iterm2-shell-setup

Instructions for setting up and troubleshooting iTerm2 shell integration on macOS, including tmux and remote SSH sessions. Shell integration connects terminal commands with features such as status marks, history, and captured output.

In plain words
What is it for?
It guides installation and configuration of command marks, command status, profile switching, recent directories, searchable history, remote file downloads, long-command alerts, captured output, and tmux or SSH use.
Why use it?
It helps restore terminal features that are unavailable or limited when shell integration is not installed or configured.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/lyhcode/agent-skills/iterm2-shell-setup
Any agent
npx skills add lyhcode/agent-skills --skill iterm2-shell-setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/lyhcode/agent-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 109 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,534 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00109 $0.01534
Opus 5 $0.00055 $0.00767
Sonnet 5 $0.00022 $0.00307
Haiku 4.5 $0.00011 $0.00153

Measured 2d ago against content hash d906bf0e5611, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

iterm2-shell-setup scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -L https://iterm2.com/shell_integration/zsh -o ~/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh
skills/iterm2-shell-setup/SKILL.md · 161 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 161 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

iTerm2 Shell Integration & Environment Setup

Help the user install, configure, and troubleshoot iTerm2's shell integration features, plus tmux integration and remote SSH setup.

User's Environment

  • iTerm2 3.6.8 on macOS, using zsh
  • Shell integration: not currently installed

What Shell Integration Enables

Shell integration is the foundation for many of iTerm2's best features. Without it, these features don't work:

  • Command marks — Navigate between prompts with Cmd+Shift+Up/Down
  • Command status — Red/blue marks showing success/failure of each command
  • Automatic profile switching — Switch profiles based on hostname/user/path
  • Recent directories — Frecency-sorted directory list in the toolbelt
  • Command history — Searchable history across all sessions
  • File download — Right-click to download remote files via SCP
  • Long command alerts — Notification when a command finishes after N seconds
  • Captured output — Filter and interact with command output
  • Auto Composer — Native text editing for command input

Installation

Method 1: Automatic (Recommended)

iTerm2 can load shell integration automatically without modifying shell config files:

Settings > Profiles > General > Command > enable "Load shell integration automatically"

This injects the integration at session start without touching ~/.zshrc.

Method 2: Menu Install

iTerm2 > Install Shell Integration

This downloads the scripts and adds a source line to ~/.zshrc.

Method 3: Manual Install for zsh

Add to ~/.zshrc:

test -e "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh" && source "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh"

Then download the script:

curl -L https://iterm2.com/shell_integration/zsh -o ~/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh

Verification

After installation, check that it's working:

  1. Open a new iTerm2 tab
  2. You should see a blue triangle mark at the left of each prompt
  3. Run echo $ITERM_SESSION_ID — should output a value
  4. Check: type iterm2_print_user_vars should find the function

Read the full file on GitHub · 161 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 161 lines · 109 tokens per session scan A d906bf0e5611

Subscribe to this mod's changes

iterm2-shell-setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository lyhcode/agent-skills (2 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 109 tokens to every session and 1,534 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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