🖼️ a r t a

agent runtime terminal application

Terminal workspace manager for concurrent AI coding agent usage. Enables parallel agent usage over a single SSH session.

Organize projects in a sidebar, manage multiple tmux or zellij-backed sessions, and switch between them — all from a single binary. Close, reopen and continue from where you left off.

 ┌────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ -------------- │ ─────────────────────────────────────────── │
 │                │  $ ~/projects/my-app                        │
 │   🖼 a r t a   │  > claude                                   │
 │                │  ╭─────────────────────────────────────╮    │
 │ -------------- │  │ claude> fix the login bug           │    │
 │ ▼ my-app (2)   │  │ ...                                 │    │
 │   session-1    │  ╰─────────────────────────────────────╯    │
 │   session-2 *  │  $ npm test                                 │
 │ ▶ api-svc      │  ✓ 42 tests passed                          │
 │ ▼ fe-web1 (1)  │                                             │
 │   session-1 *  │  $ █                                        │
 │                │ focused ─────────────────────────────────── │
 │ ---------------│               interactive | v0.2.1 | MIT   │
 │ ctrl+space run │ [] 1 claude * - 2 zsh       2026-04-02 18:27│
 │ J/K reorder    │                                             │
 └────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
      sidebar          tmux session (full PTY)

Features

• Project sidebar — add, rename, reorder, and remove projects
• Tmux or Zellij sessions — each session is backed by tmux (default) or zellij, with an agent window and a terminal window
• Configurable coding agent — defaults to claude, but can be set to codex, gemini, opencode, or any command
• Session persistence — quit ARTA, sessions keep running. Reopen and reattach instantly
• Session restore — remembers and reopens your last active session on startup
• Multiple profiles — use ARTA_CONFIG_ROOT and ARTA_SESSION_PREFIX env vars to run independent ARTA instances with separate configs and sessions
• Open IDE — press o to launch your configured IDE (e.g., webstorm ., idea .) for any project
• Project configuration — press c to configure project name, path, or open command via a navigable menu
• Bell notifications — focus-aware bells via a Claude Code Notification hook (auto-installed into ~/.claude/settings.json); shows a sidebar indicator and plays a sound for unfocused sessions, reliable across tmux and zellij
• Nerd Font detection — auto-detects and uses icons when available, falls back to Unicode
• Full-width input panel — tab-complete paths, browse directories, rename with full cursor support
• Single binary — built with Ratatui + tui-term + portable-pty

Install

arta needs tmux (the default backend) or zellij. The Homebrew install pulls in tmux automatically; for other install methods, install one yourself — see Requirements.

Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

brew install cjurjiu/arta/arta   # also installs tmux

Shell installer (macOS, Linux)

curl -fsSL https://github.com/cjurjiu/arta/releases/latest/download/arta-installer.sh | sh

Cargo

cargo install arta-tui          # compile from crates.io (binary is `arta`)
cargo binstall arta-tui         # download prebuilt binary, no compile

mise / ubi

mise use -g ubi:cjurjiu/arta@latest

From source

# Install Rust: https://rustup.rs/
git clone https://github.com/cjurjiu/arta.git
cd arta
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/arta. Add it to your PATH or copy it somewhere convenient.

Requirements

• macOS or Linux
• Rust 1.85+ (via rustup)
• tmux (default) or zellij
• A terminal emulator (iTerm2, Ghostty, Kitty, etc.)
• Optional: a Nerd Font for icons
• Optional: disable macOS Ctrl+Space shortcut (System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Input Sources)

Usage

arta

Prefix key (Ctrl+Space)

Ctrl+Space is the prefix key. Press it from any focus, then press a command. The sidebar footer shows available commands while the prefix is active.

The status bar shows interactive or run mode. When Ctrl+Space is pressed, it switches to run mode with "awaiting command..." until a key is pressed.

