🎛️ TMUX SSH Split

This TMUX plugin is a modern iteration of the concept sshh introduced.

It enables seamless SSH splits. If you're in an SSH session in the current pane and press the designated key combination, the pane will split, and the newly created pane will host an SSH session connected to the host you were previously on. If there's no active SSH session, a regular split will occur.

💡 NOTE: mosh works too to some extent (experimental)

📥 Installation

You can install this plugin using TPM:

set -g @plugin 'pschmitt/tmux-ssh-split'

🛠️ Configuration

To use this plugin, you need to set at least one of the ssh-split-h-key or ssh-split-v-key options. These keys (PREFIX + key) will be bound to horizontal and vertical splits, respectively.

⚙️ Options

Option	Description	Default Value
@ssh-split-h-key	Key to bind for horizontal splits (prefixed)	none
@ssh-split-v-key	Key to bind for vertical splits (prefixed)	none
@ssh-split-w-key	Key to bind for new windows (prefixed)	none
@ssh-split-r-key	Key to bind for respawn pane (prefixed)	none
@ssh-split-keep-cwd	Determines whether the starting directory of the new pane should be the same as the current pane. This is similar to executing tmux split -c "#{pane_current_path}".	false
@ssh-split-keep-remote-cwd	Similar to the above, but for remote (SSH) splits. Note that remote path detection requires an OSC7 prompt and falls back to PS1 parsing, so it won't work if your prompt doesn't contain the current path. This works best with @ssh-split-strip-cmd=true	false
@ssh-split-fail	Determines whether to do nothing if the current pane isn't running SSH. By default, a normal split will occur.	false
@ssh-split-no-env	If set to true, this will not set TMUX_SSH_SPLIT=1 in splits (see tips and tricks section)	false
@ssh-split-no-shell	If set to true, this will prevent a shell session from spawning after the SSH session, causing the pane to exit when the SSH session ends.	false
@ssh-split-strip-cmd	If set to true, the SSH command executed in the new pane will be stripped of the remote command portion. For example, if you're running ssh HOST COMMAND in a pane and you split it, tmux-ssh-split will create a new pane with a start command of ssh HOST.	false
@ssh-split-verbose	Displays a message before the SSH command is spawned with the command being executed	false
@ssh-split-ignore-programs	A whitespace- or comma-separated list of shell patterns. Matching panes use a regular split instead of SSH-aware splitting	none
@ssh-split-ignore-hosts	A whitespace- or comma-separated list of shell patterns. Matching SSH hosts use a regular split instead	none
@ssh-split-debug	Debug mode. Redirects the script output to /tmp/tmux-ssh-split.log (or $TMPDIR/tmux-ssh-split.log if TMPDIR is defined).	false

💡 Example config

set-option -g @ssh-split-keep-cwd "true"
set-option -g @ssh-split-keep-remote-cwd "true"
set-option -g @ssh-split-fail "false"
set-option -g @ssh-split-no-env "false"
set-option -g @ssh-split-no-shell "false"
set-option -g @ssh-split-strip-cmd "true"
set-option -g @ssh-split-verbose "true"
set-option -g @ssh-split-ignore-programs "claude codex"
set-option -g @ssh-split-ignore-hosts "fnuc rofl-*"
set-option -g @ssh-split-debug "false"
set-option -g @ssh-split-h-key "|"
set-option -g @ssh-split-v-key "S"
set-option -g @ssh-split-w-key "C"
set-option -g @ssh-split-r-key "R"

set -g @plugin 'pschmitt/tmux-ssh-split'

🔌 Compatibility with Other Plugins

Some plugins may attempt to bind the same keys as tmux-ssh-split. For instance, tmux-pain-control is one such plugin. With the example configuration provided, both tmux-ssh-split and tmux-pain-control would try to bind the | key. The plugin loaded last will prevail.

✅ Solution

I've sent a PR to fix this upstream. In the meantime you can use my fork.

To make the forked tmux-pain-control not bind the | key you can set the following:

set -g @disabled_keys "|"

🎩 Tips and Tricks

If you want to determine whether a command has been spawned via tmux-ssh-split in a local or remote split, you can check for the TMUX_SSH_SPLIT environment variable. It should be set to 1 for all splits. If TMUX_SSH_SPLIT is not set on remote splits, ensure that TMUX_SSH_SPLIT is listed in the AcceptEnv property in your sshd config. For example:

AcceptEnv LANG LC_* TMUX_SSH_SPLIT

🤚 If you want to disable this feature add the following to your TMUX config:

set-option -g @ssh-split-no-env "true"

📜 License

This project is open source and available under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0