Tmux plugin to quickly switch between sessions

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Summary

tmux-underkeys is a Tmux plugin that assigns mnemonic shortcut keys to session names by underlining a unique character in each session name, allowing instant keyboard-driven session switching via a configurable trigger key.

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Cached at: 06/05/26, 02:15 AM

maxonvim/tmux-underkeys

Source: https://github.com/maxonvim/tmux-underkeys

tmux-underkeys

tmux-underkeys demo

Visible mnemonic keys for instant tmux session switching.

tmux-underkeys underlines one unique character in each session name and binds a trigger key so you can jump directly to that session.

_a_pp a_p_i a_d_min _n_otes
C-g a -> app
C-g p -> api
C-g d -> admin
C-g n -> notes

Installation

With TPM:

set -g @plugin 'maxonvim/tmux-underkeys'

Choose your trigger key before the plugin line if you do not want the default C-g:

set -g @underkeys-trigger 'M-s'
set -g @plugin 'maxonvim/tmux-underkeys'

The plugin adds the underkey session list to status-right automatically.

During local development, load the plugin directly:

run-shell /path/to/tmux-underkeys/tmux-underkeys.tmux

Usage

Press the trigger key, then the underlined session key.

Default trigger:

C-g

Example:

C-g o

Switches to the session whose underlined key is o.

Options

set -g @underkeys-trigger 'C-g'
set -g @underkeys-table 'underkeys'
set -g @underkeys-status 'on'
set -g @underkeys-position 'right'
set -g @underkeys-separator ' '
set -g @underkeys-current-style 'fg=blue,bold'
set -g @underkeys-style 'fg=white'

Set @underkeys-status to off if you want to place the status segment yourself.

How Keys Are Picked

Sessions are processed in tmux list-sessions order.

For each session, the first unused alphanumeric character in the session name becomes its key.

For example:

app   -> a
api   -> p
admin -> d
notes -> n

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