Sidebar-only keys

These keys work only when the sidebar is focused (no prefix needed):

You can also click on either pane to switch focus.

Note: Ctrl+Space requires disabling macOS input source switching (see Requirements).

Inside the terminal

Each session is a tmux (or zellij) session with two windows:

• agent — launches your configured coding agent (claude by default) automatically
• terminal — a plain shell

Switch between them with your tmux prefix (e.g., Ctrl+A 1 / Ctrl+A 2) or zellij tab switching.

Input panel

When adding a project or renaming:

Configuration

ARTA stores its configuration and workspace state under ~/.arta/ by default.

Config file (~/.arta/config.yaml)

All fields are optional — ARTA uses sensible defaults if the file is missing or incomplete.

# The command launched in the agent window of new sessions (default: "claude")
coding_agent_command: claude

# Terminal multiplexer backend: "tmux" (default) or "zellij"
multiplexer: tmux

# Custom script to run instead of the default session creation.
# Receives two arguments: <session_name> <project_directory>
# When set, coding_agent_command is ignored (the script controls what runs).
# The multiplexer setting is still used for attaching to the session.
# multiplexer_init_script: /path/to/your/script.sh

Environment variables

Multiple profiles

Run independent ARTA instances with separate configs and sessions:

# Work profile
ARTA_CONFIG_ROOT=~/.arta-work ARTA_SESSION_PREFIX=work arta

# Personal profile
ARTA_CONFIG_ROOT=~/.arta-personal ARTA_SESSION_PREFIX=personal arta

Each profile has its own config.yaml, workspace.yaml, and distinctly-named multiplexer sessions (arta_work_t_* vs arta_personal_t_*).

Migration from older versions

On first run, ARTA automatically migrates your workspace from the legacy location (~/.config/arta/data/workspace.json) to the new location (~/.arta/workspace.yaml). Existing tmux sessions are also renamed to the new naming scheme.

Architecture

ARTA (Rust binary)
├── Config (YAML, ~/.arta/config.yaml)
│   └── Coding agent command, multiplexer choice, init script
├── Sidebar (ratatui widget)
│   └── Project & session management
├── Input Panel (ratatui widget)
│   └── Full-width bottom panel for path/rename input
├── Terminal Panes (one per session, via portable-pty + tui-term)
│   ├── vt100::Parser processes PTY output on background thread
│   └── tui-term::PseudoTerminal renders to ratatui buffer
├── Multiplexer (tmux or zellij, configurable)
│   └── One session per ARTA session
│       ├── Window/tab "agent" → auto-launches coding agent
│       └── Window/tab "terminal" → plain shell
└── workspace.yaml (~/.arta/)
    └── Projects, sessions, active session & per-project config

How it works

• The sidebar manages projects and sessions in ~/.arta/workspace.yaml
• Each session maps to a multiplexer session named arta_{prefix?}_{t|z}_{project}-{n} (e.g., arta_t_myproj-1)
• Each session has its own PTY (via portable-pty) attached to its multiplexer session
• A background reader thread per session feeds PTY output into a vt100::Parser
• Switching sessions just changes which parser's screen is rendered — instant, no teardown
• Bell notifications are driven by a Claude Code Notification hook (merged idempotently into ~/.claude/settings.json) that touches a marker file under ~/.local/share/arta/bells/ for the current multiplexer session; ARTA polls that directory and raises attention for unfocused sessions. Raw PTY BEL is also handled as a fallback.
• Key input is written directly to the active PTY's master fd — no message queue, minimal latency
• Session restore — the last active session is saved to workspace.yaml and auto-reopened on startup; falls back to the first alive session if the saved one is gone
• When you quit (q), multiplexer sessions stay alive — reopen ARTA to reattach
• When you clean exit (Q), all tracked sessions are killed

Known Issues

Ctrl+Space captured by macOS

Disable in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Input Sources.

Platforms

License

MIT. PRs are welcome.