Tmux keybindings. Prefix is Ctrl+S.

Ghostty starts tmux for every window, and sessions survive reboots — see tmux-sessions.md for how that works, session naming, and saving/restoring.

Custom bindings

• Reload config: Prefix r

• Split pane horizontally (side by side): Prefix $

• Split pane vertically (top/bottom): Prefix -

Popup windows

• Open lazygit in a popup (80%x80%): Prefix Ctrl+k

• Create a new tmux session interactively: Prefix Ctrl+n

• Switch session via fzf picker: Prefix Ctrl+j

• Open a shell popup in current directory (75%x75%): Prefix Ctrl+h

Windows

• New window: Prefix c
• Kill window: Prefix &
• Rename window: Prefix ,
• Next window: Prefix n
• Previous window: Prefix p
• Last window: Prefix l
• Select window 0–9: Prefix 0–Prefix 9
• Choose window from list: Prefix w
• Move window: Prefix .
• Break pane to new window: Prefix !

Panes

• Kill active pane: Prefix x
• Zoom active pane: Prefix z
• Select next pane: Prefix o
• Show pane numbers: Prefix q
• Move pane to previous: Prefix ;
• Swap pane up: Prefix {
• Swap pane down: Prefix }
• Select pane: Prefix Up/Down/Left/Right
• Mark pane: Prefix m
• Clear mark: Prefix M
• Search for pane: Prefix f

Sessions

• Detach client: Prefix d
• Rename current session: Prefix R
• Kill current session (confirms first): Prefix X
• Choose session from list: Prefix s
• Switch to next client: Prefix )
• Switch to previous client: Prefix (
• Switch to last client: Prefix L

Note: Prefix R exists because tmux’s default rename-session key is Prefix $, which is rebound here to split-window.

Save & restore (tmux-resurrect)

• Save a snapshot of all sessions: Prefix C-s
• Restore the newest snapshot: Prefix C-r

Prefix C-s is resurrect’s save, not send-prefix — tpm loads last and rebinds it, so a bind-key C-s send-prefix line in tmux.conf would be dead code. Details and the rollback procedure are in tmux-sessions.md.

Copy mode

• Enter copy mode: Prefix [
• Paste most recent buffer: Prefix ]
• Enter copy mode + scroll up: Prefix PPage
• List paste buffers: Prefix #
• Choose paste buffer: Prefix =

Layouts

• Next layout: Prefix Space
• Even horizontal: Prefix M-1
• Even vertical: Prefix M-2
• Main horizontal: Prefix M-3
• Main vertical: Prefix M-4
• Tiled: Prefix M-5
• Spread evenly: Prefix E

Misc

• Describe key binding: Prefix /
• List key bindings: Prefix ?
• Prompt for command: Prefix :
• Show messages: Prefix ~
• Show clock: Prefix t
• Display window info: Prefix i

Vim-tmux navigation (cross pane/split)

• Ctrl+h/j/k/l — navigate between tmux panes and nvim splits seamlessly
• Ctrl+\ — navigate to previous pane/split

Modified keys (Shift+Enter, Ctrl+Enter)

A terminal only reports modified keys when the program asks for them, and inside tmux that request has to survive two hops. Miss either hop and tmux forwards a bare Enter — which is why Claude Code used to submit the prompt instead of inserting a newline:

set -ag terminal-features ",${TERM}:extkeys"   # Ghostty can report modified keys
set -s extended-keys on                        # pass the pane's request through

Nothing was ever bound to Shift+Enter; tmux simply could not see the Shift.

To check it is live: tmux display -p '#{pane_key_mode}' prints VT10x when off, Ext 1 or Ext 2 once the program in the pane has negotiated. Programs negotiate at startup, so after changing this restart the program — Prefix r alone is not enough.

Plugins

• tpm — plugin manager (Prefix I install, Prefix U update)
• tmux-sensible — sensible defaults
• tmux-resurrect — session persistence
• vim-tmux-navigator — seamless nvim+tmux navigation

Status bar

• Top bar: windows left, snapshot age + session + time right
• Window format: index:name; active window has bold white background
• Snapshot age comes from ~/.local/bin/tmux-save-age: grey under an hour, yellow under a day, red beyond — a reminder to press Prefix C-s