sess — Fuzzy Tmux Session Manager in 3 Scripts

The Problem

Every developer who uses tmux hits the same wall: sessions pile up, names get forgotten, and tmux ls becomes a wall of text you scroll through while alt-tabbing between terminals.

What most people do

1

tmux new -s “work” — create a session

2

tmux new -s “kri-dev” — another one

3

tmux ls — see 12 sessions, none named intuitively

4

tmux attach -t 3 — which one was 3 again?

5

Give up, open a new terminal

The core issue: tmux gives you sessions but no good way to navigate them. tmux ls is a list, not an interface.

The Solution: 3 Scripts

A complete session management layer on top of tmux. Three files, under 150 lines total, zero config required.

sess

fzf

Session picker with preview

tm

1 cmd

Auto-name from directory

tmux.conf

Ctrl-a

Sane prefix + splits

Why fzf? It gives you fuzzy filtering, live preview, and keyboard-only navigation. Type a few letters, hit enter, you’re in. No scrolling through output.

Before & After

Before

Commands to switch	3–5 per switch
Session naming	Ad hoc, forgotten
New session	tmux new -s name -c dir
Session visibility	tmux ls (text dump)
Panes	Ctrl-b % and ” (awkward prefix)

After

Commands to switch	1 (sess → pick)
Session naming	Auto from cwd
New session	tm (one word)
Session visibility	fzf with live preview
Panes	Ctrl-a | and Ctrl-a -

sess — The Fuzzy Session Picker

Type sess and get an fzf interface showing all tmux sessions. Attached sessions show ●, detached show ○. Type to filter, hit enter to switch.

sess flow — animated

Key features

• Live preview — hover a session to see its last 20 lines of output
• Attached/detached indicator — ● for attached, ○ for detached
• Tab to create — press TAB to create a new session inline
• Ctrl-r to refresh — re-scans sessions without leaving fzf
• Works inside tmux — uses display-popup as a floating window

The script

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# sess — fzf-powered tmux session picker

sessions=()
while IFS= read -r line; do
  sessions+=("$line")
done < <(tmux list-sessions 2>/dev/null | sort)

# Build fzf input: ● attached / ○ detached
fzf_input=""
for s in "${sessions[@]}"; do
  name=$(echo "$s" | cut -d: -f1)
  windows=$(echo "$s" | grep -oP '\d+ windows?' | head -1)
  attached=$(tmux list-clients -t "$name" &>/dev/null && echo "●" || echo "○")
  fzf_input+="${attached}  ${name}  ${windows}"$'\n'
done

# Run fzf with preview
selected=$(echo "$fzf_input" | fzf \
  --prompt="sess > " \
  --header="● attached  ○ detached  [TAB] new session" \
  --expect=tab \
  --preview="tmux capture-pane -t {2} -p | head -20" \
  --preview-window=right:50%:hidden \
  --height=40% --reverse --border=rounded)

tm — One-Word Session Creation

Type tm in any directory and it creates a session named after that directory. Type tm kri to create a named session. That’s it.

Usage patterns

# In ~/Documents/git/kri — auto-names to "kri"
$ tm
Creating session: kri

# Explicit name
$ tm atlas
Creating session: atlas

# Name + start dir
$ tm monitoring /etc/prometheus
Creating session: monitoring

# Kill a session
$ tm -k old-project
Killed session 'old-project'

# List sessions (plain text)
$ tm -l
kri: 3 windows (created Thu Jul 17 10:00:00 2026)
atlas: 5 windows (created Thu Jul 17 09:30:00 2026)

The magic: tm auto-detects your current directory and uses it as the session name. cd ~/Documents/git/kri && tm creates session “kri” — no typing required.

tmux.conf — Sane Defaults

The config that makes everything work together. Ctrl-a as prefix (screen-style), visual splits, and session management bindings.

Key bindings

Binding	Action
Ctrl-a |	Vertical split (current path)
Ctrl-a -	Horizontal split (current path)
Ctrl-a c	New window (current path)
Ctrl-a s	Open fzf session picker (popup)
Ctrl-a S	Create named session (prompt)
Ctrl-a K	Kill current session (confirm)
Ctrl-a r	Reload tmux.conf
Alt-arrow	Switch pane direction
Ctrl-a 1-5	Quick switch to session N

Status bar

A minimal dark bar showing the session name, current time, and hostname. Window names are compact: 1:bash format.

kri │ 1:bash  2:vim  3:lazygit           14:30 │ machine

Daily Workflow

How a typical day looks with sess + tm.

Morning startup

# SSH into your box — land in tmux automatically
$ ssh lab
$ tm                         # creates "lab" session
$ tm kri                    # creates "kri" session

# Switch between projects
$ sess                      # fzf picker → pick "kri"

# Inside tmux: Ctrl-a s opens the picker as a popup
# Type "av" → filters to "atlas" → Enter → switch

Project work

# cd into any project, tm auto-names it
$ cd ~/Documents/git/persona
$ tm                         # session "persona" created

# Inside tmux: split, work, detach
Ctrl-a |                     # vertical split
Ctrl-a -                     # horizontal split
Ctrl-a d                     # detach

# Later: sess → pick "persona" → resume

Cleanup

# Kill a specific session
$ tm -k old-experiment

# Kill all sessions (nuclear option)
$ tmux kill-server

Key Bindings Cheat Sheet

Shell

sess	Fuzzy session picker
tm	Create/attach (auto-name)
tm name	Create/attach named
tm -k name	Kill session
tm -l	List sessions
tl	Alias for tmux ls
ta name	Alias for tmux attach

Inside tmux

Ctrl-a s	Fzf picker (popup)
Ctrl-a S	Create session (prompt)
Ctrl-a K	Kill session
Ctrl-a |	Vertical split
Ctrl-a -	Horizontal split
Alt-arrows	Switch pane
Ctrl-a r	Reload config

Architecture

How the pieces fit together.

Component overview — animated

Install

30 seconds to set up. Copy the scripts, add one line to your shell rc.

Quick install

# 1. Clone or copy the scripts
$ git clone https://github.com/you/sess.git ~/sess
$ cd ~/sess && bash install.sh

# 2. Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
$ echo 'source ~/.config/tmux/sess.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

# 3. Verify
$ which sess tm
~/.local/bin/sess
~/.local/bin/tm

Prerequisites

Tool	Required	Install
tmux	Yes	apt install tmux
fzf	Yes	apt install fzf
xclip/pbcopy	Optional	For clipboard integration

Cheat Sheet

Session Management
tm
tm name
sess
tm -l
tm -k name
Inside tmux (prefix: Ctrl-a)
Ctrl-a s
Ctrl-a S
Ctrl-a |
Ctrl-a -
Ctrl-a c
Ctrl-a d
Ctrl-a r
Alt-arrows
Ctrl-a 1-5