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Create a tmux workspace

Opening terminals, navigating to each project, and running commands manually every morning is repetitive. With a tmux script you can spin up your entire environment in seconds with a single command.

The goal

When you type tw in the terminal, this should happen:

  • If a session named work already exists, tmux attaches to it.
  • If it does not exist, it is created automatically with two windows ready for work.

Step 1: create the startup script

Save this file in your home directory as ~/.tmux_work.zsh:

#!/bin/zsh

SESSION="work"

tmux new -s $SESSION -d

# Window 1: main application
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'cd ~/workspace/app1 && clear' C-m
tmux split-window -v
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'cd ~/workspace/app1 && clear' C-m
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'npm run dev' C-m
tmux select-pane -t 1

# Window 2: api or backend
tmux new-window -t $SESSION
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'cd ~/workspace/app2 && clear' C-m
tmux split-window -h
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'cd ~/workspace/app2 && clear' C-m
tmux send-keys -t $SESSION 'python manage.py runserver' C-m
tmux select-pane -t 1

tmux select-window -t $SESSION:1
tmux attach -t $SESSION

Adjust the paths (~/workspace/app1, ~/workspace/app2) and commands (npm run dev, python manage.py runserver) to match what you use on a daily basis.

Step 2: create the alias

Add this to your ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc):

alias tw="tmux attach -t work || sh ~/.tmux_work.zsh"

Reload the configuration:

source ~/.zshrc

Step 3: use it

Type tw and tmux does the rest.

tw

Step 4: close the session

If you want to shut everything down and kill the session:

tmux kill-session -t work

You can also detach from it (Ctrl + b, then d) to leave it running in the background.

Although they add dependencies, you also have alternatives such as tmuxinator or tmuxp that let you define sessions through YAML configuration files.