CLI Session Tabs for Hermes
Directory-scoped chat tabs across the top of your terminal, installed as an independent Hermes CLI plugin.
The screenshot uses clearly labelled demo clients in an isolated tmux workspace; it contains no private conversation data.
Install
Requirements: Hermes 0.22.2 or newer, Python 3.10+, an interactive POSIX terminal, and tmux 3.2+ installed through your OS package manager. Linux, macOS, and Linux under WSL are supported; native Windows is not.
Before catalog approval, install from this repository:
hermes plugins install https://github.com/cryptobredda/hermes-cli-tabs
hermes plugins enable cli-session-tabs
hermes tabs
After the catalog entry is reviewed and merged, the short install name will be cli-session-tabs. Submission is not approval.
Use
hermes tabs # start or reattach this directory's workspace
hermes tabs --directory ~/project # another exact directory
hermes tabs --resume "chat title" # open a saved chat in a tab
hermes tabs new # add a tab to an already running workspace
hermes tabs new --resume SESSION_ID
hermes tabs list --json
hermes tabs detach
hermes tabs --interface classic # classic Hermes rather than the modern TUI
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| New tab | Alt+N, or click + at the right of the strip |
| Select | Click its title, or Alt+1 through Alt+9 |
| Previous / next | Ctrl+PageUp / Ctrl+PageDown |
| Close | Alt+W, or right-click the tab; confirm the visible prompt |
| Detach, keeping tabs and drafts alive | Alt+Q |
Closing the final tab through these controls creates a fresh blank tab. /quit inside Hermes retains Hermes' normal exit behavior. Accepted gateway work is not a tab's process: closing/detaching a client does not issue session.interrupt or delete its history. Unsent drafts are lost if you explicitly confirm closing their client; simply switching or detaching keeps them alive.
One workspace is shared by the same Hermes profile and canonical directory. Re-running hermes tabs reattaches it; two clients attaching that workspace share selection. Other profiles and directories use different private sockets. Launch from a plain terminal, outside an existing tmux client.
Architecture — no Hermes patch
The existing TUI widget SDK can render widgets but cannot control session tabs. This plugin therefore uses the documented ctx.register_cli_command extension and tmux's public commands. Each tab runs an ordinary hermes --tui --in <directory> (or --cli) client. Titles follow its terminal title, with import bookkeeping and model/cwd suffixes removed for display. The exact resume argument and underlying session IDs are never modified.
It does not install or alter Hermes source files, JavaScript bundles, private stores, markup, key handlers, your .tmux.conf, or another tmux server. /sessions within a client still switches that client's chat; to put a saved chat in a separate top-level tab, use hermes tabs new --resume ....
Security and behavior disclosure
- Runs the installed
tmux, the installedhermes, and this repository's stdlib controller through quoted argument lists. No downloads, package installs, shell startup commands, or self-updater run at registration. - Starts long-running tmux and interactive Hermes clients only when you run the command. The default start refuses non-TTY/unattended use rather than hanging.
- Child environments are allowlisted. Provider keys, startup queries, YOLO/accept-hooks overrides, noninteractive overrides, and another client's handles are not forwarded. Each Hermes child loads its own profile through Hermes' ordinary secret/config routes.
- Stores only workspace paths, executable locations and non-secret environment metadata under the profile's
plugin-data/cli-session-tabs/, with private permissions. Runtime sockets normally live there; long paths fall back to the caller'sTMPDIRusing tmux's per-user protected socket directory. - Does not read credential stores, session databases, messages or private browser data. It makes no network calls itself. The ordinary Hermes clients it launches retain their configured model/network/MCP behavior.
- No telemetry. No core overrides. No automatic approval. Close confirmations are owned by the visible tmux client.
The public plugin intentionally uses a transport-level tab bar, not the earlier in-process prototype. It can coexist with unmodified Hermes releases and does not ship an installer that patches core.
Development
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
hermes plugins validate . --install-deps
Tests include real isolated tmux servers with source-only demo clients, quoted resume values, profile/workspace isolation, top-strip bindings, close behavior and child-environment filtering. Test servers are terminated on cleanup. The MIT license is in LICENSE.