tmux-agent-sidebar: Real-time AI Agent Monitoring in tmux

Summary

tmux-agent-sidebar is a powerful tmux plugin designed to monitor AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode across all your tmux sessions and windows. It provides real-time status updates, background shell states, prompts, and Git information, all within a convenient sidebar. This tool enhances productivity by centralizing agent activity and offering quick actions like spawning worktrees.

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Introduction

tmux-agent-sidebar is an innovative tmux sidebar that provides real-time monitoring of AI coding agents across all your tmux windows and sessions. Developed in Rust, this plugin offers a unified view of agents like Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode, displaying their status, background shells, prompts, Git state, activity, and worktrees without requiring you to switch windows.

This tool is designed to streamline your development workflow by centralizing information from your AI assistants, making it easier to track their progress and interact with them efficiently.

Installation

The easiest way to install tmux-agent-sidebar is by using TPM (tmux Plugin Manager).

Add the plugin to your ~/.tmux.conf file:

set -g @plugin 'hiroppy/tmux-agent-sidebar'

Reload your tmux environment (tmux source ~/.tmux.conf).
Press prefix + I (capital i) to fetch and install the plugin. The install wizard will download a pre-built binary or build from source.

For manual installation or more detailed instructions, please refer to the official documentation.

Examples

After installation, you'll need to wire up your AI agents to integrate with the sidebar. Here's a brief overview, with full walkthroughs available in the documentation:

Claude Code: Register the plugin within Claude Code using /plugin marketplace add ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-agent-sidebar and /plugin install tmux-agent-sidebar@hiroppy.
Codex: Open a Codex pane, press prefix + e, click the yellow ? badge, copy the setup snippet, and paste it into the Codex pane.
OpenCode: Symlink the plugin file to your OpenCode plugins directory: ln -sf ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-agent-sidebar/.opencode/plugins/tmux-agent-sidebar.js ~/.config/opencode/plugins/tmux-agent-sidebar.js.

Once configured, you can toggle the sidebar:

prefix + e toggles the sidebar in the current window.
prefix + E toggles it across all windows and sessions.

Why Use It

tmux-agent-sidebar offers several compelling features that make it an essential tool for developers working with AI coding agents:

Every pane, one view: It tracks Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode panes across all your tmux sessions and windows, providing a centralized dashboard.
Live metadata: Get real-time updates on prompts, tool calls, response previews, background shell states, wait reasons, task progress, and subagent trees as your agents work.
Worktrees, included: Easily spawn a fresh worktree and agent directly from the sidebar, and tear it down, including the window, worktree, and branch, with a single keystroke.
Desktop notifications: Receive native alerts when an agent finishes a task, requires permission, or encounters an error, keeping you informed without constant monitoring.