pty#

Persistent terminal sessions. Run a process, detach, reconnect later. From anywhere, locally and over SSH.

Install#

git clone https://github.com/myobie/pty.git
cd pty
npm install
npm link

Usage#

pty run myserver -- node server.js    # start a session and attach
pty run -d myserver -- node server.js # start in the background

pty # no args runs list
pty list                              # show active sessions

pty attach myserver                   # reconnect
pty peek myserver                     # print current screen and exit
pty peek -f myserver                  # follow output read-only

pty send myserver "hello"             # send text (no implicit newline)
pty send myserver $'hello\n'          # send text with newline (shell syntax)
pty send myserver --seq "git status" --seq key:return  # ordered sequence
pty send myserver --seq key:ctrl+c    # send control keys

pty restart myserver                  # restart an exited session
pty kill myserver                     # terminate a session

Detach with Ctrl+\. (Press Ctrl+\ twice to send it through to the process.)

Tab Completion#

brew install bash-completion  # required for bash; zsh works out of the box
npm run install-completions

Prior Art#

pty focuses on session persistence only — no splits, no panes, no window management. On mobile we don't need or want splits, and on desktop we have kitty/ghostty/native terminal splits. Keep things simple.

abduco — minimal session management for terminal programs, handling detach and reattach cleanly. A major inspiration for pty.
dtach — emulates the detach feature of screen with minimal overhead.
GNU Screen — the original terminal multiplexer that pioneered session persistence.
tmux — modern terminal multiplexer with session, window, and pane management.

License#

MIT

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