Dormouse

Terminal multiplexer for VS Code (or standalone app) — tmux keybindings, mouse support, human-friendly copy-paste, and alerts for completed tasks.

dormouse.sh/playground — try before you install

TODO: Hero GIF.

Alert System

Dormouse tracks activity the same way you do — visual motion. When a pane stops changing for two seconds, it marks the task complete and alerts you. Works with any CLI tool that prints to a terminal, no plugins or configuration.

alerts disabled
alerts enabled
task is running, will send an alert when task completes
task is finished and needs your attention

When you click a task that was ringing, it adds a TODO next to the terminal's title. This TODO will remain until you hit Enter in that terminal, or until you explicitly dismiss the TODO by clicking it or typing t in command mode.

This lightweight TODO system remembers which tasks need follow-up so you don't have to.

Mouse-Friendly Copy and Paste

When you copy-paste from a terminal, you are usually stuck with a bunch of newlines that you wouldn't get if you were copying from any other kind of program. Dormouse can optionally remove these with Copy Rewrapped.

For TUIs which register for xterm mouse interception (such as htop and neovim), most terminals make it impossible for you to copy using the mouse. Dormouse makes it easy to temporarily override the mouse interception.

TODO: GIF showing htop and the override mechanism

Tiling Layout with Minimize

Run builds, agents, servers, and scripts side by side. Minimize the ones you're not watching to a compact status indicator — every pane keeps running and every alert still fires whether minimized or not.

You can spawn, layout, and relayout everything in the terminal using any of:

default tmux shortcuts
intuitive modern shortcuts
the mouse

TODO: layout GIF

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you use the mouse, then Dormouse is always in passthrough mode, where all keypresses passthrough to the selected terminal. If you press LShift followed by RShift in quick succession (or LCmd → RCmd, or LCtrl → RCtrl), then you will enter command mode where keypresses can spawn terminals, navigate panes, and rearrange the layout.

Command Mode Shortcuts

Key	Action
`Enter`	Return to passthrough mode
`\\|` tmux `%`	Split left/right
`-` tmux `"`	Split top/bottom
Arrow keys	Navigate between panes
`Cmd+Arrow`	Swap pane positions
`z`	Zoom / unzoom the selected pane
`m` tmux `d`	Minimize pane to baseboard
`k` tmux `x`	Kill pane
`,`	Rename pane

Any Theme, Anywhere

Dormouse uses your VSCode theme — colors, styling, everything. Switch themes and Dormouse switches with you. No separate configuration, no mismatched colors.

TODO: GIF showing theme switching — user changes VSCode theme and Dormouse updates instantly to match

You can also use Dormouse in the Panel area (bottom, next to the built-in terminal), in the Editor area (center region where you edit files), or both.

TODO: GIF showing Dormouse in various areas

Getting Started

Install the extension
Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)

Dormouse: Focus to open the "Panel" version of Dormouse (next to the terminal)
Dormouse: Open in Editor to open a Dormouse tab in the content area (you can open multiple)

Dormouse — Terminal Multiplexer

DiffPlug