Tmux & Vim cheatsheet for designers who ship with agents
March 21, 2026
If you're working with coding agents, you should get comfortable in the terminal. Agents live there — once you're running multiple agents, tailing logs, and editing configs side by side, tools like tmux and vim stop being optional. I built this cheatsheet to help you (and me) get started. Press / to toggle between tools.
Start & Stop
Start New Sessiontmux
Start Named Sessiontmux new -s name
List Sessionstmux ls
Attach to Sessiontmux a -t name
Kill Sessiontmux kill-session -t name
Kill Everythingtmux kill-server
Close Current Pane/Windowexit
Sessions
DetachPrefix + d
List SessionsPrefix + s
Rename SessionPrefix + $
Windows
Create WindowPrefix + c
Next WindowPrefix + n
Previous WindowPrefix + p
Go to Window #Prefix + 0..9
Rename WindowPrefix + ,
Kill WindowPrefix + &
List WindowsPrefix + w
Panes
Split VerticalPrefix + %
Split HorizontalPrefix + "
Navigate PanesPrefix + arrow
Cycle PanesPrefix + o
Last Active PanePrefix + ;
Show Pane NumbersPrefix + q
Zoom/UnzoomPrefix + z
Kill PanePrefix + x
Pane → WindowPrefix + !
Move Pane Left/RightPrefix + { / }
Resize PanePrefix + Ctrl-arrow
Copy Mode
Enter Copy ModePrefix + [
Exit Copy Modeq
Search Fwd / Back/ or ?
Next / Prev Matchn / N
Begin SelectionSpace
Copy SelectionEnter
Misc
ClockPrefix + t
List All BindingsPrefix + ?
Command PromptPrefix + :
Config File~/.tmux.conf
Reload Config: source-file ~/.tmux.conf
New to Tmux and Vim? Copy and paste the prompt into your favorite coding agent and get started with my config files immediately. View Config files: setup.md / tmux.conf / vimrc
Open Agent and Paste
Read https://clintonhalpin.com/dotfiles/setup.md.txt and follow the install instructions. Back up my existing configs first.
Also, if you can figure out how to exit vim, you're already ahead. In the age of agents, you're in rare company.