Glossary

MCP

Model Context Protocol. A standard for AI agents to interact with tools and resources.

FastMCP

A Python framework for building MCP servers. libtmux-mcp uses FastMCP to expose tmux operations as MCP tools.

libtmux

A typed Python library that provides an ORM wrapper for tmux. libtmux-mcp depends on libtmux for all tmux interactions.

tmux

A terminal multiplexer. It lets you switch easily between several programs in one terminal, detach them, and reattach them to a different terminal. See https://github.com/tmux/tmux.

Server

A tmux server instance. Manages sessions and communicates via a socket.

Session

A tmux session. Contains one or more windows. Has a name and ID (e.g. $1).

Window

A tmux window within a session. Contains one or more panes. Has a name, index, and ID (e.g. @1).

Pane

A tmux pane within a window. A pseudoterminal that runs a single process. Has an ID (e.g. %1) that is globally unique within a server.

Safety tier

A level controlling which MCP tools are available: readonly, mutating, or destructive. Set via the LIBTMUX_SAFETY env var.

Socket

The Unix socket used to communicate with a tmux server. Can be specified by name (-L) or path (-S).