Start tmux with Ghostty

This is one of the most common questions I’ve seen since Ghostty’s release. Let me show you how to set this up in just a few minutes.

The Solution: A Smart Launch Script

The key is creating a simple script that manages your tmux sessions. This script will:

• Check if a tmux session already exists
• Connect to an existing session instead of creating duplicates
• Create a new session if none exists

Here’s the script you’ll need:

#!/bin/bash
SESSION_NAME="ghostty"

# Check if the session already exists
tmux has-session -t $SESSION_NAME 2>/dev/null

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
 # If the session exists, reattach to it
 tmux attach-session -t $SESSION_NAME
else
 # If the session doesn't exist, start a new one
 tmux new-session -s $SESSION_NAME -d
 tmux attach-session -t $SESSION_NAME
fi

The script is in bash since I am using Ghostty on Debian.

Setting Up Ghostty

Once you’ve created the script, there’s just one more step. Open your Ghostty configuration file and add this single line:

command = ~/path/to/script.sh

Make sure to replace ~/path/to/script.sh with the actual path where you saved your script. That’s all there is to it! Now when you launch Ghostty, it will automatically start or reconnect to a tmux session.

If you’re interested in more Ghostty customization options, check out my detailed guide on Ghostty configuration here.

The beauty of this setup is its simplicity - it handles all the session management automatically, so you never have to worry about creating or attaching to tmux sessions manually again.