Interacting with Freeact via tmux

Name: freeact-interaction
Rating: 76
Author: gradion-ai

Freeact's terminal interface uses prompt_toolkit which requires a real TTY. Use tmux to provide a pseudo-TTY.

Setup

bash

# Start detached tmux session (120x50 recommended for proper rendering)
tmux new-session -d -s agent -x 120 -y 50

# Start freeact (with optional recording)
tmux send-keys -t agent 'uv run freeact' Enter
# Or with recording:
tmux send-keys -t agent 'uv run freeact --record' Enter

Interaction Loop

bash

# Wait for startup/response (adjust sleep as needed)
sleep 3

# Capture current screen (-S -N for N lines of scrollback)
tmux capture-pane -t agent -p -S -50

# Send user input
tmux send-keys -t agent 'your message here' Enter

# Approve code execution
tmux send-keys -t agent 'Y' Enter

Important Notes

•Double echo: When recording (--record), input appears twice - this is expected behavior for capturing input in the Rich console recording
•Timing: Wait between sends for the agent to respond before sending next input
•Approval options: Y (yes), n (no), a (always), s (session)
•Quit: Send q to exit freeact cleanly

Recording Output

•Default output directory: output/
•Creates: conversation.svg and conversation.html
•Custom directory: --record-dir PATH
•Custom title: --record-title "Title"

Cleanup

bash

# Kill the tmux session when done
tmux kill-session -t agent

Example Full Session

bash

# Setup
tmux new-session -d -s agent -x 120 -y 50
tmux send-keys -t agent 'uv run freeact --record' Enter
sleep 3

# Send query
tmux send-keys -t agent 'What is 2 + 2?' Enter
sleep 5
tmux capture-pane -t agent -p -S -50

# Approve execution
tmux send-keys -t agent 'Y' Enter
sleep 3
tmux capture-pane -t agent -p -S -30

# Quit and cleanup
tmux send-keys -t agent 'q' Enter
sleep 2
tmux kill-session -t agent

# Recording saved to output/conversation.{svg,html}