v0.12.1 — Focus-Free Control

zellij-mcp

Terminal Orchestration for Claude

57 MCP tools for autonomous terminal control. Focus-free pane operations via native Zellij plugin—no focus stealing. Claude pane protection prevents accidental self-termination. Tab-based workspaces, HPC workflows, and more.

57 MCP Tools

∞ Tabs Managed

∞ Panes Managed

Claude Code

you:

ipython

waiting...

ssh

disconnected

Get Started

One command.
Full control.

Install via Claude Code

/plugin genomewalker/zellij-mcp

Restart Claude Code

Then: "create a pane for my tests"

—

Or install manually

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genomewalker/zellij-mcp/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Capabilities

Agent-grade terminal control

⚡

Focus-Free Control

Native Zellij plugin writes to panes without stealing focus. Your cursor stays where it is while Claude orchestrates in the background.

🛡

Claude Pane Protection

Auto-detects the agent's pane and prevents accidental closure. No more killing yourself mid-task. Override with force flag if needed.

⬡

Tab-Based Workspaces

Agent work is organized into dedicated tabs. Switch to agent tabs to observe progress, or stay in your own tab. Clean organization.

◫

Named Pane Targeting

Address any pane by name, not just the focused one. Create "worker", target "worker", read "worker"—across tabs and sessions.

⏱

Output Monitoring

wait_for_output, wait_for_idle, tail_pane. Watch for patterns, detect completion, stream incremental output.

☁

SSH & HPC Workflows

ssh_connect to remote hosts, ssh_run commands, job_submit to SLURM/PBS clusters, job_status tracking.

Reference

57 Tools

Pane Management

new_pane Create pane

close_pane Close focused

focus_pane Move focus

resize_pane Resize

rename_pane Set name

toggle_floating Float mode

toggle_fullscreen Max/restore

Named Panes

create_named_pane Create by name

destroy_named_pane Close by name

list_named_panes Show all

focus_pane_by_name Target

read_pane Get content

write_to_pane Send text

run_in_pane Execute cmd

Monitoring

wait_for_output Pattern wait

wait_for_idle Stable detect

tail_pane New output

search_pane Regex search

send_keys Special keys

clear_pane Clear buffer

SSH & HPC

ssh_connect Open session

ssh_run Remote cmd

job_submit SLURM/PBS

job_status Check jobs

repl_execute Run code

repl_interrupt Ctrl+C

Workflow

Tab Workspaces

Agent work is organized into dedicated tabs within your session. Claude creates panes in tabs like agents, build, or analysis—switch tabs to observe.

# Create panes in dedicated tabs

create_named_pane name="worker" tab="build"

→ Created in "build" tab

# Switch tabs to observe progress

focus_tab name="build"

→ Switched to build tab

Integration

Pairs with prism.nvim

The complete development workflow: zellij-mcp manages panes, prism.nvim handles editor integration. Open nvim in a pane, edit visibly, run tests in another pane.

# Full workflow

1. zellij-mcp: "open nvim in a floating pane"

2. prism.nvim: "go to line 42, add error handling"

3. zellij-mcp: "run tests in a pane below"

4. zellij-mcp: "capture the test output"