Paste tmux Scrollback by Typing the Words You Remember
· 6 min read

The text you need next is usually already on your screen. A pod name three commands back, the error string you want to search for, a URL a tool printed, the long flag you typed twenty minutes ago. Getting it into your current prompt means reaching for the mouse, and the mouse gets it wrong: a soft-wrapped line comes back with a newline in the middle, and a newline in a shell paste runs the command. This post covers a tmux plugin that selects the range by the words you remember, shows you the selection in the real pane while you type, and pastes it without submitting it.