The Agentic Terminal
Building a zsh, SSH, tmux, and vim workflow for the age of AI coding agents.
Coming soon
Four old tools and one new one. zsh, SSH, tmux, and Neovim form a stable system joined by narrow, documented seams: processes, files, text streams, terminal sessions. A coding agent enters through those same seams instead of forcing the workflow to reorganize around it. The book derives the reusable patterns behind that system from a dotfiles repository and a plain-text second brain, both shaped by years of daily use.
Status: a first draft of all 18 chapters and 4 appendices is written. Revision, fact-checking, and production are still ahead.
First edition ships DRM-free as PDF and EPUB, with free updates.
From five tools to one workflow.
Part I introduces each tool from its mental model. Parts II and III compose them into project workflows and a plain-text second brain. Part IV shows how to build and evolve your own system. Expand a part to see its chapters.
What this book is about, and how to read it
Part 1 The Terminal Stack 6 chapters
- 1 Boring Tools, Powerful Combinations
- 2 zsh: The Interactive Glue
- 3 SSH: A Workspace That Crosses Machines
- 4 tmux: Persistence and Topology
- 5 Neovim: Editing as a Language
- 6 Coding Agents: Delegation with Boundaries
Part 2 Composing the Workflow 6 chapters
- 7 The Project Contract
- 8 Find, Filter, Act
- 9 The tmux Switcher Pattern
- 10 Remote Continuity
- 11 Context Handoffs for Agents
- 12 Small Helpers, Sharp Edges
Part 3 A Second Brain Made of Text 4 chapters
- 13 Text Is the Interface
- 14 Capture Without Friction
- 15 Retrieval Is a Workflow
- 16 Working Memory for Humans and Agents
Part 4 Building Yours 2 chapters
- 17 A Minimal System in an Afternoon
- 18 Evolution Without Reinvention
Part 5 Appendices 4 appendices
- A The First-Hour Setup
- B Pattern Catalog
- C Troubleshooting by Boundary
- D Glossary and Subject Index
For people who work in a terminal every day.
The book assumes you are willing to keep important state in ordinary files and to ask what owns each part of your workflow. It does not assume shell expertise, a memorized tmux keymap, or a large Neovim distribution.
- Developers, system administrators, SREs, and technical writers who spend their working day in a terminal.
- Readers adopting coding agents who want them bounded by the same seams as every other tool in the stack.
- Experienced terminal users who want design patterns with named responsibilities, and who have seen enough dotfiles listings.
Coming soon.
The first draft is written and the book is being revised. Send us a short email and you will get one reply when it ships, with a sample chapter as soon as one is public.