Keyboard

Remux keeps out of your way until you ask for it. In Normal mode every key goes to the program in the focused pane, except two kinds: the prefix (Ctrl-a), which opens a tree of commands, and a small set of Alt shortcuts, which act immediately. This page is a tour of the default keys by task. Every one of them can be changed; Keybindings has the full default key map with the action behind each key, and shows how to rebind them.

Modes

Mode	What keys do	Enter with	Leave with
Normal	Go to the focused pane’s program	Esc from any other mode	—
Command	Walk the key tree	Ctrl-a	Esc, or a key that runs a command
Visual	Move through scrollback and select	Ctrl-a v	Esc
Search	Type a scrollback search	/ in Visual mode, or Ctrl-a s s	Esc

The prefix and which-key

Press Ctrl-a to enter Command mode. The keys that follow walk a tree: p opens the pane group, t the tab group, and so on, until you reach a key that runs a command. A which-key popup lists what you can press at the current level, along with the global Alt shortcuts.

Most commands return you to Normal mode once they run. Esc returns to Normal from any depth of the tree.

To send a literal Ctrl-a to the program in the pane, press Ctrl-a a.

which_key_position under [appearance] sets where the popup is drawn: anchored (the default) at the bottom of the screen, centered in the middle, or full_width across the whole width above the status bar. See Theme.

Alt shortcuts

These work directly in Normal mode, with no prefix.

Action	Keys
Focus left / down / up / right (also into and out of a sidebar)	Alt-h / Alt-j / Alt-k / Alt-l
Move the pane left / down / up / right	Alt-H / Alt-J / Alt-K / Alt-L
Previous / next tab	Alt-, / Alt-.
Jump to tab 1 to 9	Alt-1 … Alt-9
New tab	Alt-t
Quick session switcher	Alt-s
Agent switcher	Alt-a
Previous session	Alt-o
Zoom the focused pane	Alt-z
Toggle the popup terminal	Alt-p
Cycle the layout	Alt-Space
Make the focused pane the master (Master layout)	Alt-m

Prefix key tree

Keys below follow Ctrl-a. For the action name behind each key, which is what you write in the config to rebind it, see Default bindings.

Top level

Action	Keys
Pane group	p
Tab group	t
Session group	x
Search group	s
View group	w
Sidebar group	b
Visual mode	v
Cycle the layout	Space
Zoom the focused pane	f
Next / previous tab	} / {
Toggle border style (Zellij / tmux)	g
Command palette	:
Send a literal Ctrl-a	a

Panes: p

Action	Keys
New pane (placed by the layout)	p n
Split side by side / top and bottom	p v / p s
Close the pane	p x
Focus left / down / up / right	p h / p j / p k / p l
Move the pane left / down / up / right	p H / p J / p K / p L
Zoom	p z
Toggle the popup terminal	p o
Make the pane the master	p m
Rename the pane	p r
Move the pane to another tab, or a new one	p t
Add the pane to a stack	p a
Next / previous pane in the stack	p ] / p [
Fold into the left / down / up / right neighbour’s stack	p S h / p S j / p S k / p S l
Take out of the stack, to the left / below / above / right	p U h / p U j / p U k / p U l
Resize left / down / up / right by 5	p R h / p R j / p R k / p R l

Inside a stack, p H and p L move the pane one place along the stack, and past its end take it out into its own slot. p J and p K take it out below or above at once.

The resize group p R stays open after each key, so Ctrl-a p R l l l resizes three steps in a row. Press Esc when you’re done.

Tabs: t

Action	Keys
New tab	t n
Close the tab	t x
Rename the tab	t r
Next / previous tab	t ] / t [
Move the tab	t m
Jump to tab 1 to 9	t 1 … t 9

Sessions: x

Action	Keys
Quick session switcher	x s
Agent switcher	x a
Previous session	x o
New session	x n
Rename the session	x r
Detach	x d
Session manager	x m
Move the session to a folder	x f

Search: s

Action	Keys
Search scrollback	s s
Open scrollback in $EDITOR	s e

Views: w

Action	Keys
New view	w n
Add the focused pane to a view	w a
Rename the view	w r
Remove the focused cell from the view	w x
Cycle the view’s layout	w Space
Leave the view	w q
Delete the view	w d

See Views.

Sidebars: b

Action	Keys
Show or hide the left / right / bottom sidebar	b h / b l / b j
Cycle focus through the visible panels, then back to the panes	b b

Alt-h/j/k/l move into and out of a sidebar the same way they move between panes. See Sidebars.

Visual mode

Visual mode moves a cursor through the focused pane’s scrollback, vim style.

Action	Keys
Move left / down / up / right	h / j / k / l
Half a page down / up	Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u
Top / bottom of the scrollback	gg / G
Start a character-wise selection	v or Space
Start a line-wise selection	V
Copy the selection to the clipboard	y
Search	/
Previous (older) / next (newer) match	n / N (or p)
Open scrollback in $EDITOR	e
Back to Normal	Esc

Search mode

Type the query and press Enter. Matches are highlighted and you land in Visual mode on the most recent one, where n moves to earlier matches and N to later ones. Backspace edits the query; Esc cancels and clears the highlights.

Session manager

Ctrl-a x m opens the session manager, a tree of every folder, session, tab and pane on your local server and connected remotes.

Action	Keys
Move	j / k or Down / Up
Switch to the selected node	Enter
Expand (connects a remote) / collapse	l / h, or Right / Left
Filter the tree	/
Mark a pane for a view	Space
Add the marked panes to a view	va
New session / new folder	n / c
Close	Esc or q

It also takes two-key chords for acting on the selected row, such as tr to rename a tab or sx to close a session. See Sessions & persistence for the full list.

Next steps

• Keybindings: rebind or unbind keys, change the prefix, chain commands.
• Layouts: what Alt-Space cycles through.
• CLI reference: the remux commands.