claude-tmux

Connect to remote hosts via SSH in tmux panes. Manage saved hosts, open ad-hoc connections, and interact with remote sessions from Claude Code.

Features

• Saved host management -- add, remove, list, and connect to named hosts from a JSON config
• Ad-hoc connections -- connect to any user@host without saving it first
• Idempotent connections -- reconnects dead panes, reuses live ones
• SSH config import -- bulk-import hosts from ~/.ssh/config
• Eternal Terminal support -- opt-in et for hosts that benefit from persistent connections
• Pane health monitoring -- check which remote panes are alive or dead
• Graceful disconnect -- sends exit before killing panes

Installation

From marketplace (recommended)

# Add the hex-plugins marketplace (once)
/plugin marketplace add hex/claude-marketplace

# Install the plugin
/plugin install claude-tmux

From GitHub

/plugin install hex/claude-tmux

Manual

git clone https://github.com/hex/claude-tmux.git
claude --plugin-dir /path/to/claude-tmux

Requirements

• tmux (3.0+)
• jq (for JSON host management)
• SSH client with key-based authentication configured
• Eternal Terminal (optional) -- used when a host has "use_et": true

Usage

Interactive host selection

/remote

When called without arguments, presents saved hosts as selectable options.

Connect to a saved host

/remote my-server

Idempotent -- if already connected to that host, reports the existing pane instead of creating a duplicate.

Connect ad-hoc

/remote user@192.168.1.50

List saved hosts

/remote list

Add a saved host

/remote add staging deploy@staging.example.com

Import from SSH config

/remote import-ssh

Parses ~/.ssh/config and adds any hosts not already in remote-hosts.json.

Close a remote pane

/remote close my-server

Sends exit for a graceful disconnect, then kills the pane.

Check active remote panes

/remote status

Reports pane health (alive/dead) and offers to reconnect dead connections.

Saved Hosts

Hosts are stored in remote-hosts.json at the plugin root:

{
  "my-server": {
    "host": "10.0.0.5",
    "user": "admin",
    "key": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519",
    "ssh_opts": "-o IdentitiesOnly=yes",
    "description": "Home server (LAN)"
  }
}

Fields:

• host (required) -- hostname or IP
• user (required) -- SSH username
• port (optional) -- SSH port (default: 22)
• key (optional) -- path to SSH private key
• ssh_opts (optional) -- additional SSH options
• command (optional) -- command to run on connect (e.g., tmux new -A -s main)
• use_et (optional) -- set to true to use Eternal Terminal instead of SSH
• description (optional) -- human-readable label

Remote Pane Interaction

Once connected, interact with remote panes using tmux:

# Send a command
tmux send-keys -t <pane_id> "uptime" Enter

# Capture output
tmux capture-pane -t <pane_id> -p -S -10

# Find remote panes by @remote tag
for p in $(tmux list-panes -a -F '#{pane_id}'); do
  n=$(tmux show-options -p -t "$p" -v @remote 2>/dev/null) && [ -n "$n" ] && echo "$p $n"
done

The Remote SSH via tmux skill activates automatically when working with established remote connections, providing detailed patterns for sending commands, capturing output, and managing sessions.

Development

Testing

# Run all automated tests (requires bats)
./tests/run_tests.sh

# Or run bats directly
bats tests/

Plugin Structure

claude-tmux/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json
├── commands/
│   └── remote.md
├── skills/
│   └── remote/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── scripts/
│   ├── close.sh
│   ├── connect.sh
│   └── hosts.sh
├── tests/
│   ├── close.bats
│   ├── connect.bats
│   ├── hosts.bats
│   ├── run_tests.sh
│   └── test_helper.bash
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

License

MIT