Tmux Tilish

Changes in this fork:

A lot of keybindings are configurable using set -g @tilish-<option> "<val>"

This is a plugin that makes tmux behave more like a typical dynamic window manager. It is heavily inspired by i3wm, and most keybindings are taken directly from there. However, I have made some adjustments to make these keybindings more consistent with vim: using hjkl instead of jkl; for directions, and using vim's definitions of "split" and "vsplit". There is also an "easy mode" available for non-vim users, which uses arrow keys instead of hjkl.

The plugin has been verified to work on tmux v1.9, v2.6, v2.7, v2.9, and v3.0. Some features are only available on newer versions of tmux (currently v2.7+), but I hope to provide at least basic support for most tmux versions in active use. If you encounter any problems, please file an issue and I'll try to look into it.

Why?

Okay, so who is this plugin for anyway? You may be interested in this if:

You're using or interested in using tmux, but find the default keybindings a bit clunky. This lets you try out an alternative keybinding paradigm, which uses a modifier key (Alt) instead of a prefix key (Ctrl + b). The plugin also makes it easier to do automatic tiling via tmux layouts, as opposed to splitting panes manually.
You use i3wm, but also do remote work over ssh + tmux. This lets you use similar keybindings in both contexts.
You also use other platforms like Gnome, Mac, or WSL. You want to take your i3wm muscle memory with you via tmux.
You're not really using i3wm anymore, but you did like how it handled terminals and workspaces. You'd like to keep working that way in terminals, without using i3wm or sway for your whole desktop.
You use a window manager that is similar to i3wm, e.g. dwm, and want to have that workflow in tmux too.

Quickstart

The easiest way to install this plugin is via the Tmux Plugin Manager. Just add the following to ~/.tmux.conf, then press Ctrl + b followed by Shift + i to install it (assuming default prefix key):

set -g @plugin 'farzadmf/tmux-tilish'

For tmux v2.7+, you can customize which layout is used as default for new workspaces. To do so, add this to ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g @tilish-default 'main-vertical'

Just replace main-vertical with one of the layouts from the tmux man page:

Description	Name
split then vsplit	`main-horizontal`
only split	`even-vertical`
vsplit then split	`main-vertical`
only vsplit	`even-horizontal`
fully tiled	`tiled`

The words "split" and "vsplit" refer to the layouts you get in vim when running :split and :vsplit, respectively. (Unfortunately, what is called a "vertical" and "horizontal" split varies between programs.) If you do not set this option, tilish will not autoselect any layout; you can still choose layouts manually using the keybindings listed below.

After performing the steps above, you should read the list of keybindings. For further configuration options:

If you use nvim or vim, consider integrating it with tilish.
If you do not use vim or kak, consider activating easy mode.
If you use kak or emacs, consider activating prefix mode.
If you use tmux within i3wm or sway, see this section.
If you like dmenu, check out the application launcher.
If it doesn't work, check your terminal settings.

It is also recommended that you add the following to the top of your .tmux.conf:

set -s escape-time 0
set -g base-index 1

The first line prevents e.g. Esc + h from triggering the Alt + h keybinding, preventing common misbehavior when using vim in tmux. This option is automatically set by tmux-sensible, if you use that. The second line makes workspace numbers go from 1-10 instead of 0-9, which makes more sense on a keyboard where the number row starts at 1. However, tilish explicitly checks this setting when mapping keys, and works fine without it.

Keybindings

Finally, here is a list of the actual keybindings. Most are taken from i3wm. Below, a "workspace" is what tmux would call a "window" and vim would call a "tab", while a "pane" is what i3wm would call a "window" and vim would call a "split".

NOTE: a bunch of the following keys can be overridden through the options (see below).

Keybinding	Description
`Alt` + `0`-`9`	Switch to workspace number 0-9
`Alt` + `Shift` + `0`-`9`	Move pane to workspace 0-9
`Alt` + `hjkl`	Move focus left/down/up/right
`Alt` + `Shift` + `hjkl`	Move pane left/down/up/right (NOTE: the arrow keys are always bound)
`Alt` + `Enter`	Create a new pane at "the end" of the current layout
`Alt` + `s`	Switch to layout: split then vsplit
`Alt` + `Shift` + `s`	Switch to layout: only split
`Alt` + `v`	Switch to layout: vsplit then split
`Alt` + `Shift` + `v`	Switch to layout: only vsplit
`Alt` + `t`	Switch to layout: fully tiled
`Alt` + `z`	Switch to layout: zoom (fullscreen)
`Alt` + `r`	Refresh current layout
`Alt` + `n`	Name/rename current window
`Alt` + `Shift` + `q`	Quit (close) pane
`Alt` + `Shift` + `e`	Exit (detach) tmux
`Alt` + `Shift` + `c`	Reload config

The Alt + 0 and Alt + Shift + 0 bindings are "smart": depending on base-index, they either act on workspace 0 or 10.

