Shape
even-horizontal	Equal-width columns
even-vertical	Equal-height rows
main-horizontal	One big pane on top, equal panes below
main-vertical	One big pane on the left, equal panes on the right
tiled	Even grid

main-vertical is the IDE feel.

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🎯 Targeting syntax (for scripts)

session:window.pane

Examples:

Target	Means
nafbi	The session itself
nafbi:dev	Window dev in session nafbi
nafbi:dev.1	Pane 1 of window dev in session nafbi
nafbi:2	Window 2 (by index) in session nafbi

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📜 Useful tmux commands (for scripts)

tmux has-session -t NAME 2>/dev/null   # Exit 0 if session exists, 1 otherwise
tmux new-session -d -s NAME -n WIN -c DIR
tmux new-window -t SESSION -n NAME -c DIR
tmux split-window -h -t TARGET -c DIR  # -h horizontal, -v vertical
tmux send-keys -t TARGET "command" C-m # C-m is Enter
tmux select-pane -t TARGET
tmux select-window -t TARGET
tmux rename-session -t OLD NEW
tmux rename-window -t SESSION:OLD NEW
tmux list-sessions
tmux list-windows -t SESSION
tmux list-panes -t SESSION:WINDOW

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🐚 Bash aliases (recommended)

alias tls='tmux ls'
alias ta='tmux attach -t'
alias tn='tmux new -s'
alias tk='tmux kill-session -t'
alias tclaude='tmux attach -t claude || tmux new -s claude'
alias twork='NO_AUTO_TMUX=1 tmux new -s work-$(date +%H%M)'

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🔌 TPM plugins (optional)

Keystroke	Action
Ctrl+a I	Install plugins listed in ~/.tmux.conf
Ctrl+a U	Update plugins
Ctrl+a alt+u	Uninstall plugins removed from config
Ctrl+a Ctrl+s	Save sessions (tmux-resurrect)
Ctrl+a Ctrl+r	Restore sessions (tmux-resurrect)

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🔗 Deep links

• The mental model and prefix-key concept: Introduction
• Where each command was introduced and why: Stage 1 · Stage 2 · Stage 3 · Stage 4
• When something doesn’t work: Troubleshooting