limen
Latin: "threshold". The doorsill one crosses when entering.
A two-stage terminal launcher TUI for tmux and SSH. The first thing you see when opening a new terminal: pick a host, pick a session, get to work.
Status: Active implementation. The TUI launches host and session pickers. See docs/DESIGN.md for the canonical architecture specification.
What It Does
limen replaces tmux's default name-prompt-on-launch with an interactive, keyboard-driven TUI:
- Host Picker: Choose
localhostor one of your declared SSH targets. Live status indicators show reachability and active session counts. - Session Picker: Pick an existing tmux session to attach to, or spawn a new named session. Behaves consistently across local and remote targets.
Pressing Esc at any stage drops you into a fresh unnamed tmux session at the selected host with zero deliberation tax.
Tech Stack & Architecture
- Language & Runtime: Go 1.22+
- TUI Engine: Charm Bubble Tea (Elm Architecture) & Lip Gloss styling
- Orchestration:
tmuxIPC & native OpenSSH background client stream - Configuration: Single JSON fleet declaration at
~/.config/limen/hosts.json
Installation
Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew install KofTwentyTwo/tap/limen
Nix Flake Run
nix run github:KofTwentyTwo/limen
Binary Releases
Pre-built binaries are available on the Releases page:
| Platform | Architecture | Binary Name |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | x86_64 | limen-linux-amd64 |
| Linux | ARM64 | limen-linux-arm64 |
| macOS | Intel | limen-macos-amd64 |
| macOS | Apple Silicon | limen-macos-arm64 |
Local Build & Verification
Build from Source
# Build binary
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o bin/limen ./cmd/limen
# Or build via Nix
nix build
Quality Gates & Verification
# 1. Run Unit & Integration Tests
go test -v ./...
# 2. Run Go Linter & Vet
go vet ./...
Fleet Configuration
Declare target hosts in ~/.config/limen/hosts.json:
{
"hosts": [
{ "name": "prod", "hostname": "prod-server-01.example.com", "user": "deploy" },
{ "name": "dev", "hostname": "dev-box.lan", "user": "james" },
{ "name": "builder", "hostname": "builder.lan" }
]
}
localhost is implicit and managed automatically by limen. See docs/DESIGN.md for full schema specifications.