Preserve separate command history for each terminal across restarts

[ckizer]

When I quit and reopen cmux, or reboot my computer, I’d like each restored terminal to remember its own command history.
Currently, pressing ↑ and ↓ seems to cycle through a shared history of commands from other terminals, rather than just the commands I ran in that specific tab or workspace.
What I’d like:

• Each terminal keeps its own command history.
• That history is preserved when I quit cmux or reboot.
• Pressing ↑ and ↓ in a restored terminal cycles through that terminal’s previous commands.
  Is this already possible through a cmux setting or shell configuration? I haven’t been able to find it. If it isn’t supported, I’d love to request it as a feature.

[lawrencecchen]

Should be possible since cmux exposes a per-terminal CMUX_SURFACE_ID and zsh/bash can use it for a separate history file and disable shared

Haven't tested myself yet but point your agent to https://gist.github.com/lawrencecchen/c35906e356ed852a6f0b30f73f8ea423 ?

[ckizer]

Thanks @lawrencecchen! I’ve installed the zsh setup from your gist with my agent’s help. The isolated tests passed; I still need to verify the full quit/reopen experience in cmux.

Could this be exposed as a simple option in cmux’s Preferences, such as ‘Remember command history separately for each terminal’?

From my perspective as a product designer, I’d recommend making this the default. I treat each tab as a dedicated place for a particular task. If I reopen my web-server tab and press ↑, I expect to get bun run dev:web:full, the last command I ran there—not a command from an unrelated tab. When cmux restores the tab and its working directory, it feels natural for that tab’s command history to come back with it.

Having to edit shell configuration to get that behavior was difficult to discover. A built-in preference would make it much more approachable, with an option to use shared history for people who prefer that.

Are there drawbacks or common workflows that would make separate history a poor default? I’d love to understand the tradeoffs. Thanks for helping with this!