The following options can be used to override some keys mentioned in the above table (if they're not set, the default value will be used):

set -g @tilish-refresh "..." (default r)
set -g @tilish-rename "..." (default n)

The keybindings that move panes between workspaces assume a US keyboard layout. However, you can configure tilish for international keyboards by providing a string @tilish-shiftnum prepared by pressing Shift + 1234567890. For instance, for a UK keyboard, you would configure it as follows:

set -g @tilish-shiftnum '!"£$%^&*()'

Your terminal must support sending keycodes like M-£ for the above to work. For instance, a UK keyboard layout works fine on urxvt, but does not work by default on kitty or alacritty, which may require additional configuration.

Bindings the can be disabled through options

The rename option can be disabled if set to --- like this:

set -g @tilish-rename '---'
The new_pane option, which defaults to Enter resulting in the combination of Alt + Enter to create a new pane, can be disabled if set to --- like this:

set -g @tilish-new_pane '---'

Auto-refresh hooks

By default, we set hooks to auto-refresh the window layout when a pane is created/deleted. The setting can be controlled using @tilish-refresh_hooks. It's a 2-character (default is 'yy'):

First character enables/disables auto-refreshing after a pane is created (after-split-window)
Second character enables/disables auto-refreshing after a pane is deleted (pane-exited)

So, for example, to disable the hooks, we would do something like this:

set -g @tilish-refresh_hooks 'nn'

Layout keys

We use some keys to manipulate the window layout. The setting is controlled through the option @tilish-layout_keys, where the default value is sSvVtz, representing the following:

First character (s) is used to switch to layout main-horizontal
Second character (S) is used to switch to layout even-vertical
Third character (v) is used to switch to layout main-vertical
Fourth character (V) is used to switch to layout even-horizontal
Fifth character (t) is used to switch to layout tiled
Sixth character (z) is used to switch to layout zoom

In order to override a key, you need to specify the complete string and only change the ones you desire. For example, to use i and I instead of v and V, respectively, we would do something like this:

set -g @tilish-layout_keys 'sSiItz'

To disable a key, you can set it to _; for example, to disable mod-t to switch to tiled layout, we can do:

set -g @tilish-layout_keys 'sSiI_z'

Easy mode

To make the plugin more accessible for people who do not use vim as well, there is also an "easy mode" available, which uses arrow keys instead of the vim-style hjkl keys.

There's a setting called tilish_easymode, consisting of two characters that enables/disables the "easy mode" for pane focus/movment.

The default value is 'nn', which means to use vim-style keybindings for both focus and movement:

The first character corresponds to pane focus.
The second character corresponds to pane movement.

For example, by doing this in .tmux.conf:

set -g @tilish-easymode 'ny'

we can enable the "easy mode" only for pane movement, which means the revised keybindings for the pane movement then become:

Keybinding	Description
`Alt` + `Shift` + `←↓↑→`	Move pane left/down/up/right

Or by doing this:

set -g @tilish-easymode 'yn'

will enable arrows for pane focus. The revised keybindings for the pane focus then become:

Keybinding	Description
`Alt` + `←↓↑→`	Move focus left/down/up/right

Prefix mode

Note that this feature is currently only available in tmux v2.4+. The "prefix mode" uses a prefix key instead of Alt, and may be particularly interesting for users of editors like kak and emacs that use Alt key a lot. To activate this mode, you define a prefix keybinding in your tmux.conf. For instance, to use Alt + Space as your tilish prefix, add:

set -g @tilish-prefix 'M-space'

Actions that would usually be done by Alt + key are now accomplished by pressing the prefix and then key. For example, opening a split is usually Alt + Enter, but with the above prefix this becomes Alt + Space then Enter. Note that the tilish prefix is different from the tmux prefix, and should generally be bound to a different key. For the prefix key, you can choose basically any keybinding that tmux supports, e.g. F12 or C-s or anything else you may prefer.

All these keybindings are repeat'able, so you do not have to press the prefix key again if you type multiple commands fast enough. Thus, pressing Alt + Space followed by hj would move to the left and then down, without requiring another prefix activation. The tmux option repeat-time can be used to customize this timeout. Personally, I find the default 500ms timeout somewhat short, and would recommend that you increase this to at least a second if you use tilish:

set -g repeat-time 1000

Application launcher

In i3wm, the keybinding Alt+d is by default mapped to the application launcher dmenu, which can be practical to quickly open apps. If you have fzf available on your system, tilish can offer a similar application launcher using the same keyboard shortcut. To enable this functionality, add the following to your ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g @tilish-dmenu 'on'

Basically, pressing Alt+d will then pop up a split that lets you fuzzy-search through all executables in your system $PATH. Selecting an executable runs the command in that split. When you want to start an interactive process, this can be more convenient than using Alt+Enter and typing the command name. This is currently only available in tmux v2.7+.

Terminal compatibility

Not all terminals support all keybindings. The plugin has been verified to work well with: iTerm2 and Terminal.app on macOS; alacritty, kitty, terminator, gnome-terminal, and urxvt on Linux; wsltty and alacritty on Windows. Some of these terminals bind Alt+Enter to fullscreen, so you have to disable that for the tilish "new pane" binding to work. Moreover, gnome-terminal steals the "switch workspace" keybindings Alt+0-9 if you open multiple tabs. If you use macOS, you likely want to configure the Option key to send either Esc+ (iTerm2) or Meta (Terminal.app) under the keyboard settings of the app.

