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
views	[]	Named session views for grouping and filtering sessions
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)
fontSize	14	Terminal and tile preview font size (px)
hoverPreviewDelay	1500	Hover preview popup delay (ms)
gridColumns	"auto"	Number of grid columns ("auto" or integer)
bellSound	false	Play audio sound on terminal bell
viewMode	"auto"	Grid tile sizing: auto or fit
showDeviceBadges	true	Show device name labels on tiles
showHoverPreview	true	Show hover preview popover on tile hover
activityIndicator	"both"	Activity style: none, glow, dot, both
gridViewMode	"flat"	Multi-device grid layout: flat, grouped, filtered
sidebarOpen	null	Sidebar state: true, false, or null (auto-detect from screen width)
settings_updated_at	0.0	Unix timestamp of last settings write (used for federation sync)

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