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Usage

tmux-tui runs inside a tmux display-popup, drawing a schematic of your layout that you manipulate with the mouse or keyboard. Switch views with w (windows) / p (panes), or Tab to toggle. The top bar shows the current window and carries the [ quit ], [ windows ]/[ panes ] and [ ? help ] buttons; press ? for an in-app cheat sheet.

Launching

# Ctrl + right-click on any pane, or prefix + g
bind-key -n C-MouseDown3Pane display-popup -E -w 30% -h 30% tmux-tui
bind-key g                   display-popup -E -w 30% -h 30% tmux-tui

Without a binding, from the tmux command prompt (prefix :):

display-popup -E -w 30% -h 30% tmux-tui

Pane mode

Gesture / key Action
drag a box onto another swap the two panes
click a box select it
arrow keys move the selection to the neighbouring pane
Shift + arrows move the selected pane (swap with that neighbour)
\| / - split the selected pane (left-right / top-bottom)
x kill the selected pane (click Yes/No or y/n)
1 2 3 4 5 layout: side-by-side · stacked · main-left · main-top · tiled
space cycle layouts
R rename the current window
right-click context menu: New pane ▸, Kill, Layout, Rename

Layout keys re-arrange panes without swapping their contents — that's tmux select-layout, distinct from the drag-to-swap gesture.

Window mode (mission control)

Every window is drawn as a tile containing its own mini pane-layout.

Gesture / key Action
arrow keys move the focus across the grid, switching window live
Enter enter the focused window and close tmux-tui
click a window switch to it
drag one window onto another reorder (swap-window)
Shift + arrows reorder the focused window across the grid
drag a pane out of a tile into another move that pane across windows (join-pane)
n / x / R new / close / rename window
right-click a tile Rename / New / Close window

Notes

  • Mouse-only is fully supported: the buttons and the kill/rename dialogs are all clickable, so you never need the keyboard if you don't want it.
  • Drops are schematic. You drag boxes that represent panes/windows; tmux-tui issues the corresponding tmux command on drop. See the note on the home page about why live-pane dragging isn't possible.