---
title: "tmux status-bar"
description: "https://youtu.be/mvgM8UH11_U"
date: 2021-08-07
published: true
template: blog-post
---


[https://youtu.be/mvgM8UH11_U](https://youtu.be/mvgM8UH11_U){.youtube-embed}

The tmux status bar can be a handy tool to remind yourself where you are within
tmux.  It can also include a bunch of system information like battery status,
cpu, mem, whatever you can get from the command  line.  Honestly I like to keep
it minimal, and actually keep it turned off most of the time.  I find that it
helps a little bit for others to follow along if I keep it on in certain
circumstances.

## show the status bar

You can set a hotkey to show or hide the status bar.

``` bash
bind s set-option -g status
bind C-s set-option -g status
```

## setting the background transparent

I really want a minimal status bar with very little bling, I want it to get out
of the way an not draw too much attention, so step one is to set the background
to transparent.

``` bash
# default statusbar colors
#――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
set-option -g status-bg default
set-option -g status-fg colour240
```

## setting default colors

I want my status bar to somewhat match the rest of my theme, so I set the
default foreground as magenta and the default background as transparent.

``` bash
# default window title colors
#―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
set-window-option -g window-status-style fg=magenta
set-window-option -g window-status-style bg=default
```

## my status bar

Honestly I set this up quite awhile ago, and it does everything I need it to
for now.  It shows me the current session that I am in on the left and lists
out the windows for the session in the middle.

``` bash
set -g status-left-length 85
set -g status-left "working on#[fg=colour135] #S"
set -g window-status-current-format "#[fg=black,bold bg=default]│#[fg=white bg=cyan]#W#[fg=black,bold bg=default]│"
set -g window-status-current-format "#[fg=black,bold bg=default]│#[fg=colour135 bg=black]#W#[fg=black,bold bg=default]│"
set -g status-style bg=default
set -g status-right "#[fg=magenta] #[bg=gray] %b %d %Y %l:%M %p"
set -g status-right '#(gitmux "#{pane_current_path}")'
set -g status-justify centre
```

For more format options search for FORMATS in the tmux manpage.

<a href="/tmux-nav-2021/" class="wikilink" data-title="How I navigate tmux in 2021" data-description="change_speed = (speed) =&gt; [...document.querySelectorAll(&#39;video&#39;)].map(v =&gt; v.playbackRate=v.playbackRate+speed)" data-date="2021-05-11">How I navigate tmux in 2021</a>

> for more information on how I navigate tmux, check out this full post

Also check out the full YouTube
[tmux-playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRNG6WIHETB4reAxbWza3CZeP9KL6Bkr)
to see all of the videos in this series.