tmux-claude-hatch

A tmux plugin (plus an optional Claude Code plugin) that runs a Claude Code session in a popup for each project directory. Open the hatch, hand Claude the work, close it and get back to your editor. Each session lives in its own nested tmux session, so closing the hatch never interrupts it. When you want to check in, an fzf picker lists every running session, shows what each one is doing, and jumps you straight to it. And when a session finishes or needs your attention, it rings a bell that highlights the window you launched it from — so you know where to go without even opening the picker.

Simple by design: it's just a few shell scripts.

Why / philosophy

• Who it's for
  • People who want to stay in their editor — (Neo)vim, Emacs — in the main tmux session
  • People who still read, write, and review the code themselves
  • People who'd rather have a small tool than a full-blown one just to manage agent sessions
• Who it's not for
  • People whose focus is the agent's chat interface rather than the code
  • People who want one tool for sessions across several AI providers — this one is Claude Code only
  • People who run a swarm of agents and don't read or write code themselves

Features

• A central picker (prefix + u) listing every running Claude agent — several in one project, and any running loose in an ordinary pane.
• Live status per agent — working / waiting / idle — read straight from the session files Claude Code keeps, so you instantly see which need you. No setup.
• A live preview of each agent's screen right in the picker.
• Smart jump — selecting an agent switches your client to the window it was launched from, then resumes it in a popup over it.
• A launcher (prefix + y) that opens/attaches a Claude session for the current directory.
• Quick kill (ctrl-x) of a finished agent from the picker.
• Copy location (ctrl-y) — puts an agent's session:window.pane target on the clipboard, ready for tmux send-keys -t and friends.
• Bell forwarding — a bell in a dedicated session highlights the window you launched it from, so you notice even without opening the picker (one-time Claude Code setup).

Prerequisites

• tmux ≥ 3.2 (for display-popup)
• fzf — the picker UI
• jq — parses Claude Code's session files
• Claude Code ≥ 2.1.139 — for the claude agents command, the fallback when the session files can't be read (claude --version to check)
• bash; macOS or Linux

Installation

tpm

Add to ~/.tmux.conf (or ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf):

set -g @plugin 'craftzdog/tmux-claude-hatch'

Then hit prefix + I to install.

Keybinding note: by default the plugin binds prefix + y (launch) and prefix + u (list). If your config binds those elsewhere, either change the options, or make sure the plugin loads after your own bindings (put run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm' after them) so the one you want wins.

(Optional) Claude Code plugin

Independent of the tmux plugin above. It ships the Claude Code hook configuration this plugin wants, so you don't have to hand-edit ~/.claude/settings.json:

• Rings the terminal bell when an agent ends a turn, asks for permission, or asks you a question — the moments the picker calls idle and waiting. That is what bell forwarding needs in order to highlight the window you launched the agent from.
• Refreshes the picker's agent cache on those same events, plus session start/end and prompt submit. The picker paints its first frame from that cache (unless @claude_picker_cache is 'off'), so without this it can be stale — showing working for an agent that has been waiting on you.

/plugin marketplace add craftzdog/tmux-claude-hatch
/plugin install tmux-claude-hatch@tmux-claude-hatch

See plugins/tmux-claude-hatch for exactly what it registers.

Usage

Key	Action
prefix + y	Launch (or re-attach to) a Claude session for the current directory, in a popup
prefix + d	Close the popup and go back to your window; the Claude session keeps running
prefix + u	Open the agent picker

Inside the picker:

Key	Action
enter	Jump to the agent
ctrl-x	Kill the highlighted agent
ctrl-y	Copy the highlighted agent's location (e.g. claude-88074b0e:0.0) and close
↑ / ↓, type to filter	fzf navigation

Agents needing your attention (waiting, idle) sort to the top. Set @claude_sort 'recent' to sort by last activity instead, regardless of status.

Every running Claude gets its own row — the picker identifies each by its process, not by its tmux session. So several agents in one project all show up separately, as does a Claude you started by hand in an ordinary pane.

