tmux status-bar touch controls for mobile - #10
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Managing tmux windows on a phone was the friction point: modifier keys (Ctrl-b, Alt) transmit unreliably on mobile terminals, and startup-command tricks fail once an agent is running in the pane (no shell to type into). The one input that always works is a status-bar tap — tmux handles those itself, regardless of pane contents. So the status bar is now a touch control panel: tap a window name to switch, tap [+] for a new window, tap [x] to close one (y/n confirm so a stray tap can't kill a running agent). Implemented via range=user status regions + a MouseDown1Status dispatch whose else-branch is the default select-window, so desktop/keyboard behavior (prefix+c / & / n / p) is unchanged. Verified functionally on-device; box brought to parity. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Why
Managing tmux windows from a phone was awkward. The research-backed reasons the obvious fixes don't work: Ctrl-b/Alt modifiers transmit unreliably on mobile terminals, and startup-command tricks break once an agent runs in the pane (no shell). The one reliable mobile input is a status-bar tap — tmux handles those itself, whatever the pane is running.
What
The status bar becomes a touch panel:
[+]→ new window (in current dir)[x]→ close current window (y/n confirm, so a mis-tap can't kill a running agent)Implemented with
range=userstatus regions + aMouseDown1Statusdispatch whose else-branch is the stockselect-window, so keyboard/desktop behavior (prefix+c/&/n/p) is untouched. Alt bindings from earlier iterations were dropped as unreliable. README daily-use updated.Verified
Config loads clean on the box (tmux 3.4,
source-fileno errors); default window-tap-switch preserved; no personal residue; functionally confirmed on-device by tapping the three gestures; box brought to exact parity with the repo.make checkgreen.🤖 Generated with Claude Code