Your config: fix the defaults, then stop
tmux's defaults are famously hostile — tiny scrollback, no mouse, awkward keys, colors misconfigured for modern terminals. The fix is a ~20-line config, not a 400-line one you found on GitHub and don't understand.
Where it lives
~/.tmux.conf (or ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf on tmux ≥ 3.1). It's a list of the same commands you can type at prefix : — nothing magic. Reload changes with tmux source ~/.tmux.conf.
The baseline
These lines fix the six complaints that fill every tmux thread — mouse, scrollback, colors, vim lag, numbering, and split keys:
set -g mouse on
set -g history-limit 50000
set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color"
set -ga terminal-features ",*:RGB"
set -sg escape-time 10
set -g focus-events on
set -g base-index 1
set -g renumber-windows on
set -g set-clipboard on
bind | split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind - split-window -v -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display "reloaded"Build yours interactively
The config generator on this site produces this baseline with every option explained, plus prefix remapping, vi copy mode, clipboard wiring for your OS, and plugins — each line commented. Read the sane-config guide for the full line-by-line reasoning.
Plugins: less than you think
You need zero plugins to use tmux well. The two worth knowing: tmux-resurrect (+continuum) to survive reboots, and tmux-yank if clipboard integration fights you. Install tpm, add plugin lines, press prefix I (capital i) to install — and know that a plugin is just a shell script run by run-shell, nothing more.
Where to go from here
You now know more tmux than most daily users. Next stops: the cheat sheet (searchable, prefix-aware), the guides for the deep fixes (clipboard, colors, neovim), and prefix ? inside tmux — it's all discoverable from there.
Before moving on
- Generate a config at /config/generator and save it
- Reload with tmux source ~/.tmux.conf
- Split with your new | and - keys
- Press prefix ? and skim what else is bound