smithersai

smithersai / zmux

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tmux-style PTY session multiplexer as a Zig package. Long-lived daemon owns sessions and PTY child processes; clients attach over UNIX-domain JSON-RPC.

10
0
100% credibility
Found May 08, 2026 at 10 stars -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
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AI Analysis
Zig
AI Summary

zmux is a lightweight multiplexer for creating and sharing persistent terminal sessions that multiple clients can attach to and control.

How It Works

1
🔍 Discover zmux

You hear about zmux, a handy tool for keeping your terminal workspaces alive and shareable across different apps.

2
📦 Prepare zmux

You grab zmux and set it up quickly so it's ready to manage your sessions.

3
🚀 Launch the session keeper

You start the background service with a simple action, and it begins holding your terminal sessions securely.

4
➕ Create a workspace

You open your first persistent terminal session, like starting a shell that runs forever.

5
Connect from anywhere
💻
From terminal

Jump into the session right from your command line and see everything live.

📱
From app

Your app connects smoothly and shows the ongoing work without missing a beat.

🎉 Sessions stay alive

Your terminals keep running no matter what, with history saved and easy switching between views.

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Star Growth

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AI-Generated Review

What is zmux?

zmux delivers tmux-style terminal multiplexing as a Zig package for apps needing persistent PTY sessions without tmux dependencies. A long-lived daemon owns sessions, windows, panes, and child processes; clients attach over UNIX-domain JSON-RPC to send input, resize, capture scrollback, and receive output notifications. Use CLI tools like zmuxd for the daemon and zmux-connect to attach, or embed the library directly in native desktop apps, web terminals, or CI runners.

Why is it gaining traction?

Unlike tmux's opaque CLI protocol, zmux exposes a structured JSON-RPC API for multi-client attaches—no fd fights or screen-scraping. Server-side scrollback replays history on attach, out-of-band notifications cut polling, and key bindings plus basic commands like split-window work out of the box. Devs dig the embeddability and security like UID-checked sockets.

Who should use this?

Zig developers building GTK frontends, headless agents, or web-based tmux terminals who want daemon-owned PTYs without binary deps. Perfect for Smithers App-style backbones or CI fixtures sharing sessions across native, web, and remote clients. Skip if you need full tmux features like copy mode or config files.

Verdict

Grab zmux if you're prototyping PTY multiplexing in Zig—docs shine with quickstarts and protocol specs, tests cover integration end-to-end. At 10 stars and 1.0% credibility, it's early but stable for embeds; contribute gaps like layouts for maturity.

(198 words)

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