If you use xterm, almost none of the Alt keys work by default. That can be fixed by adding this to ~/.Xresources:

XTerm*eightBitControl: false
XTerm*eightBitInput: false
XTerm.omitTranslation: fullscreen
XTerm*fullscreen: never

Usage inside i3wm

If you use tilish inside i3wm or sway, keybindings like Alt+Enter may spawn a new terminal in your window manager instead of a new terminal pane inside tmux. The window manager always takes priority — so if both i3wm and tilish define the same keybinding, i3wm will intercept the keybinding before tmux sees it.

The best way to solve this is perhaps to change your window manager modifier key to Super, also known as the "Windows key". As described in the i3wm user guide, this can be done by changing $mod to Mod4 in your i3wm config. That way, pressing e.g. Alt+Enter opens a new terminal pane inside tmux, while Super+Enter opens a new terminal in i3wm.

Alternatively, tilish also supports a Prefix mode. This is in my opinion less ergonomic than the default tilish keybindings. However, it does not require the use of Alt, and is therefore compatible with the default i3wm keybindings.

Integration with [neo]vim

There are plugins such as:

tmux-navigate
vim-tmux-navigator
smart-splits.nvim which both allow seamless navigation/resizing between vim splits and tmux splits. The former has an advantage that it also works over ssh connections, and that it plays better with zooming (Alt+z). If you use either plugin, you can tell tilish to make it setup the keybindings for you. (If you don't, tilish will use fallback keybindings that don't integrate with vim.)

Navigate

It is perhaps easiest to setup tmux-navigate. Just load navigate after tilish in your tmux.conf, and set the option @tilish-navigate to on to integrate them. Thus a full working minimal example of a tpm-based tmux.conf would be:

# List of plugins.
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'
set -g @plugin 'farzadmf/tmux-tilish'
set -g @plugin 'sunaku/tmux-navigate'

# Plugin options.
set -g @tilish-navigate 'on'

# Install `tpm` if needed.
if "test ! -d ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm" \
   "run 'git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm && ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/bin/install_plugins'"

# Activate the plugins.
run -b "~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm"

No further setup is required; tilish sets up the keybindings, and navigate handles seamless navigation of vim/nvim splits. However, if you also want this seamless navigation over ssh connections, you should install the accompanying vim plugin; see their website for more information.

Navigator

To install vim-tmux-navigator, you should first install the plugin for vim or nvim, as described on their website. Then place this in your ~/.config/nvim/init.vim (nvim) or ~/.vimrc (vim):

noremap <silent> <m-h> :TmuxNavigateLeft<cr>
noremap <silent> <m-j> :TmuxNavigateDown<cr>
noremap <silent> <m-k> :TmuxNavigateUp<cr>
noremap <silent> <m-l> :TmuxNavigateRight<cr>

You then just have to tell tilish that you want the integration:

set -g @tilish-navigator 'on'

A minimal working example of a ~/.tmux.conf with tpm would then be:

# List of plugins.
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'
set -g @plugin 'jabirali/tmux-tilish'

# Plugin options.
set -g @tilish-navigator 'on'

# Install `tpm` if needed.
if "test ! -d ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm" \
   "run 'git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm && ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/bin/install_plugins'"

# Activate the plugins.
run -b "~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm"

Smart-Splits

Although this plugin also provides navigation, as of now, we only support the resizing of splits. The default directions used as up/down/left/right are tvfg. They might seem random, but on a "normal" keyboard, you can see how they can represent the directions 😉.

You to setup the plugin in neovim (see their Website), and then tell tilish to enable the integration:

set -g @tilish-smart_splits 'on'

And you can customize the keys (the order is left/down/up/right); for example, the default is:

set -g @tilish-smart_splits_dirs 'fvtg'

There's also the variable @tilish-smart_splits_dirs_large, which resizes the panes in larger deltas. Different delta values for x and y directions can be specified using the @tilish-smart_splits_large_dx and @tilish-smart_splits_large_dy.

Default values for the options mentioned above (there's no need for these lines in your config; there are here for reference):

set -g @tilish-smart_splits_dirs_large 'sxed'
set -g @tilish-smart_splits_large_dx 10
set -g @tilish-smart_splits_large_dx 6

Related projects

3mux
tmux-navigate
vim-tmux-navigator
vim-i3wm-tmux-navigator

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README.md

README.md

Table of Contents

Tmux Tilish

Changes in this fork:

Why?

Quickstart

Keybindings

Bindings the can be disabled through options

Auto-refresh hooks

Layout keys

Easy mode

Prefix mode

Application launcher

Terminal compatibility

Usage inside i3wm

Integration with [neo]vim

Navigate

Navigator

Smart-Splits

Related projects

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

Table of Contents

Tmux Tilish

Changes in this fork:

Why?

Quickstart

Keybindings

Bindings the can be disabled through options

Auto-refresh hooks

Layout keys

Easy mode

Prefix mode

Application launcher

Terminal compatibility

Usage inside i3wm

Integration with [neo]vim

Navigate

Navigator

Smart-Splits

Related projects