tmux-ghostty-workflow

Tmux Ghostty Workflow

Use this skill to keep Ghostty simple and let tmux handle named workspaces.

Overview

Apply a low-confusion workflow:

• Ghostty Cmd + T opens a fresh normal terminal tab in ~
• tmux is entered explicitly with short commands
• tmux session names are visible and readable
• save/restore is available with simple commands

Prefer this model unless the user explicitly wants Ghostty to auto-attach into tmux on launch.

Target workflow

Use these conventions:

• Ghostty tabs are just terminal tabs
• tmux sessions are workspaces, for example main, harness, blog
• tmux windows are sub-areas inside one workspace
• tmux panes are splits inside one window

Keep the user's mental model simple:

1. Cmd + T gives a clean terminal in ~
2. ta enters the main tmux workspace
3. tn <name> enters or creates a named workspace
4. ts saves tmux state
5. tr restores tmux state
6. tl lists all tmux sessions

Required config shape

Ghostty

Keep Ghostty opening plain tabs from the home directory. Do not make every new tab auto-attach to the same tmux session.

Expected ~/.config/ghostty/config lines:

working-directory = home

Do not keep a default line like this unless the user explicitly wants it:

command = /opt/homebrew/bin/tmux new-session -A -s main

That pattern makes new Ghostty tabs look like cloned views of the same tmux client, which is confusing for many users.

zsh helpers

Add these helpers in ~/.zshrc:

alias ta='if [ -n "$TMUX" ]; then tmux switch-client -t main 2>/dev/null || tmux new-session -d -s main -c "$HOME" && tmux switch-client -t main; else tmux attach -t main || tmux new -s main -c "$HOME"; fi'

tn() { if [ -z "$1" ]; then echo "usage: tn <session> [dir]"; return 1; fi; local dir="${2:-$HOME}"; if [ -n "$TMUX" ]; then tmux has-session -t "$1" 2>/dev/null || tmux new-session -d -s "$1" -c "$dir"; tmux switch-client -t "$1"; else tmux has-session -t "$1" 2>/dev/null && tmux attach -t "$1" || tmux new-session -s "$1" -c "$dir"; fi }

alias tl='tmux ls'
alias ts='tmux run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-resurrect/scripts/save.sh'
alias tr='tmux run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-resurrect/scripts/restore.sh'