sl0ppty

A terminal multiplexer — panes, tabs, sessions you can detach from — written in C on top of libghostty-vt.

╭────────── nvim ─────────── ▬ □ ✕ ╮  ╭─────── npm run dev ─────── ▬ □ ✕ ╮
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│                                  │  ╭────────── shell ────────── ▬ □ ✕ ╮
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Install

Needs zig 0.16 and nothing else. The result is one static binary.

make vendor    # the vendored terminal core, once
make           # about a second

Run

sl0ppty              # attach to session "main", creating it if needed
sl0ppty -s work      # a named session
sl0ppty ls           # what is running

Sessions survive detaching, and your ssh connection dying. Then C-a \ to split, C-a ? for the keys, C-a p for every command by name.

Docs

docs/ — keys · panes · configuration · shaders · chrome · layouts · scripting · how it works

make docs renders the same pages as a static site into build/docs — no dependencies, one file of Python and one stylesheet.

What is different about it

• The mouse works properly. Click a border to split toward it, drag a gap to move a boundary, drag a pane by its title to swap it. Everything drawn registers what it is as it is drawn, so a click and a preview cannot disagree.
• The layout is recomputed, never stored. Small terminal? The tab becomes a list of headers, and comes back to exactly the arrangement you had.
• A pane told to run something keeps its output when that thing exits, with [re-run] and [close] in its frame.
• Configuration is one KDL file that reloads on save, can be built from included pieces, and refuses a broken file instead of half-applying it.
• Colour passes over cells — dim, tint, rulers, spotlights, and a border that can flash when a pane rings, with strengths written as expressions.
• Scriptable to the same depth it is usable: one JSON object per line over the session's socket, and a pane can draw its own status bar and buttons with an escape sequence.

Design notes and the twenty decisions behind it: DESIGN.md.