trent-cleanup-panes_skill

Overview

This skill cleans up tmux panes in the current window by closing every pane except the one you're actively using. It provides a quick way to reset a tmux window to a single pane without affecting other windows or sessions. The operation is safe to run when there are no other panes and reports how many panes were closed.

How this skill works

The skill identifies the current pane, lists all panes in the current window, filters out the active pane, and kills each remaining pane. It counts successful kills and prints a summary. Only panes in the same tmux window are affected; the active pane is preserved and the rest are closed quietly.

When to use it

• You want to focus on a single pane and close clutter from other panes in the same tmux window.
• After experimenting with multiple split panes and you want to reset the layout quickly.
• Before running a screen-recording or demo and you need a clean terminal view.
• When a script or workflow spawned extra panes and you want to tidy up.
• To recover from accidental pane spawns without touching other windows or sessions.

Best practices

• Run the command from inside the tmux window you want to clean; it only affects the current window.
• Check background processes in other panes before closing if they run important jobs.
• Use tmux session/window naming or persistent layouts if you frequently need to restore complex setups.
• Test once in a non-critical environment so you understand the effect before using in production.

Example use cases

• Close all helper panes after combining outputs into a single pane for a demo.
• Reset a window after running parallel tests that spawned many panes.
• Quickly remove abandoned panes left open during pair programming.
• Streamline a workspace before starting a focused coding session.
• Clean up panes created by temporary scripts or automation tasks.