jmux

2026-05-20#tech0

tmux is powerful and complicated and needs brew. I just want two panes: a CLI on the left, a markdown preview on the right.

The idea

ssh server
cd theTube-content
jmux content/posts/journal.md

Left pane: Kiro CLI (or any shell). Right pane: live preview of the markdown file, re-renders on save.

Why Python

  • pty module for spawning the CLI
  • curses for split-screen rendering
  • No brew, no compiled dependencies
  • Python is already on every machine

Resume

The session state is the file. The file is in git. SSH in from anywhere, git pull, jmux journal.md — you're back where you left off. Git notes tell you what happened last session. No tmux resurrect, no serialized state, no .tmux directory.

What it doesn't need

  • Plugin system
  • Config file
  • Multiple windows
  • Detach/reattach (the state is in git, not in a running process)
  • Anything beyond two panes and a file watcher
The journey

Walk thought. tmux is overkill for "CLI + preview." A Python script with curses and pty gives you the same thing with zero dependencies. The resume mechanism is git pull, not session persistence. The state is the file.

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