sesh

A single command for persistent, split terminal AI coding sessions. Runs an AI tool alongside lazygit in a single Zellij layout.

Sessions survive disconnects, so they're perfect for remote servers and coding across devices. Start a session on your laptop, close the lid, and pick it up from your phone or another machine. Pair it with a mobile SSH client like Echo for coding on the go.

Note: This project is not related to joshmedeski/sesh, a terminal session manager for tmux.

Install

Fish

# With Fisher (recommended)
fisher install almonk/sesh

# Or manually
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/almonk/sesh/main/functions/sesh.fish -o ~/.config/fish/functions/sesh.fish
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/almonk/sesh/main/completions/sesh.fish -o ~/.config/fish/completions/sesh.fish

Zsh

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/almonk/sesh/main/sesh.sh -o ~/.config/sesh.sh
echo 'source ~/.config/sesh.sh' >> ~/.zshrc

Bash

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/almonk/sesh/main/sesh.sh -o ~/.config/sesh.sh
echo 'source ~/.config/sesh.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Prompt

Paste this into your AI coding agent and it will handle the rest:

Install sesh from https://github.com/almonk/sesh — it's a shell function that launches a Zellij split with an AI coding tool and lazygit side by side. Detect my shell (fish, zsh, or bash) and install accordingly. Also install zellij and lazygit with brew if they're not already installed.

Dependencies

Install with Homebrew:

brew install zellij lazygit

You'll also need at least one AI tool:

Tool	Install
Claude Code	npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Codex	npm install -g @openai/codex
Amp	npm install -g @sourcegraph/amp
Pi	npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent

Usage

sesh                      # Claude + lazygit in current directory
sesh codex                # Codex + lazygit in current directory
sesh amp                  # Amp + lazygit in current directory
sesh pi                   # Pi + lazygit in current directory
sesh claude ~/my-project  # Claude + lazygit in a specific directory
sesh vim ~/my-project     # Works with any binary in PATH
sesh pickup               # Pickup the last session
sesh list                 # List all sessions

Attaching to sessions

Each sesh session runs inside Zellij, which assigns it a random haiku-style name like calm-river or silver-leaf. If you close your terminal or detach, your session keeps running in the background.

List active sessions:

zellij list-sessions

Reattach to a session:

zellij attach calm-river

Kill a session:

zellij kill-session calm-river

Keybindings

sesh includes built-in keybindings for switching between panes:

Key	Action
Alt+1	Focus the AI pane (left)
Alt+2	Focus lazygit (right)
Ctrl+q	Detach from the session (keeps it running)

These are embedded in the session layout and won't interfere with your global Zellij config. Use Ctrl+q to close the window — your session stays alive in the background and you can reattach later.

Recommended lazygit config

Since lazygit runs in a narrow 35% pane, it looks best in single-column mode. Add this to your lazygit config (~/Library/Application Support/lazygit/config.yml on macOS, ~/.config/lazygit/config.yml on Linux):

gui:
  screenMode: full
  sidePanelWidth: 0.2

How it works

sesh generates a temporary Zellij layout file and launches a session with two vertical panes:

• Left (65%) — your chosen AI tool (Claude Code by default)
• Right (35%) — lazygit for staging, committing, and managing git

The layout file is cleaned up automatically when the session ends.