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cmux

A native macOS terminal built on Ghostty, with vertical tabs and alerts for AI coding agents.

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About cmux

cmux is a terminal app for the Mac aimed at people who run several command-line coding agents at the same time. It renders text with libghostty, the engine behind Ghostty, but it is a separate Swift and AppKit app rather than a fork. Each workspace appears as a vertical tab in a sidebar that shows the git branch, working directory and open ports. When an agent such as Claude Code or Codex is waiting for input, its pane gets a coloured ring and the sidebar shows an unread badge. You also get split panes, a built-in browser pane that agents can drive, SSH workspaces that attach to remote tmux sessions, and session restore that survives a reboot. Everything can be scripted through a CLI and a Unix socket API. It reads your existing Ghostty config for themes and fonts. The app is free and open source under the GPL. A paid Founder's Edition gives early access to extras such as the iOS companion. Right now it runs only on macOS.

Best for: Mac developers juggling several terminal coding agents who want to see which one needs attention.

Pros and cons

What works

  • Notification rings and sidebar badges show which agent pane is waiting
  • Reuses your Ghostty config, so themes, fonts and keybindings carry over
  • Fully scriptable through a CLI and socket API, including the browser pane
  • Restores workspaces, panes and scrollback after a restart

Why people leave

  • macOS only for now; other platforms are on a waitlist
  • Built around agent workflows, so it adds clutter if you just want a plain terminal
  • Young project that changes quickly, and some users report rough edges in the browser

Top cmux alternatives

See all 6
  1. 1Ghostty logo
    Ghostty

    Same rendering engine and config, as a plain fast terminal without the agent sidebar and browser.

    66.5
  2. 2Warp logo
    Warp

    Agent-focused terminal with built-in AI features and block-based output, also on Windows and Linux.

    62.6
  3. 3iTerm2 logo
    iTerm2

    Mature, highly configurable Mac terminal with split panes and tmux integration.

    59.6
  4. 4WezTerm logo
    WezTerm

    Cross-platform GPU terminal with built-in multiplexing and Lua scripting.

    57.2
  5. 5tmux logo
    tmux

    Runs inside any terminal and keeps agent sessions alive on remote machines.

    55.3

Why people left cmux

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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cmux: common questions

Is cmux free?

Yes. cmux is free, open-source software.

Is cmux open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at manaflow-ai/cmux.

What platforms does cmux run on?

cmux is available for macOS.

What are the best alternatives to cmux?

The highest-ranked cmux alternatives right now are Ghostty, Warp and iTerm2. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 6 cmux alternatives