Zellij Tab Pane

Zellij Tab/Pane Skill

Open a tab or pane in zellij -- empty, with a shell command, with a Claude session, or with a GitHub issue.

Decision Tree

Step 1: Container
  "pane"/"panel"/"панель" -> PANE
  "tab"/"вкладка"/default  -> TAB

Step 2: Mode
  nothing to run              -> A (empty)
  shell command               -> B (command)
  Claude prompt/plan/task     -> C (claude session)
  GitHub issue (#N / URL)     -> D (issue dev via start-issue)

Mode A: Empty Tab/Pane

User just wants a new tab or pane, nothing to run.

Tab name: user-specified or shell-HH:MM (e.g. shell-14:35).

TAB

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "$TAB_NAME" || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

PANE

timeout 5 zellij action new-pane || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

Mode B: Command in Tab/Pane

User wants to run a shell command (npm test, make build, etc.) in a new tab or pane.

Tab name: derived from command (e.g. npm-test, make-build). Max 20 chars.

TAB

TAB_NAME="<from-command>"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "$TAB_NAME" -- $CMD || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

PANE

timeout 5 zellij run -- $CMD || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

Mode C: Claude Session in Tab/Pane

User wants an interactive Claude Code session with instructions/plan/task.

Tab name: auto-generated from context (1-2 words, max 20 chars):

• Has issue reference -> #123
• Has plan file -> plan-audit
• General task -> refactor, fix-tests
• Fallback -> claude-HH:MM

Step 1: Write bash launch script

SCRIPT=$(mktemp /tmp/claude-tab-XXXXXX.sh)
cat > "$SCRIPT" << 'SCRIPT_EOF'
#!/bin/bash
cd '<PROJECT_DIR>'
PROMPT='<escaped prompt -- single quotes escaped as '"'"'>'
clear
echo "Launching claude with prompt: $PROMPT"
echo ""
exec claude --dangerously-skip-permissions "$PROMPT"
SCRIPT_EOF
chmod +x "$SCRIPT"

Why a script: Prompts can be multi-line with quotes and special characters; a heredoc in a temp script avoids complex escaping in command arguments.

Step 2: Launch

TAB

TAB_NAME="<auto-generated>"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "$TAB_NAME" -- bash "$SCRIPT" || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  elif ! command -v claude &>/dev/null; then echo "claude not found in PATH"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

PANE

timeout 5 zellij run -- bash "$SCRIPT" || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  elif ! command -v claude &>/dev/null; then echo "claude not found in PATH"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

Mode D: Issue Development in Tab/Pane

User wants to start development on a GitHub issue. Recognized when request contains an issue reference (number, #number, or GitHub URL).

Tab name: always #NUMBER.

Issue Number Parsing

parse_issue_number() {
  local arg="$1"
  if [[ "$arg" =~ github\.com/.*/issues/([0-9]+) ]]; then
    echo "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
  elif [[ "$arg" =~ ^#?([0-9]+)$ ]]; then
    echo "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
  else
    echo ""
  fi
}

Issue Argument Format

TAB

ISSUE_NUMBER=$(parse_issue_number "$ARG")

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "#${ISSUE_NUMBER}" -- start-issue $ISSUE_NUMBER || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  elif ! command -v start-issue &>/dev/null; then echo "start-issue not found in PATH"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

PANE

timeout 5 zellij run -- start-issue $ISSUE_NUMBER || {
  _rc=$?
  echo "Command failed. Diagnosing..."
  if [ -z "$ZELLIJ" ]; then echo "Not in zellij session"
  elif [ $_rc -eq 124 ]; then echo "Timed out -- zellij may be hanging"
  elif ! command -v start-issue &>/dev/null; then echo "start-issue not found in PATH"
  else echo "Unknown error (exit code: $_rc)"
  fi
  exit $_rc
}

Examples

Example 1: Empty tab

User: "open a new zellij tab"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "shell-14:35"

Example 2: Command in pane

User: "run npm test in a pane"

timeout 5 zellij run -- npm test

Example 3: Command in tab

User: "run make build in new tab"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "make-build" -- make build

Example 4: Claude session in tab

User: "execute the plan from docs/plans/audit.md in new tab"

SCRIPT=$(mktemp /tmp/claude-tab-XXXXXX.sh)
cat > "$SCRIPT" << 'SCRIPT_EOF'
#!/bin/bash
cd '/home/danil/code/project'
PROMPT='Execute the plan from docs/plans/audit.md. Use superpowers:executing-plans.'
clear
echo "Launching claude with prompt: $PROMPT"
echo ""
exec claude --dangerously-skip-permissions "$PROMPT"
SCRIPT_EOF
chmod +x "$SCRIPT"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "plan-audit" -- bash "$SCRIPT"

Example 5: Delegate to pane

User: "delegate this refactoring to a pane"

SCRIPT=$(mktemp /tmp/claude-tab-XXXXXX.sh)
cat > "$SCRIPT" << 'SCRIPT_EOF'
#!/bin/bash
cd '/home/danil/code/project'
PROMPT='Refactor the auth module: extract JWT validation into separate service'
clear
echo "Launching claude with prompt: $PROMPT"
echo ""
exec claude --dangerously-skip-permissions "$PROMPT"
SCRIPT_EOF
chmod +x "$SCRIPT"

timeout 5 zellij run -- bash "$SCRIPT"

Example 6: Issue in tab

User: "start issue #45 in a new tab"

timeout 5 zellij action new-tab --name "#45" -- start-issue 45

Example 7: Issue URL in pane

User: "start https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123 in a pane"

timeout 5 zellij run -- start-issue https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123

Dependencies

• zellij -- terminal multiplexer (must be running)
• claude -- Claude Code CLI (for Mode C only)
• start-issue -- issue development command (for Mode D only)

Errors

Important

• Skill works only inside zellij session
• TAB modes use new-tab -- CMD (atomic, no race conditions)
• PANE modes use zellij run -- CMD
• For Mode C, session is interactive (not -p print mode) -- remains a working chat