Tmux cheatsheet

Tmux shortcuts and commands

All shortcuts assume the default prefix Ctrl-a (shown as C-a).

Sessions

Action	Shortcut / Command
New session	tmux new -s name
Detach	C-a d
List sessions	C-a s
Switch to previous session	C-a (
Switch to next session	C-a )
Switch to last session	C-a L
Switch by name	tmux switch-client -t name
Rename current session	C-a $

Windows

Action	Shortcut / Command
New window	C-a c
List / pick window	C-a w
Next window	C-a n
Previous window	C-a p
Last (most recent) window	C-a l
Switch by number	C-a 0-9
Switch by name	:select-window -t name
Rename window	C-a ,
Close window	C-a &

Panes

Action	Shortcut / Command
Split vertical (left/right)	C-a %
Split horizontal (top/bottom)	C-a "
Navigate panes	C-a ←↑↓→
Cycle panes	C-a o
Toggle zoom (fullscreen pane)	C-a z
Resize pane	C-a C-←↑↓→ (hold Ctrl)
Close pane	C-a x
Show pane numbers + jump	C-a q then press number
Convert pane to window	C-a !

Fuzzy finding with fzf

Tmux’s built-in pickers (C-a s, C-a w) are functional but basic. You can wire up fzf for a much nicer experience.

Setup

Add these to your ~/.tmux.conf:

# Fuzzy switch session
bind S display-popup -E "tmux list-sessions -F '#{session_name}' | fzf --reverse | xargs tmux switch-client -t"

# Fuzzy switch window (across all sessions)
bind W display-popup -E "tmux list-windows -a -F '#{session_name}:#{window_index} #{window_name}' | fzf --reverse | cut -d' ' -f1 | xargs tmux switch-client -t"

Then reload with tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf.

Action	Shortcut
Fuzzy switch session	C-a S
Fuzzy switch window	C-a W

Requires: fzf installed and tmux 3.2+ (for display-popup). On older tmux, replace display-popup -E with new-window.