Why I built a local terminal workspace instead of using tmux

#terminal #rust #cli #productivity

I wanted a terminal workspace that behaves more like a normal desktop app.

Something that:

keeps tabs and splits
restores layout and working directories after restart
uses normal Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V with the system clipboard

I tried tmux for a while and realized it solves a different problem.

It’s great for remote sessions, long-lived processes, and connection resilience. But my workflow is strictly local. I don’t need to keep processes alive or reconnect to sessions — I just want a workspace with predictable behavior.

I also didn’t like the configuration model. Getting comfortable meant setting options, remembering configs, and often adding plugins. For a personal tool, that felt like unnecessary overhead.

So I built a small tool around this idea:

https://github.com/algebrain/mtrm

It runs local shells, supports tabs and splits, restores layout and working directories on restart, and keeps things simple.

If you’ve built your own terminal setup or found a different approach, I’d be curious to hear about it.