muxplex

Web-based tmux session dashboard — access, monitor, and manage all your tmux sessions from any browser on any device.

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Features

Dashboard

• Live session grid — preview tiles with ANSI-colored terminal snapshots, auto-refreshed
• Two view modes — Auto (scrollable grid) and Fit (all sessions fill the viewport)
• Hover preview — full-size overlay of session content on tile hover
• Activity indicators — bell notification badges on tiles; amber favicon dot + (N) count in browser tab title when sessions have unseen activity
• Session creation — + button with device selector dropdown when multi-device is enabled; custom command template support
• Session deletion — × button with custom command template support
• Mobile-friendly — responsive layout, PWA-capable for home-screen install

Terminal

• Full interactive terminal — powered by xterm.js + ttyd
• Native clipboard — Ctrl+Shift+C to copy, Cmd+V (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+V (Linux) to paste
• Mouse select auto-copy — selecting text copies to system clipboard on release
• OSC 52 tmux clipboard bridge — tmux copy mode selections go to system clipboard
• Search — Ctrl+F opens a search bar to find text in terminal scrollback (xterm-addon-search)
• Clickable URLs — Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on macOS) opens URLs in terminal output in a new tab (xterm-addon-web-links)
• Inline image rendering — Sixel and iTerm2 graphic protocols for tools like yazi file manager (xterm-addon-image)
• Sidebar session switcher — quick-switch between sessions with live previews

Settings

• In-browser settings panel — gear icon or , shortcut
• Display — font size, grid columns, hover delay, view mode, device badges, activity indicator
• Sessions — default session, sort order, hidden sessions, auto-open, bell sound, notifications
• Commands — custom create/delete session templates
• Multi-Device — remote instance federation
• CLI — muxplex config list/get/set/reset

Multi-Device

• Remote session aggregation — federate multiple muxplex instances into a unified dashboard view
• Device selector in new session — + button shows a device dropdown when multi-device is enabled; create sessions on any connected instance directly from the dashboard
• Remote bell-clear — opening a session on a remote device automatically clears its activity notification via federation API (POST /api/bell/clear)
• Unique session keys — sessions identified by remoteId:name across devices, preventing bell-state collisions for identically-named sessions on different machines

Service Management

• muxplex service install/start/stop/restart/status/logs/uninstall
• Platform-aware — systemd user service on Linux/WSL, launchd agent on macOS
• Config-driven — service reads all options from ~/.config/muxplex/settings.json (no flags in the service file)

Authentication

• PAM authentication — Linux/macOS system credentials
• Password mode — auto-generated or set via MUXPLEX_PASSWORD env var
• Localhost bypass — no auth needed on 127.0.0.1
• Secure session cookies — signed with configurable TTL

Developer Tools

• muxplex doctor — dependency + config diagnostics with update check
• muxplex upgrade — smart version check + auto-update + service restart
• muxplex config — CLI settings management

HTTPS / TLS

• muxplex setup-tls — auto-detect and set up TLS certificates
• Tailscale — real Let's Encrypt certs via tailscale cert (recommended)
• mkcert — locally-trusted certs, zero browser warnings
• Self-signed — fallback for immediate HTTPS (browser shows warning)
• Required for browser clipboard API on non-localhost

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ — installed via uv or system Python
• tmux — terminal multiplexer
  • macOS: brew install tmux
  • Ubuntu/WSL: sudo apt install tmux
• ttyd — terminal sharing over HTTP (required for interactive terminal access)
  • macOS: brew install ttyd
  • Ubuntu/WSL: sudo apt install ttyd or sudo snap install ttyd
  • Other: https://github.com/tsl0922/ttyd#installation

Tip: Run muxplex doctor to check all dependencies and system status.

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Quick Start (uvx — no install)

Run muxplex directly without installing anything permanently:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/bkrabach/muxplex muxplex

Then open http://localhost:8088 in your browser.

Note: uvx is part of uv. Install uv with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh.

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Install Permanently

uv tool install git+https://github.com/bkrabach/muxplex
muxplex doctor  # verify dependencies

Then run it any time with:

muxplex

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Install as a Service

muxplex service install
# → prompts to set host to 0.0.0.0 for network access

The service starts automatically on login (macOS) or at boot (Linux) and restarts on failure.

# Open in browser
open http://localhost:8088

To stop and remove:

muxplex service uninstall

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CLI Reference

muxplex                              Start server (default)
muxplex serve [flags]                Start with CLI flag overrides
muxplex service install              Install + enable + start as OS service
muxplex service uninstall            Stop + disable + remove
muxplex service start|stop|restart   Manage running service
muxplex service status               Show service status
muxplex service logs                 Tail service logs
muxplex config                       Show all settings
muxplex config get <key>             Show one setting
muxplex config set <key> <value>     Set a setting
muxplex config reset [key]           Reset one or all to defaults
muxplex upgrade [--force]            Smart update with version check
muxplex doctor                       Check dependencies + config
muxplex show-password                Show current auth password
muxplex reset-secret                 Regenerate signing secret
muxplex setup-tls [--method auto]   Set up TLS certs (Tailscale/mkcert/self-signed)
muxplex setup-tls --status          Show current TLS configuration

