tmux-layout — Operator-Side Visualization Substrate
Status: PROPOSED per ADR-0007 (docs/adr/0007-tmux-visualization-substrate.md). Opt-in skill — NOT default.
Project-instruction file resolution: this is CLAUDE.md on Claude Code / Cursor IDE; the equivalent on Codex CLI is AGENTS.md. See skills/_shared/instruction-file-resolution.md.
Purpose
Render a prepared tmux layout for operator-side observability of the session's asynchronous side-channels — STATE.md updates, CI status, events.jsonl wave/gate transitions. NOT a coordinator chat surface, NOT a wave-agent host. The coordinator chat remains in the operator's original terminal, period (per AUQ-001 in .claude/rules/ask-via-tool.md).
When to Use
- During a long deep-session when you want CI status visible alongside Quality-Gate output without polling
glab ci status manually.
- During
/debug Phase 2 hypothesis testing (use --layout debug).
- Anywhere
tail -F .claude/STATE.md + a CI watcher would speed up your loop.
When NOT to Use
- For wave-agent visualization — wave agents are in-process
Agent() calls; no PID, no TTY, no pane to attach.
- For autopilot multi-story panes — autopilot.jsonl currently shows 11 entries / 8 dry-runs; below the value threshold for a pane-per-story UI.
- As your coordinator chat surface — that stays in the terminal where you invoked /tmux-layout.
Usage
/tmux-layout # default layout (4 panes)
/tmux-layout --layout debug # debug layout (4 panes, /debug companion)
/tmux-layout --json # machine-readable output (no attach)
/tmux-layout --session-name my-ws # custom tmux session name
/tmux-layout --force # replace existing session (PSA-003 escape hatch)
/tmux-layout --with-status-pane # add a 5th pane tailing agent-status telemetry (#565)
/tmux-layout --help # full CLI usage
The skill prints a one-line tmux command. Paste it into a SECOND terminal (do not run it where /tmux-layout was invoked). That second terminal becomes the layout. Your original terminal (the coordinator chat) stays where it is.
Default Layout (4 panes; 5 with --with-status-pane)
| Pane | Content | Command |
|---|
| 1 | Shell (operator scratch — NOT claude) | bash (interactive) |
| 2 | STATE.md tail | tail -F <state-dir>/STATE.md |
| 3 | CI watch (poll-loop wrapper) | while true; do clear; glab ci status -R <spec> --output json | jq -r '.jobs[] | ...'; sleep 15; done |
| 4 | events.jsonl wave/gate filter | tail -F .orchestrator/metrics/events.jsonl | jq --unbuffered 'select(.event | test("wave|gate|spiral"))' |
| 5 | agent-status telemetry (#565, only with --with-status-pane) | while true; do clear; node --input-type=module -e '...readCurrentStatus({repoRoot:"<own lock root>"})...'; sleep 2; done — the root holding this session's own lock, resolved once when the layout is rendered (resolveOwnLockRootFor, #1730); none found → process.cwd() |
Pane 5 renders through readCurrentStatus() (scripts/lib/agent-status.mjs), never the cache file directly (#1342): its header line agent-status · source=<live-map|rebuilt-log|stale-cache|absent> · at=<ISO|n/a> says WHAT is on screen, in four states — live-map = every shown record came from the current-map cache and the cache was VERIFIED against the ledger, rebuilt-log = at least one record was taken from the append-only agent-status.jsonl because the cache was behind (or unreadable) for that agent, stale-cache = no ledger to check the cache against, absent = nothing on disk yet (no ledger, no cache), which stays unmarked because a fresh repo is not a degradation — plus a leading ⚠ and the words STALE / DEGRADED: <reasons> in TEXT whenever the view is not verified live. The render command is exported as buildStatusPaneRenderCommand({ repoRoot }) so it can be executed once (outside the poll loop) in tests; without repoRoot it reads its own cwd.
<state-dir> is resolved via resolveStateDir() from scripts/lib/platform.mjs (.claude/, .codex/, or .cursor/).
Pane 3 command is vcs-aware (glab for gitlab, gh pr checks for github, informational echo fallback when no CLI).
Debug Layout (4 panes — --layout debug, depends-on #562)
| Pane | Content | Command |
|---|
| 1 | Shell (operator scratch) | bash (interactive) |
| 2 | Hypothesis-test runner | npm test -- --watch <scope> (or per-skill-config) |
| 3 | Debug-artifact tail | tail -F .orchestrator/debug/*.md |
| 4 | Diff-watch | watch -n 2 'git diff --stat | head -30' |
Architecture
Three sibling modules under scripts/lib/tmux-layout/:
layouts.mjs — renderDefaultLayout(), renderDebugLayout(), detectVcsCommand().vcs-detector.mjs — detectVcsCommand({config, projectRoot}) returns {bin, args, fallback, blocking} per vcs key.tmux-shell.mjs — detectTmuxVersion(), session-collision policy helpers.
Entry point: scripts/tmux-layout.mjs (parseArgs from node:util, dispatcher to layout functions).
PSA-003 Compliance
Session-collision policy: refuse + --force. The skill NEVER kills, overwrites, or modifies a tmux session it did not create unless the operator passes --force explicitly. See .claude/rules/parallel-sessions.md § PSA-003.
AUQ-001 Compliance
The coordinator chat (where AskUserQuestion fires) stays in the operator's ORIGINAL terminal. Pane 1 of the tmux layout is intentionally a scratch shell, NOT a new claude session — there is no second AUQ surface, no decision-authority split. See .claude/rules/ask-via-tool.md § AUQ-001.
Telemetry & Promotion Gate (#563)
This skill emits structured events to .orchestrator/metrics/events.jsonl:
tmux-layout.invokedtmux-layout.degraded (tmux missing, version too old, session collision without --force, etc.)tmux-layout.completed (when the user closes the tmux session)
Promotion criteria from opt-in skill to default-recommended in session-start banner: invocation count ≥ 5 across ≥ 3 distinct deep sessions over ≥ 2 calendar weeks, layout-completion rate ≥ 80%, zero AUQ-001 / PSA-003 regressions. See ADR-0007 § Follow-ups.
Troubleshooting
- tmux not found → install:
brew install tmux (macOS) / apt install tmux (Linux). Minimum tmux ≥ 3.0.
- Session already exists → use
--force (acknowledges PSA-003) or --session-name my-other.
- CI pane shows nothing →
glab or gh not installed, or vcs: not set in ## Session Config. Pane will show a clear fallback message.
See Also
docs/adr/0007-tmux-visualization-substrate.md — design rationale.skills/_shared/monitor-patterns.md — comparison: tmux-layout vs Monitor vs /loop.skills/debug/SKILL.md — Phase 2 hypothesis testing (use --layout debug as companion).- GitLab #561 #562 #563.