Audience
Developers and anyone searching for a tool to create and manage detachable terminal sessions
About tmux
tmux is a terminal multiplexer that enables multiple terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. It allows sessions to be detached so they continue running in the background and later reattached exactly as left. tmux implements each window as a separate client process, supports ANSI/ISO color via VT220 (and later) control sequences, and is configurable through its example tmux.conf file and man page. Built atop minimal dependencies, libevent 2.x and ncurses, it requires only a C compiler, make, pkg-config, and a Yacc for building. tmux’s lightweight, single-screen architecture, extensive documentation, and cross-platform support make it a robust, standards-compliant solution for managing terminal workflows efficiently.
Other Popular Alternatives & Related Software
TmuxAI
TmuxAI is an intelligent terminal assistant that lives inside your tmux sessions. Unlike other CLI AI tools, TmuxAI observes and understands the content of your tmux panes, providing assistance without requiring you to change your workflow or interrupt your terminal sessions.
Think of TmuxAI as a pair programmer that sits beside you, watching your terminal environment exactly as you see it. It can understand what you're working on across multiple panes, help solve problems and execute commands on your behalf in a dedicated execution pane.
TmuxAI's design philosophy mirrors the way humans collaborate at the terminal. Just as a colleague sitting next to you would observe your screen, understand context from what's visible, and help accordingly, TmuxAI:
Observes: Reads the visible content in all your panes
Communicates: Uses a dedicated chat pane for interaction
Acts: Can execute commands in a separate execution pane (with your permission)
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Byobu
It was originally designed to provide elegant enhancements to the otherwise functional, plain, practical GNU Screen, for the Ubuntu server distribution. Byobu now includes an enhanced profile, convenient keybindings, configuration utilities, and toggle-able system status notifications for both the GNU Screen window manager and the more modern Tmux terminal multiplexer, and works on most Linux, BSD, and Mac distributions. Byobu includes an enhanced profile, configuration utilities, and system status notifications for the GNU screen window manager as well as the Tmux terminal multiplexer. Byobu is developed and released as free software under the GPLv3.
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xterm
xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System, first released to emulate DEC VT102 and Tektronix 4014 hardware and provide a windowed interface for applications that cannot access X directly. Each xterm window runs as a separate process, locally or remotely, while sharing keyboard and mouse input with only the focused window receiving events. It implements ANSI/ISO color support via the “new” color model for background erase and recognizes most VT220 control sequences, along with select features from VT320, VT420, and VT520 devices. Over its history, xterm’s terminal description evolved from VT102 (pre-1996) to VT220 (1996–2012) and, since 2012, to VT420, ensuring compatibility with modern applications. Xterm remains actively maintained and extensible through companion tools like luit for encoding support and the X Toolkit for resource configuration, making it a complete, standards-compliant emulator for Unix-based environments.
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Zellij
Zellij is a workspace aimed at developers, ops-oriented people, and terminal enthusiasts, designed around the philosophy that one must not sacrifice simplicity for power, delivering a great out-of-the-box experience together with advanced features. Geared toward both beginners and power users, it offers deep customizability and personal automation through layouts, true multiplayer collaboration, unique UX elements such as floating and stacked panes, and an innovative resizing algorithm that automatically places new panes in the optimal location. A plugin system enables creation of custom pane types in any language compiling to WebAssembly, while a comprehensive CLI introduces Command Panes for running and rerunning commands in dedicated panes and provides actions like run, edit, and rename-pane. Zellij’s single-process core ensures responsive performance, and its batteries-included approach gives users a terminal workspace with everything needed for modern development workflows.
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Pricing
Starting Price:
Free
Free Version:
Free Version available.
Integrations
Company Information
tmux
United States
github.com/tmux/tmux/
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Product Details
Platforms Supported
Mac
Linux
Training
Documentation
Support
Online