Service management

muxplex service install     # Write service file + enable + start
muxplex service uninstall   # Stop + disable + remove service file
muxplex service start       # Start the service
muxplex service stop        # Stop the service
muxplex service restart     # Stop + start
muxplex service status      # Show running/stopped + PID
muxplex service logs        # Tail service logs

The service runs muxplex serve with no flags — it reads all options from ~/.config/muxplex/settings.json. To change host/port, edit the config (or use the Settings UI in the browser) and restart:

muxplex config set host 0.0.0.0
muxplex service restart

Examples

# Start with defaults from settings.json
muxplex

# Override port for this run only
muxplex --port 9000

# Override host for this run only
muxplex serve --host 0.0.0.0

HTTPS / TLS setup

# Auto-detect the best TLS method and set up certificates
muxplex setup-tls

# Use a specific TLS method
muxplex setup-tls --method tailscale
muxplex setup-tls --method mkcert
muxplex setup-tls --method selfsigned

# Show current TLS status and configuration
muxplex setup-tls --status

# Override TLS cert/key for a single run (without saving to config)
muxplex serve --tls-cert /path/cert.pem --tls-key /path/key.pem

# Check TLS configuration and dependencies
muxplex doctor

Auto-detection priority: Tailscale (if tailscale is installed and a cert is available) → mkcert (if mkcert is installed) → self-signed (always available as a fallback). Use --method to override.

Note: Tailscale certs have a 90-day expiry. Run muxplex setup-tls --method tailscale to renew when needed.

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Configuration

All settings are stored in ~/.config/muxplex/settings.json.

Key	Default	Description
host	127.0.0.1	Bind address (set to 0.0.0.0 for network access)
port	8088	Server port
auth	pam	Authentication mode: pam or password
session_ttl	604800	Session cookie TTL in seconds (7 days; 0 = browser session)
default_session	null	Session to auto-open on load
sort_order	manual	Session ordering: manual, alphabetical, recent
hidden_sessions	[]	Sessions hidden from the dashboard
window_size_largest	false	Auto-set tmux window-size largest on connect
auto_open_created	true	Auto-open newly created sessions
new_session_template	tmux new-session -d -s {name}	Command template for creating sessions
delete_session_template	tmux kill-session -t {name}	Command template for deleting sessions
device_name	"" (hostname)	Display name for this device
federation_key	""	Server-to-server authentication key for federation
remote_instances	[]	Remote muxplex instances to aggregate
multi_device_enabled	false	Enable multi-instance federation
tls_cert	""	Path to TLS certificate file (empty = HTTP)
tls_key	""	Path to TLS private key file (empty = HTTP)

Priority: CLI flags > settings.json > defaults.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy terminal selection to system clipboard
Cmd+V / Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste from system clipboard (native browser paste)
Ctrl+F	Open terminal search bar
Enter / Shift+Enter	Next / previous search match
Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click)	Open URL in new tab
, (comma)	Open settings
Escape	Close settings / return to dashboard

Mouse select in the terminal auto-copies to the system clipboard on release.

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Platform Support

Platform	Service	Auth
Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)	systemd user service	PAM
macOS	launchd agent	PAM
WSL	systemd user service	PAM

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Project Structure

muxplex/
├── muxplex/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __main__.py          # python -m muxplex entry
│   ├── cli.py               # CLI entry point and subcommand dispatch
│   ├── main.py              # FastAPI app, routes, WebSocket proxy
│   ├── auth.py              # PAM/password auth middleware
│   ├── sessions.py          # tmux session enumeration + snapshots
│   ├── bells.py             # Bell flag detection + clear rules
│   ├── state.py             # Persistent state (JSON)
│   ├── settings.py          # User settings management
│   ├── service.py           # Service install/start/stop (systemd + launchd)
│   ├── ttyd.py              # ttyd process lifecycle
│   ├── frontend/
│   │   ├── index.html        # Main SPA
│   │   ├── login.html        # Login page
│   │   ├── app.js            # Dashboard, sidebar, settings, previews
│   │   ├── terminal.js       # xterm.js terminal + clipboard
│   │   ├── style.css         # All styles (dark theme)
│   │   ├── manifest.json     # PWA manifest
│   │   ├── wordmark-on-dark.svg
│   │   └── tests/            # JavaScript unit tests
│   └── tests/                # Python tests (pytest)
├── assets/branding/          # Logos, icons, design system
├── docs/plans/               # Historical design + implementation plans
├── scripts/                  # Utility scripts (asset generation)
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

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Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/bkrabach/muxplex
cd muxplex

# Install with dev dependencies
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run the server

muxplex
# or directly:
python -m muxplex

Run tests

# Python tests (pytest)
python -m pytest muxplex/tests/ --ignore=muxplex/tests/test_integration.py

# JavaScript tests (node:test)
node --test muxplex/frontend/tests/test_terminal.mjs
node --test muxplex/frontend/tests/test_app.mjs

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Brand Assets

Design language, color tokens, and brand assets live in assets/branding/. See assets/branding/DESIGN-SYSTEM.md for the full design reference.

To regenerate PNG/favicon assets from SVG sources:

python3 scripts/render-brand-assets.py

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License

MIT