lazyshell

A tmux-like terminal session manager with a lazygit-style two-pane interface: a list of your shell sessions on the left, the live output of whichever one is selected on the right.

Install Get started AI agent sessions

Animated demo of lazyshell: session list on the left, live shell output on the right — Two panes, and sessions that keep running in the background.

Why lazyshell

Sessions keep running in the background — with their scrollback preserved — even while you're looking at a different one. The output panel is a real terminal emulator, so full-screen applications work: vim, htop and less run inside a session, cursor and colours included.

The difference from tmux fits in one sentence: you don't memorise a grammar of prefixes, you read a list. Each session is one line, with its status, its PID, its working directory or the title the shell set — and, for an AI agent session, the fact that it is waiting on an answer from you.

Quick start

# with Go installed
$ go install github.com/thomas-gleizes/lazyshell/cmd/lazyshell@latest
$ lazyshell

Inside the interface: n opens a session, Tab switches panels, typing goes straight to the shell the moment a session is selected — Ctrl+O (or Esc Esc) locks the panel for scrolling, search or copy-mode, i or Enter gets back to typing, ? shows the full help and q quits. The other install routes are on the installation page.

Highlights

Persistent sessions

Changing the selection stops nothing: the pty and the shell survive, only the display is recycled. An exited session stays listed, ready to restart.

A real terminal emulator

Alternate screen, colours, cursor, resize propagated to the pty: full-screen applications genuinely work inside the panel.

First-class AI agents

claude, codex and opencode are detected with no configuration, and blocked / done travels all the way to a host-terminal notification.

Per-session tabs

terminal, resources (CPU, RSS, curves) and environment: what the process is consuming and what environment it started with, without leaving lazyshell.

Project configuration

A versioned lazyshell.yml starts a repository's sessions — each in its own directory, with its command and its .env files. Approved once, never silently.

Mouse, copy, search

Click, wheel and drag on by default, copy over OSC 52, search through the scrollback, and broadcast one keyboard to several sessions at once.

Where to go next

Usage — panels, keys, tabs, mouse, broadcast.
Configuration — file location, precedence, full option reference.
AI agent sessions — detection, authoritative hooks, notifications.
Project configuration — lazyshell.yml, .env files, approval.
Development — building, testing, and how the code is laid out.

Platforms. macOS and Linux. Windows is deliberately out of scope: there is no Unix pty, and everything the output panel draws rests on one.