A single-keypress session picker that works with multiple terminal session managers. Press a number, you're in.

zp gives you a fast TUI for listing, creating, attaching, and killing sessions — even from inside an existing session. It doesn't care which session manager you use. Pick whichever you like:

zp auto-detects which backends you have installed. If you have more than one, it asks you to pick on first run and saves your choice.

Download a pre-built binary from GitHub Releases. Builds are available for macOS and Linux, both arm64 and amd64.

You can also use the install script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nerveband/zpick/main/install.sh | bash

The installer automatically adds a shell hook to your config (.zshrc, .bashrc, or fish conf.d/). The hook is required — it lets zp attach sessions in your current shell, enables autorun, and enables in-session switching. On macOS it also creates a /usr/local/bin/zp symlink for system-wide PATH access.

zp upgrade keeps the hook up to date automatically.

To remove the hook:

zp remove-hook

zp upgrade

Downloads the latest release binary directly. No package manager needed.

The guard is optional but useful. It wraps specific commands so that if you run them outside a session, you get a quick prompt:

  ⚡ Not in a tmux session. Press ENTER to pick one (10s)  esc skip

Press Enter to pick a session (the original command auto-launches inside it). Or just wait 10 seconds and the command runs normally. This is handy for AI coding tools where losing your session halfway through is annoying.

To install the guard (this also installs the hook if it's missing):

zp install-guard

By default, the guard covers claude, codex, and opencode. You can change that:

zp guard --add aider       # start guarding aider
zp guard --remove codex    # stop guarding codex
zp guard --list            # see what's guarded

To remove just the guard wrappers (keeps the shell hook):

zp remove-guard

Run zp guard with no arguments for a full explanation of how it works.

Run zp inside an active session and it detects you're already in one. The header shows which session you're in (marked with ←), and picking a different session auto-detaches and reattaches — no need to remember backend-specific detach commands or shortcuts.

This works across all backends. The flow:

1. You're in session api-server, run zp
2. Pick frontend (or create a new session)
3. zp detaches from api-server and attaches to frontend

Everything is single-press. No typing session names, no confirming.

First session gets the bare name. The counter only appears when there's a conflict.

* (green) means someone is connected to that session. Probably you, on another device. . means idle.

By default, sessions are labeled 1-9 then a-y. If you're on a mobile keyboard where letters are the default view, switch to letters-first mode:

Press h for the help screen, then l to toggle between numbers and letters mode. The setting is saved to ~/.config/zpick/keys.

zp                Interactive TUI picker (default)
zp list           List sessions (--json for machine-readable)
zp check          Check dependencies (--json for machine-readable)
zp attach <n>     Attach or create session
zp kill <name>    Kill a session
zp guard          Explain session guard and show commands
zp install-hook   Add shell hook to .zshrc/.bashrc/.config/fish
zp install-guard  Add guard wrappers (installs hook if missing)
zp remove-hook    Remove shell hook and guard wrappers
zp remove-guard   Remove guard wrappers only (keeps hook)
zp upgrade        Upgrade to the latest version
zp version        Print version

The TUI renders to /dev/tty so it works even when stdout is piped. Only the final shell command goes to stdout, where it gets eval'd by the shell hook.

# The hook adds this to your shell config:
zp() { eval "$(command zp)"; }

Selecting a session outputs something like exec tmux new-session -A -s myproject, which the eval picks up. Pressing Escape outputs nothing, so your shell just continues.

# macOS
brew install zoxide fzf

zp is a Go binary that runs on:

• macOS (arm64, amd64)
• Linux (arm64, amd64)
• zsh, bash, and fish

The layout fits about 30 characters wide. No wasted space on session names. Works fine over SSH on a phone.

• zmosh - Session persistence with UDP remote support
• zmx - The session tool zmosh is forked from
• zellij - Terminal workspace with batteries included
• tmux - Terminal multiplexer
• shpool - Shell session pooling

MIT