Personal cheatsheet for my tmux setup. Prefix is Ctrl-b (default).

Many shortcuts below use Alt+key — these require Alacritty’s window.option_as_alt = "OnlyLeft". Use the left Option key. Right Option still types ≥ ñ © ….

Custom Bindings (My Config)

Prefix-Free (no Ctrl-b needed)

Keys Action
Alt+1 … Alt+9 Jump to window 1–9
Alt+h Move focus to pane on the left
Alt+j Move focus to pane below
Alt+k Move focus to pane above
Alt+l Move focus to pane on the right
Alt+c Create new window

Prefix-Based

Keys Action
Ctrl-b b Previous window (overrides default which uses p)
Ctrl-b p Paste from system clipboard via pbpaste
y (copy-mode) Copy selection to system clipboard via pbcopy

Shell Shortcuts (Fish)

Command Expands to
tns <name> tmux new -d -s <name> — create detached session

Default Bindings Worth Knowing

Sessions

Keys Action
tmux new -s <name> New named session (attached)
tns <name> New named session (detached, my alias)
tmux a -t <name> Attach to session by name
tmux ls List sessions
tmux kill-session -t <name> Kill a session
Ctrl-b d Detach from current session
Ctrl-b s Interactive session list
Ctrl-b $ Rename current session

Windows (tabs)

Keys Action
Alt+c (custom) New window
Ctrl-b c New window (default)
Alt+1..9 (custom) Jump to window N
Ctrl-b , Rename current window
Ctrl-b & Kill current window
Ctrl-b n Next window
Ctrl-b b (custom) Previous window
Ctrl-b w Interactive window list

Panes (splits inside a window)

Keys Action
Ctrl-b " Split horizontally (new pane below)
Ctrl-b % Split vertically (new pane right)
Alt+h/j/k/l (custom) Move between panes (vim-style)
Ctrl-b x Kill current pane
Ctrl-b z Zoom (toggle full-screen current pane)
Ctrl-b o Cycle through panes
Ctrl-b q Show pane numbers (press a number to jump)
Ctrl-b ! Convert pane into its own window
Ctrl-b { / } Swap pane with prev/next
Ctrl-b Space Cycle through pane layouts

Resize Panes (hold prefix)

Keys Action
Ctrl-b Ctrl-Up/Down/Left/Right Resize by 1 cell (hold to repeat)
Ctrl-b Alt-Up/Down/Left/Right Resize by 5 cells

Copy Mode

Keys Action
Ctrl-b [ Enter copy mode (scrollback / selection)
q Leave copy mode
Space Start selection
Enter Copy selection (default), or y (vi mode)
y (custom) Copy selection AND pipe to pbcopy
/ ? Forward / backward search

Misc

Keys Action
Ctrl-b ? Show all keybindings
Ctrl-b : Command prompt
Ctrl-b t Big clock

Plugins (TPM)

Installed via tmux-plugins/tpm:

  • tmux-resurrect — save / restore session state.
  • tmux-continuum — auto-save every 15 minutes, restore on start.

TPM controls

Keys Action
Ctrl-b I Install plugins listed in tmux.conf
Ctrl-b U Update plugins
Ctrl-b alt+u Uninstall removed plugins

Resurrect

Keys Action
Ctrl-b Ctrl-s Save environment
Ctrl-b Ctrl-r Restore last save

Server-Wide Settings (Reference)

  • default-shell → /opt/homebrew/bin/fish
  • default-terminal → xterm-256color
  • escape-time → 10ms (low so Alt sequences feel snappy)
  • mouse → on (click panes/windows, drag to resize)
  • automatic-rename → on; format shows current directory basename, with optional AI tool prefix.

Reloading Config

tmux source ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf   # soft reload
tmux kill-server                        # hard reload (kills all sessions)