cmux

What This Skill Does

The cmux skill allows OpenClaw agents to interface directly with the cmux terminal multiplexer. By utilizing either a Unix socket API at /tmp/cmux.sock or the provided CLI, the agent gains full control over terminal workspaces, surfaces, and integrated UI elements. This skill transforms the terminal from a static output stream into a dynamic, programmatically managed environment, enabling complex multi-tasking workflows, automated logging, and real-time dashboarding within the terminal itself.

Installation

To integrate cmux into your environment, use the OpenClaw Hub CLI: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/cnwangjie/cmux Ensure that the cmux daemon is running on your host machine and that your agent has sufficient permissions to access the Unix domain socket located at /tmp/cmux.sock (or as defined by the CMUX_SOCKET_PATH environment variable).

Use Cases

• Automated Dev Environments: Spin up new workspaces for specific features, splitting windows into dedicated panes for editors, tests, and database monitors.
• Background Task Tracking: Update progress bars in the cmux sidebar during long-running data analysis or build processes so the user can see status without leaving their workflow.
• Error Monitoring: Pipe internal agent logs directly to the cmux log view for real-time inspection.
• Interactive UI Generation: Send notifications to the user or focus specific surfaces when specific events occur during task execution.

Example Prompts

1. "Open a new workspace named 'analysis', split it into three panes, and run a Python script in the first one."
2. "Update the sidebar progress bar to 75% with the label 'Processing datasets' and send a notification when finished."
3. "List all current surfaces and focus the one running the database logs, then clear the existing terminal text."

Tips & Limitations

• Security: Since cmux controls terminal I/O, ensure that your environment socket permissions are restricted. An agent with this skill can send commands to your shell.
• Efficiency: Favor the Socket API over CLI calls for high-frequency operations (like updating progress bars) to reduce overhead and latency.
• Directionality: When using surface.split, remember the allowed directions: left, right, up, and down. Attempting to pass unsupported strings may cause the command to fail gracefully with an error response.