Options

Set any of these before the plugin loads (defaults shown):

set -g @claude_launch_key     'y'        # prefix key: launch/open for current dir
set -g @claude_list_key       'u'        # prefix key: open the picker
set -g @claude_command        'claude'   # command run in new sessions
set -g @claude_args           ''         # extra args appended to the command
set -g @claude_session_prefix 'claude-'  # tmux session name prefix
set -g @claude_popup_width     '90%'     # popup width
set -g @claude_popup_height    '90%'     # popup height
set -g @claude_fzf_options    ''         # extra options passed to the fzf picker
set -g @claude_picker_cache   'on'       # paint the picker's first frame from a cache
set -g @claude_sort           'status'   # picker order: 'status' or 'recent'
set -g @claude_forward_bell   'on'       # highlight the origin window on a bell

For example, to skip permission prompts in launched sessions:

set -g @claude_args '--dangerously-skip-permissions'

Manual installation

If you don't use tpm:

git clone https://github.com/craftzdog/tmux-claude-hatch ~/clone/path

Add to ~/.tmux.conf, then reload (prefix + r or tmux source ~/.tmux.conf):

run-shell ~/clone/path/claude_hatch.tmux

Customizations

Making Claude ring the bell

Forwarding relays a bell; it cannot create one. Claude Code has to emit it. The Claude Code plugin takes care of that; the alternatives below do the same job by hand.

Via Claude's own notification settings

Two settings decide this — and they live in different files.

How it notifies — ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "preferredNotifChannel": "terminal_bell"
}

Only terminal_bell and iterm2_with_bell write a real \a. iterm2, kitty and ghostty send escape sequences that tmux does not count as a bell, notifications_disabled sends nothing, and the default auto picks by terminal — so pin it.

When it notifies — ~/.claude.json, the global config (settings.json ignores this key and drops it silently):

{
  "messageIdleNotifThresholdMs": 0
}

Claude rings once it has sat idle this long. The default is 60000, long enough that you'd normally have gone back to look before it fires; 0 rings the moment a turn ends.

Via a hook

A hook is the way to keep the bell while pointing preferredNotifChannel at an OS-notification channel instead. This is what the Claude Code plugin registers; to wire it by hand, in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "printf '\\a' 2>/dev/null > /dev/tty || { [ -n \"$TMUX_PANE\" ] && printf '\\a' 2>/dev/null > \"$(tmux display-message -p -t \"$TMUX_PANE\" '#{pane_tty}' 2>/dev/null)\"; } || true"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Stop fires the moment a turn ends, with no idle timer involved. The bell goes to /dev/tty — the hook's controlling terminal, which inside tmux is the pane's own pty, exactly where Claude's built-in bell would land. The $TMUX_PANE branch covers a hook running without a controlling terminal, resolving the pane's tty through tmux instead; the trailing || true keeps a failed bell from failing the hook.

Note that 2>/dev/null comes before the /dev/tty redirection. A failed redirection is reported by the shell itself, so a trailing 2>/dev/null is applied too late to suppress it — with the operands the other way round, a hook running without a controlling terminal prints bash: /dev/tty: Device not configured on every turn.

Use the same command under Notification with the permission_prompt matcher to ring when Claude asks for permission, or under PreToolUse matching AskUserQuestion to ring when it asks you a question.

Set @claude_forward_bell 'off' to disable forwarding altogether.

Customizing the fzf picker

@claude_fzf_options is passed straight to fzf, so you can add your own bindings. Here is a vim-style example:

set -g @claude_fzf_options "\
  --prompt 'nav> ' \
  --bind 'j:down' \
  --bind 'k:up' \
  --bind 'q:abort' \
  --bind 'x:execute-silent(kill {3})+reload(sleep 0.3; \$CLAUDE_PICKER --list)' \
  --bind 'i:unbind(j,k,q,i,a,x)+change-prompt(filter> )' \
  --bind 'a:unbind(j,k,q,i,a,x)+change-prompt(filter> )' \
  --bind 'esc:rebind(j,k,q,i,a,x)+change-prompt(nav> )'"

The picker opens in nav mode:

Key	Action
j / k	move down / up
i / a	switch to filter mode — type to fuzzy-match
x	kill the highlighted agent (like the built-in ctrl-x)
q	close the picker
enter	jump to the agent (both modes)
esc	filter mode → back to nav

Only the bound keys are special in nav mode; any other key still filters as you type. x reloads the list through $CLAUDE_PICKER, a path the picker exports for exactly this — write it as \$CLAUDE_PICKER inside the double-quoted value above so tmux stores a literal $ (in a single-quoted value, use a bare $CLAUDE_PICKER).

License

MIT © Takuya Matsuyama