zellij-send-keys

Bring tmux's send-keys to Zellij. Send text and commands to any pane, from anywhere.

Why

Zellij doesn't have a built-in send-keys equivalent. If you're migrating from tmux and rely on scripted pane control, this plugin fills that gap. CI runners, dev environment setup, AI agent orchestration -- all covered.

# tmux
tmux send-keys -t 0 "echo hello" Enter

# zellij-send-keys
send-to-pane 0 "echo hello"

Features

• send_keys - Send text to a specific pane by ID (terminal or plugin pane)
• list_panes - Get a list of all panes with their IDs
• Works from outside a zellij session via ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME
• Helper script for a tmux-like send-to-pane command

Installation

From Release

Download the .wasm file from Releases and copy it to your zellij plugins directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/zellij/plugins
cp zellij-send-keys.wasm ~/.config/zellij/plugins/

From Source

# Add wasm target (first time only)
rustup target add wasm32-wasip1

# Build
cargo build --target wasm32-wasip1 --release

# Install
cp target/wasm32-wasip1/release/zellij-send-keys.wasm ~/.config/zellij/plugins/

First Time Setup: Grant Permissions

The plugin requires permissions to write to pane STDIN. On first use, you need to grant permissions:

# Inside a zellij session, run:
zellij plugin -- file:$HOME/.config/zellij/plugins/zellij-send-keys.wasm

A permission dialog will appear. Click Grant to allow the plugin to:

• Write to pane STDIN
• Read application state (for listing panes)

Note: Use $HOME instead of ~ in plugin paths. The tilde is not expanded in all contexts.

Usage

Send text to a pane

# Send "echo hello" to pane 0 and press Enter
ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME=<session_name> zellij action pipe \
  --plugin file:$HOME/.config/zellij/plugins/zellij-send-keys.wasm \
  --name send_keys \
  -- '{"pane_id": 0, "text": "echo hello", "send_enter": true}'

# Send text without Enter
ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME=<session_name> zellij action pipe \
  --plugin file:$HOME/.config/zellij/plugins/zellij-send-keys.wasm \
  --name send_keys \
  -- '{"pane_id": 0, "text": "partial text"}'

Note: Use ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME environment variable instead of -s flag for session targeting.

Using Helper Script

Source the setup script for a convenient send-to-pane command:

# Set up environment (auto-detects active session)
source scripts/setup-env.sh

# Or specify session name
source scripts/setup-env.sh my-session

# Send text to pane
send-to-pane 0 "echo hello"
send-to-pane 1 "npm run build"

# Send without pressing Enter
send-to-pane 0 "partial text" false

API

send_keys

Send text to the STDIN of a specific pane.

Parameters:

• pane_id (u32): Target pane ID
• text (string): Text to send (max 64KB)
• send_enter (bool, optional): Whether to send Enter key after text (default: false)
• pane_type (string, optional): "terminal" or "plugin" (default: "terminal")

Example:

{"pane_id": 0, "text": "npm run build", "send_enter": true}

Send to a plugin pane:

{"pane_id": 3, "text": "cmd", "pane_type": "plugin"}

list_panes

Get a JSON list of available panes with their IDs via the pipe API:

ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME=<session_name> zellij action pipe \
  --plugin file:$HOME/.config/zellij/plugins/zellij-send-keys.wasm \
  --name list_panes

Or launch the plugin UI to see panes interactively:

zellij plugin -- file:$HOME/.config/zellij/plugins/zellij-send-keys.wasm

Use Cases

• Dev environment automation - Start servers, watchers, and build tools across panes
• CI/CD integration - Drive zellij sessions from external scripts
• AI agent orchestration - Let AI tools send commands to terminal panes
• Pair programming - Send commands to a colleague's pane in a shared session

License

MIT