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Jack McGinty
Jack McGinty

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Couldn't find a minimal session indicator for tmux, so I built one

#tmux #productivity #linux #cli

If you're doing serious terminal work, multiple tmux sessions are one of the highest-leverage habits you can build: isolated contexts for separate tickets, experiments, or projects, each with its own window layout and state. The friction point is switching. tmux ls, squinting at session names, re-orienting yourself — it's enough cognitive overhead that most people just don't bother.

I built tmux-session-dots to remove that friction entirely.

What it does

A TPM plugin that renders a minimal dot indicator in your status bar:

○ ● ○
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One dot per session. Filled = you're here. That's it. Three sessions open, you're on the middle one — you know that at a glance, zero keystrokes.

It wires up via tmux hooks, so the indicator updates in real time as you switch. No polling, no lag.

tmux status bar showing three sessions; the active one highlighted with a filled dot

Default styling uses Catppuccin pink (because taste matters), but colors and symbols are fully overridable.

The workflow it unlocks

session dots switching

The dots alone are nice. Paired with prefix-free session switching, it clicks into something you'll actually reach for constantly:

# Cycle sessions without prefix
bind-key -n M-[ switch-client -p
bind-key -n M-] switch-client -n
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Option + [ / Option + ] — you jump sessions, the dots shift immediately, you're reoriented before your eyes have time to ask "wait, which session am I on?" No prefix chord, no cognitive gap.

This is the part I've found genuinely changes behavior: when switching is this fast and readable, I actually use separate sessions more. One per ticket, one for experiments, one for monitoring — whatever the isolation boundary makes sense.

Install

Add to ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g @plugin 'jtmcginty/tmux-session-dots'
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Install: prefix + I

Drop it in your status bar:

set -g status-right "#{session_dots} | %H:%M %d-%b"
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Reload: tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Customize 

set -g @session-dots-active '●'
set -g @session-dots-inactive '○'
# Add fg/bg colors with tmux #[...] syntax
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Swap the symbols for anything you like — some combinations worth trying:

Active Inactive Preview
● ○ ●○○ (default)
▶ – ▶––
• · •··
■ □ ■□□

GitHub → jtmcginty/tmux-session-dots

If you're already living in tmux and haven't dialed in your session workflow, this is a small thing that quietly makes the whole setup feel more intentional.

If it's useful, a ⭐ on the repo goes a long way — and PRs/issues are always welcome!

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