solstone-tmux 0.2.0

Standalone tmux terminal observer for solstone

solstone-tmux

Standalone tmux terminal observer for solstone. Experiences your tmux sessions along with you, accumulating observations to a local cache and syncing them to your journal.

Install

solstone (the journal) must already be installed and running on the host this observer reports to. If it isn't, start here: https://solstone.app/install.

On the machine that will host the observer:

pipx install solstone-tmux
solstone-tmux install-service
solstone-tmux setup

setup prompts for your journal URL and registers the observer for you. If this machine can't reach your solstone host directly, mint a key from there with sol observer create <name> and paste it during setup.

From source

For working on solstone-tmux itself:

git clone https://github.com/solpbc/solstone-tmux.git
cd solstone-tmux
make install-service

This installs the solstone-tmux command via pipx and writes the systemd user unit. The manual setup steps below cover registration and config.

Manual setup

If solstone-tmux setup isn't a good fit (no interactive shell, scripted provisioning, custom config layout), work through these steps by hand.

1. Register an observer with your journal

sol observer create solstone-tmux

This prints the journal URL and API key. You'll need both for the next step.

2. Write the config

Create ~/.local/share/solstone-tmux/config/config.json:

{
  "server_url": "http://localhost:8000",
  "key": "<api-key-from-sol-observer-create>",
  "stream": "<hostname>.tmux",
  "capture_interval": 5,
  "segment_interval": 300
}

Set stream to <your-hostname>.tmux (e.g., fedora.tmux, archon.tmux). This matches the stream naming convention used by the built-in observers.

Alternatively, solstone-tmux setup runs an interactive wizard that prompts for your journal URL and auto-registers.

3. Install the systemd service

solstone-tmux install-service

This writes the unit file to ~/.config/systemd/user/solstone-tmux.service, enables it, and starts it.

4. Verify

systemctl --user status solstone-tmux
solstone-tmux status
sol observer list  # should show the observer as "connected"

Manual run

solstone-tmux run         # foreground, ctrl-c to stop
solstone-tmux run -v      # verbose/debug logging

How it works

• Polls all active tmux sessions every 5 seconds for content changes
• Accumulates observations in 5-minute segments under ~/.local/share/solstone-tmux/captures/
• Background sync service uploads completed segments to your journal
• Works offline — syncs when your journal is reachable
• Recovers incomplete segments on startup after crashes

Commands

Command	What it does
solstone-tmux run	Start capture + sync (default if no subcommand)
solstone-tmux setup	Interactive config wizard
solstone-tmux install-service	Install and start systemd user service
solstone-tmux status	Show observer state, sync state, cache size

License

AGPL-3.0-only. Copyright (c) 2026 sol pbc.