tmux Process Management

Interactive Shell Requirement

Use send-keys pattern for reliable shell initialization. Creating a session spawns an interactive shell automatically. Use send-keys to run commands within that shell, ensuring PATH, direnv, and other initialization runs properly.

# WRONG - inline command bypasses shell init, breaks PATH/direnv
tmux new-session -d -s "$SESSION" -n main 'tilt up'

# CORRECT - create session, then send command to interactive shell
tmux new-session -d -s "$SESSION" -n main
tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION:main" 'tilt up' Enter

Session Naming Convention

Always derive session name from the project: