Attaching to tmux sessions

Every row in the session list — agent sessions, workspace shells, and foreign sessions under Other tmux — is backed by a real tmux session, and there are two ways to step inside it. Press a for a full-screen attach: the TUI suspends and the genuine tmux client takes over your terminal. Press A (Shift+A) for an in-pane attach: the right pane becomes a live embedded tmux client without leaving ainb — a ● INTERACTIVE — Ctrl+Q release badge appears, the embed takes the pane exactly as your layout has it, and everything you type goes straight into the session. (Want maximum width? Press B first to collapse the sidebar to its thin rail — the embed honors whatever sidebar state you chose.) Either way, leaving the session never kills it — detach and release only disconnect the client; the session keeps running.

Full-screen attach (a)

Press a on a session: the TUI suspends and tmux attach-session fills the whole terminal — tmux status bar, scrollback, prefix keys, everything. Detach with Ctrl+B d and ainb resumes exactly where you left it, with the session still listed.

s                       open the session list (session selected under "Other tmux")
a                       full-screen attach — the TUI suspends, tmux takes the terminal
echo FULLSCREEN_OK ⏎    typed straight into the session
Ctrl+B d                detach — ainb resumes, the session keeps running

This is a plain tmux attach-session on your terminal: every tmux feature works (prefix bindings, copy mode, panes, mouse per your tmux config). Use it when you want to work in the session for a while.

In-pane attach (A)

Press A (Shift+A): the pane becomes the live session in-place. The ● INTERACTIVE — Ctrl+Q release badge marks the handoff and keystrokes land in the session — the sidebar stays exactly as you had it (pre-collapse with B for a near-full-width embed). Ctrl+Q releases and the session keeps running.

s                       open the session list
A                       in-pane attach — INTERACTIVE badge, embed fills the pane
echo INPANE_OK ⏎        typed input lands in the embedded session, output renders live
Ctrl+Q                  release — badge gone, read-only preview back, the session survives

While the embed is interactive, all input belongs to the session: keys are encoded to terminal bytes for the embedded client, and the mouse is forwarded as SGR events — the wheel scrolls the session’s scrollback (tmux copy-mode), clicks land where you point. Ctrl+Q is the single escape hatch ainb keeps for itself. Releasing kills only the ephemeral embedded client — never the tmux session — and the pane returns to its read-only preview.

Use the in-pane attach for quick interventions — answer an agent’s prompt, nudge a stuck command — without losing the session list and the rest of ainb’s chrome around you.

The two modes side by side

	a full-screen	A in-pane
Surface	whole terminal (TUI suspends)	right pane (ainb chrome stays)
Visual cue	tmux status bar fills the screen	● INTERACTIVE — Ctrl+Q release badge on the pane
Leave with	Ctrl+B d (tmux detach)	Ctrl+Q
Lands you	back in ainb, session still listed	read-only preview back
tmux session	survives	survives

Keys

Key	Action
a	Full-screen attach to the selected session
A	In-pane attach — the preview pane becomes a live embedded tmux client
Ctrl+B d	Detach from a full-screen attach (standard tmux detach)
Ctrl+Q	Release the in-pane embed (only key ainb intercepts while interactive)
1–9	Quick-attach by the number badge next to each attachable row
B	Toggle the sessions sidebar — collapse to the rail before A for a near-full-width embed
Mouse	Forwarded into the embed while interactive; wheel scrolls tmux scrollback/copy-mode

How it works

The embed drives a real tmux attach-session inside a PTY sized to the pane interior: output is parsed by a vt100 screen and rendered in place, key events are encoded to the exact terminal byte sequences a terminal would send, and mouse events are translated into pane-local SGR (mode 1006) reports. The embed honors your sidebar layout — it takes whatever the pane gives it (collapse the sidebar with B first for near-full width). One sizing note: the embed is a real tmux client, and under tmux’s default window-size latest the session’s window adopts the newest client’s size, so the embedded pane’s dimensions become the session’s dimensions until another client resizes it. The full-screen path is simpler still — the TUI suspends, hands the terminal to tmux attach-session, and resumes when the client detaches. In both modes the client is the only thing that dies on exit; the tmux session and whatever is running inside it are untouched.

See also

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Overview