Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

See when I don't have a prompt I forget to run those things and just autopilot through a lot of commands before I realize Im on the wrong branch.

For example if I have say 3 worktrees open in 3 seperate tmux tabs and are context switching between them (very common when reviewing multiple PRs from my devs) Sometimes i will get the tabs mixed up, which worktree is where etc and just autopilot a bunch of commands meant for one tree into a different one and its quite annoying to clean up.

The prompt has generally stopped me from doing that.




On tmux, I use split panels more often than tabs.

Usually, there will be from 2 to 8 panels of different sizes.

This gives me spacial short term memory: I know what each shell is by the panel position.

I can zoom on then to bring them full screen (ctrl+b z) if I'm going to do anything that requires more space, then zoom out to the panel arrangement when I'm done.

Sometimes I'll name prompts (eg `PS1='stg$ '`), specially when working with ssh, but that's rare.

What inspired me to work this way was this video on the acme editor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1xVpMPn8M




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: