tide

A tree-view sidebar for tmux.

Your IDE has a file tree for navigating code. tide brings the same idea to tmux — a persistent sidebar that organizes windows into a collapsible project tree.

┌──────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ tide     │                              │
│          │    your working pane         │
│  proj-a  │                              │
│  ├ edit  │                              │
│  └ term  │                              │
│  proj-b  │                              │
│  └ main  │                              │
│          │                              │
└──────────┴──────────────────────────────┘

Why

Agentic development means juggling multiple projects and sessions at once. But tmux still makes you memorize window indices or mash prefix+w to find where you are.

tide fixes this. Name your windows project:task and they fold into a tree — just like files in a directory. One glance shows everything. One keystroke switches context.

• See everything — all projects, all windows, one sidebar
• Switch instantly — cursor to preview, Enter to jump
• Stay organized — : delimiter auto-groups windows into folders
• Stay in sync — tmux control mode keeps the tree updated in real time

Install

cargo install --path .

Usage

tide

Launch inside any tmux session. tide creates a 25-column sidebar and takes over window management.

Keybindings

Key	Action
j / k	Move cursor (+ preview)
Enter / l	Select window / expand folder
h	Collapse folder / go to parent
Space	Toggle folder expand/collapse
c	Create window
C	Create project (folder + window)
r	Rename window
x	Close window (with confirmation)
Esc	Focus right pane
q	Quit tide

Window naming convention

Use : as a delimiter to create folder structure:

myapp:editor    →  myapp/
myapp:terminal       ├ editor
api:server           └ terminal
api:logs         api/
                     ├ server
                     └ logs

How it works

tide connects to tmux via control mode (tmux -CC attach) and uses The Elm Architecture (TEA) internally:

• All tmux events (window add/close/rename) flow in as messages
• A pure update() function computes the next state
• Side effects are expressed as commands, executed separately

This keeps the logic testable and the UI responsive.

Requirements

• tmux 3.2+
• Rust 1.70+ (to build)

Known issues

Shell hooks that rename windows

If your shell config has precmd / preexec / PROMPT_COMMAND hooks that call tmux rename-window, they will override tide's window names.

automatic-rename off and allow-rename off do not prevent this — those only block terminal escape sequences, not explicit rename commands.

Fix: remove any shell-level tmux rename-window hooks when using tide.

License

MIT