ezpn

A terminal pane splitter. Click to select. Drag to resize. No config needed.

Install

cargo install --path .

Usage

ezpn              # 2 panes, side by side
ezpn 4            # 4 horizontal panes
ezpn 3 -d v       # 3 vertical panes
ezpn 2 3          # 2×3 grid
ezpn --layout '7:3/1:1'
ezpn --layout '1:1:1' -e 'cargo watch -x test' -e 'npm run dev' -e 'tail -f app.log'
ezpn --restore .ezpn-session.json

Then split any pane further with Ctrl+D (horizontal) or Ctrl+E (vertical). Commands passed with -e/--exec run via $SHELL -l -c, so pipes, redirects, and shell syntax work as expected.

Controls

Mouse — the primary way to interact:

Keyboard (direct shortcuts):

tmux-compatible prefix keys (Ctrl+B then...):

Alt+Arrow navigates between panes directionally. This requires your terminal to send Option as Meta:

• iTerm2: Preferences → Profiles → Keys → Left Option Key → Esc+
• Terminal.app: Settings → Profiles → Keyboard → Use Option as Meta Key

Features

Flexible layouts — Start with a grid, use ratio layouts with --layout, split individual panes, and drag to resize. Auto-equalizes on split. Press F2 to reset sizes.

╭────────┬────╮       ╭────────┬────╮
│        │ 2  │       │        │ 2  │
│   1    ├────┤  ──>  │   1    ├──┬─┤
│        │ 3  │       │        │3 │4│
╰────────┴────╯       ╰────────┴──┴─╯

Per-pane commands — Launch each pane with a different command:

ezpn --layout '1/1:1' -e 'htop' -e 'npm run dev' -e 'tail -f app.log'

Title bar buttons — Each pane has [━] [┃] [×] buttons for split/close right in the title bar. Click to act.

tmux prefix keys — Ctrl+B enters prefix mode (1s timeout). All standard tmux splits, navigation, and pane management work. Direct shortcuts (Ctrl+D, Ctrl+E, etc.) also remain.

Scroll mode — Ctrl+B [ enters scroll mode. Navigate with j/k, g/G, PgUp/PgDn, Ctrl+U/Ctrl+D. Press q to exit.

Settings panel — Ctrl+G opens a clean dark modal. Navigate with j/k, apply with Enter, quick-select borders with 1-4. Vim keys throughout.

Border styles — --border flag or change in settings:

single           rounded (default) heavy            double
┌──────┬──────┐  ╭──────┬──────╮  ┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━━┓  ╔══════╦══════╗
│      │      │  │      │      │  ┃      ┃      ┃  ║      ║      ║
└──────┴──────┘  ╰──────┴──────╯  ┗━━━━━━┻━━━━━━┛  ╚══════╩══════╝

Dead pane recovery — When a shell exits, the pane dims and shows [exited]. Press Enter to respawn, or × to close.

IPC + automation — Control a live instance from another terminal:

ezpn-ctl list
ezpn-ctl split horizontal
ezpn-ctl exec 1 'cargo test'
ezpn-ctl save .ezpn-session.json
ezpn-ctl load .ezpn-session.json

Workspace snapshots — Save layout ratios, active pane, commands, shell path, and UI settings. Restore them later with ezpn --restore.

Nesting prevention — Running ezpn inside an ezpn pane is blocked via $EZPN (like tmux's $TMUX).

Options

ezpn-ctl

ezpn-ctl talks to a running ezpn instance over a Unix socket using JSON messages.

ezpn-ctl list
ezpn-ctl --pid 12345 focus 2
ezpn-ctl --json list

Commands:

• split horizontal [pane]
• split vertical [pane]
• close <pane>
• focus <pane>
• equalize
• layout <spec>
• exec <pane> <command>
• save <path>
• load <path>

How it works

Each pane owns a PTY pair (portable-pty) running either an interactive shell or a shell command. Output is parsed by a per-pane VT100 emulator (vt100). The layout is a binary split tree where each node is either a leaf (pane) or a split with a direction and ratio. Rendering caches border geometry and redraws only dirty panes unless the layout chrome changes.

src/
├── main.rs          Event loop, prefix key state machine, pane lifecycle
├── layout.rs        Binary split tree (split, remove, navigate, equalize)
├── pane.rs          PTY + VT100 emulation + scrollback + launch metadata
├── render.rs        Dirty render path + border cache + title bar buttons
├── settings.rs      Dark modal with vim navigation
├── ipc.rs           JSON IPC protocol + Unix socket listener
├── workspace.rs     Snapshot save/load and validation
├── config.rs        Config file loading (prepared)
├── tab.rs           Tab manager (prepared)
└── bin/ezpn-ctl.rs  External control client

vs. tmux / Zellij

Use ezpn when you want split terminals without learning anything. Use tmux/Zellij when you need full detach/reattach session persistence.

License

MIT