Enables cross-pane communication and command execution for CLI tools within tmux.

Install

mkdir -p .claude/skills/tmux-cli && curl -L -o skill.zip "https://agentskills.codes/api/skills/download/4709" && unzip -o skill.zip -d .claude/skills/tmux-cli && rm skill.zip

Installs to .claude/skills/tmux-cli

Activation

This is the description your AI agent reads to decide when to run this skill — the better it matches your request, the more reliably it fires.

CLI utility to communicate with other CLI Agents or Scripts in other tmux panes; use it only when user asks you to communicate with other CLI Agents or Scripts in other tmux panes.
180 chars✓ has a “when” trigger
Intermediate

Key capabilities

  • Execute shell commands in specific tmux panes
  • Detect exit codes for command success or failure
  • Set timeouts for command execution

How it works

The tool executes shell commands within a specified tmux pane and returns the result along with the exit status.

Inputs & outputs

You give it
Shell command and target pane identifier
You get back
JSON object containing command output and exit code

When to use tmux-cli

  • Coordinating tasks across tmux panes
  • Automating multi-step CLI workflows
  • Detecting success or failure of build scripts
  • Orchestrating multi-agent CLI interactions

About this skill

tmux-cli

Instructions

Use the tmux-cli command to communicate with other CLI Agents or Scripts in other tmux panes. Do tmux-cli --help to see how to use it!

This command depends on installing the claude-code-tools. If you get an error indicating that the command is not available, ask the user to install it using: uv tool install claude-code-tools.

Key Commands

Execute with Exit Code Detection

Use tmux-cli execute when you need to know if a shell command succeeded or failed:

tmux-cli execute "make test" --pane=2
# Returns JSON: {"output": "...", "exit_code": 0}

tmux-cli execute "npm install" --pane=ops:1.3 --timeout=60
# Returns exit_code=0 on success, non-zero on failure, -1 on timeout

This is useful for:

  • Running builds and knowing if they passed
  • Running tests and detecting pass/fail
  • Multi-step automation that should abort on failure

Note: execute is for shell commands only, not for agent-to-agent chat. For communicating with another Claude Code instance, use send + wait_idle + capture instead.

When not to use it

  • For agent-to-agent chat
  • When the user has not explicitly requested communication with other panes

Prerequisites

claude-code-tools

Limitations

  • Limited to shell command execution
  • Requires installation of claude-code-tools

How it compares

It enables programmatic interaction with other CLI environments instead of requiring manual pane switching.

Compared to similar skills

tmux-cli side by side with the closest alternatives in the catalog.

SkillInstallsUpdatedSafetyDifficulty
tmux-cli (this skill)16moReviewIntermediate
setup121moNo flagsBeginner
tmux202moReviewIntermediate
macos-cleaner162moReviewBeginner

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