Drive Remote Terminal

Install

/plugin marketplace add 88plug/drive-remote-terminal
/plugin install drive-remote-terminal@drive-remote-terminal

Or from a local clone:

git clone https://github.com/88plug/drive-remote-terminal
/plugin marketplace add ./drive-remote-terminal
/plugin install drive-remote-terminal@drive-remote-terminal

Requires tmux (or screen) and ssh on the path — all standard.

Quickstart

Once installed, ask Claude Code to drive a remote TUI and it follows the bundled loop:

SSH into build-01 and run `htop`, then tell me which process is using the most memory.

Claude starts a tmux session on the remote host, launches the program, captures the screen, reads it, and reports back — the same type-wait-look loop a human uses. You see a real rendering of the remote screen in the answer, not a blind command result.

What it does and why

You can't drive a TUI with one-shot SSH. ssh host 'cmd' runs and exits; piping into a full-screen program that needs a real PTY fails. This plugin uses tmux (or screen as a fallback) to give the agent both a way to type and eyes to see, so it can operate the Claude Code TUI, vim, top, curses installers, REPLs, or any program that needs a real PTY over SSH — the way a human would: type a keystroke, look at the screen, decide the next move.

The technique

The whole skill is one loop:

• Type — tmux send-keys -t SESSION 'text' Enter
• Wait — sleep N (let the app redraw)
• Screenshot — tmux capture-pane -t SESSION -p (this is the screenshot)
• Read and decide — look at the captured screen, then send the next input

Plus the hard-won rules: always screenshot after acting, always wait before you screenshot, never double-send on an unexpected screen, submit a stuck line with a standalone Enter, and confirm the program actually launched before sending keys (or they fall through to the shell).

[!TIP] The wait step matters more than it looks. Capturing the pane before the app has redrawn returns a stale screen, which leads the agent to act on the wrong state.

What it bundles

One skill (drive-remote-terminal) that teaches a method — no scripts, no MCP, no hooks. It ships reference files for:

• The full tmux key and capture-pane table
• A GNU screen fallback playbook
• Advanced SSH connection reuse and deterministic sync

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Open an issue to discuss a change before sending a large pull request, and keep edits to the skill focused on the method it teaches.

License

FSL-1.1-ALv2 © 2026 88plug — Functional Source License; converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release.