A Friendlier Tmux Cheat Sheet

Tmux’s defaults are powerful but awkward — Ctrl-b is a stretch, and the split keys (% and ") tell you nothing about which way the screen divides. This is the config I settled on, plus a cheat sheet for the bindings it creates.

The mental model: session → window → pane

Before the keys, the hierarchy. Tmux nests three things:

Session   a whole workspace — survives the terminal closing
 └─ Window   a screen inside the session (like a browser tab)
     └─ Pane   a split region within a window

• Session — a named, persistent collection of windows. It lives on the tmux server even after you close the terminal. You detach and later attach with everything intact. This is the feature that matters: start a long job, detach, go home, reattach.
• Window — one screen inside a session. Only one is visible at a time; you switch between them like tabs.
• Pane — a subdivision of a window, so you can see multiple shells side by side at once.

The rule of thumb: sessions are for persistence, windows are for organizing separate tasks, panes are for seeing related things together.

Everything is driven by a prefix key first, then a command key. So “split pane” is prefix then | — not a single chord.

The config

Drop this in ~/.tmux.conf. The big changes: prefix moves to Ctrl-a, splits become | and -, panes navigate with vim keys, and the mouse just works.

# ── Prefix: Ctrl-a instead of Ctrl-b ──
unbind C-b
set -g prefix C-a
bind C-a send-prefix          # press Ctrl-a twice to send a literal Ctrl-a

# ── Intuitive splits (and open in current path) ──
bind | split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"   # prefix |  → vertical split
bind - split-window -v -c "#{pane_current_path}"   # prefix -  → horizontal split
unbind '"'
unbind %

# ── Move between panes with prefix + h/j/k/l (vim style) ──
bind h select-pane -L
bind j select-pane -D
bind k select-pane -U
bind l select-pane -R

# ── Resize panes with prefix + Shift+H/J/K/L (repeatable) ──
bind -r H resize-pane -L 5
bind -r J resize-pane -D 5
bind -r K resize-pane -U 5
bind -r L resize-pane -R 5

# ── Mouse support: click panes, drag borders, scroll ──
set -g mouse on

# ── Reload config with prefix + r ──
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display "Config reloaded!"

# ── Quality of life ──
set -g base-index 1            # windows start at 1, not 0
setw -g pane-base-index 1      # panes too
set -g renumber-windows on     # renumber when one closes
set -g history-limit 10000     # bigger scrollback
set -sg escape-time 10         # snappier (helps vim/neovim)

# ── Vim-style copy mode ──
setw -g mode-keys vi
bind v copy-mode
bind -T copy-mode-vi v send -X begin-selection
bind -T copy-mode-vi y send -X copy-selection-and-cancel

# ── Subtle status bar ──
set -g status-style 'bg=#333333 fg=#ffffff'
set -g status-left-length 20
set -g status-right '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M '

A few notes on the choices:

• Ctrl-a as prefix is the GNU screen convention and an easier reach. The trade-off is that Ctrl-a (jump to start of line) now needs a double tap — Ctrl-a a.
• -c "#{pane_current_path}" makes new splits open in the same directory as the pane you split from. Small thing, huge quality-of-life win.
• -r on the resize binds means “repeatable” — after the prefix, you can keep tapping H/J/K/L to resize without re-pressing the prefix.

Cheat sheet

In everything below, prefix = Ctrl-a.

Sessions

Windows

Panes

Copy mode (scrollback)

The mouse also works for all of this — click to select a pane, drag a border to resize, scroll to enter copy mode.

Misc

The three commands worth memorizing first

If you remember nothing else:

1. tmux new -s work — start a named session.
2. prefix d — detach. Close the terminal; the session keeps running.
3. tmux attach -t work — come back to exactly where you left off.

That detach/attach loop is the whole reason tmux exists. The panes and windows are convenience on top. Everything else on this page you can look up with prefix ? until it’s in your fingers.