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Tmux: popups and tools

This setup includes a few tmux-native popups and helpers to keep your workflow inside tmux.

Command palette​

  • Binding: prefix then r
  • Purpose: unified fuzzy launcher that surfaces all custom tooling from a single keystroke — the "Cmd+K" for your terminal.

Sources indexed (in display order, with recency boost):

  1. ~/bin/,* commands — every executable ,* script; descriptions are extracted from # Description: header comments when present.
  2. Tmux prefix keybindings — parsed from tmux list-keys -T prefix (and the k18 swap table) with human-readable labels.
  3. Git aliases — global git config aliases shown as git <alias>.
  4. Drop-in extras — any .tsv files in ~/.config/tmux/palette.d/ are appended verbatim (three tab-separated columns: display, key, exec).

Recency tracking:

  • Each executed entry is timestamped in ~/.cache/tmux/palette_history.tsv.
  • On next open, recently used entries float to the top.

Execution model:

  • ,* commands and git aliases: sent to the active pane via tmux send-keys … Enter so the command runs in your shell with full environment context.
  • Tmux bindings: re-invoked via tmux send-keys C-Space <key> so the binding fires exactly as if you pressed it.

Options (tmux set -g):

OptionDefault
@command_palette_popup_height60
@command_palette_popup_width70

Extensibility:

  • Drop a .tsv file into ~/.config/tmux/palette.d/ with three tab-separated columns per line: <display>\t<unique-key>\t<exec-command>. Entries appear automatically on next palette open.

Popup spawn temporarily overrides default-shell to /bin/sh via command_palette/popup.sh to avoid heavy-shell initialization overhead (~1s with fish).

GitHub picker popup​

  • Binding: prefix then G
  • Switch work/home: ctrl-s
  • Switch to session picker: alt-g

A standalone fzf-based PR/issue picker. It reads PR and issue sections from its own YAML configs (~/.config/tmux/scripts/pickers/github/gh-picker-{work,home}.yml) and displays them in fzf with rich preview, worktree markers, and review status badges. gh-dash is not a dependency.

Implementation notes:

  • Single fzf popup (no nested tmux server). Popup opens at 95%×95%.
  • Items are fetched by gh_items.sh / lib/gh_items_main.py, which parses the gh-picker config files and runs GitHub Search API queries.
  • alt-g closes the popup and reopens the session picker at its configured dimensions (and vice versa). The close-and-reopen loop lives in the outer wrapper scripts (popup.sh / gh_popup.sh).
  • Popup spawn temporarily overrides default-shell to /bin/sh to avoid heavy-shell initialization overhead (~1s with fish).

For full keybindings and details, see Tmux GitHub picker.

Repo bootstrap popup (owner/repo -> ,gh-tfork)​

  • Binding: prefix then B
  • Prompts for a GitHub repo spec like elastic/kibana, then runs ,gh-tfork.
  • ,gh-tfork decides the destination:
    • ~/work for owner elastic
    • ~/code for everything else
  • Popup spawn temporarily overrides default-shell to /bin/sh to avoid heavy-shell initialization overhead (~1s with fish).

Lowfi (music in tmux)​

This setup includes an integration that runs lowfi inside a dedicated tmux session.

Tracklist data is pulled via externals into:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/lowfi

See home/.chezmoiexternal.toml.

Verification and troubleshooting​

tmux -V
tmux list-sessions
command -v ,w
command -v ,tmux-run-all
command -v ,tmux-lowfi
command -v gh
command -v fzf

If tmux config changes are not reflected:

tmux source-file ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf