Core Concepts

Understanding tmux's hierarchical organization: Sessions → Windows → Panes

📋 Sessions

Persistent workspaces that survive disconnects

A Session is a collection of windows. It's the highest level of organization in tmux. You can detach from a session (leaving it running in the background) and reattach later. This is tmux's superpower.

bash

# Create named session
tmux new-session -s myproject

# Attach to session
tmux attach -t myproject

# List all sessions
tmux ls

# Smart attach-or-create
tmux new -A -s dev

🪟 Windows

Tabs within a session for organizing tasks

Windows are like tabs in a browser. Each window can contain multiple panes and has its own command history.

bash

Ctrl+b c     # Create window
Ctrl+b n     # Next window
Ctrl+b p     # Previous window
Ctrl+b 0-9   # Switch to window number
Ctrl+b ,     # Rename window
Ctrl+b &     # Kill window

📐 Panes

Split regions within a window

Panes split windows into multiple terminals. Essential for monitoring logs while editing code.

bash

Ctrl+b %     # Split horizontally
Ctrl+b "     # Split vertically
Ctrl+b ←↑→↓  # Navigate panes
Ctrl+b z     # Zoom pane (toggle fullscreen)
Ctrl+b x     # Kill pane

🔥 Workflow Example: Create a session for your project, use windows for frontend/backend/testing, and split panes within each window to show code editor + logs + terminal. Everything persists when you disconnect!

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