Automate your iTerm layouts and session setup

iTomate

Automate your iTerm layouts and session setup

Define your iTerm layouts, commands to execute in the form of yaml files and run a single command to have iTerm prepare it self for you to start working.

Requirements

• iTerm2 Version 3.3 or later
• Python 3.5 or later

Installation

Make sure that you are running Python 3.5 or later

pip install itomate

Enable Python API usage in iTerm preferences.

itomate --version

Example

The layout, number of panes, tabs, titles and commands is configurable and is detailed below.

Usage

Open iTerm and simply run the below command

itomate -c config.yml

If you don't provide -c flag, itomate will look for itomate.yml file in the current directory and use that.

Here is the list of options available

itomate [-c,--config <config-file>] # Sets up the iTerm session
        [-h,--help]                 # Shows the help screen
        [-v,--version]              # Shows the installed itomate version

Configuration

Configuration file to set up the sessions has the format below

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  window-1:
    title: "Window 1"
    panes:
      - title: "Some Pane Title"
        position: "1/1"
        commands:
         - "some command"
         - "second command"
      - position: "1/2"
      - position: "2/1"
      - position: "2/2"
  window-2:
    title: "Window 2"
    panes:
      - position: "1/1"
      - position: "1/2"
      - position: "2/1"

Details for each of the configuration objects above is given below

Layouts

The parameter position in each pane decides where each of the window panes will be displayed. The position value has the format below

x / y – both x and y are required parameters

x: refers to the column in the window
y: refers to the row of the given column x

Here are some of the examples for different pane layouts

Single Pane Window

For single pane, since there is one column and one row, the position for pane would be 1/1

.------------------.
| 1/1              |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
'------------------'

Here is how the configuration would look like

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  some-project:
    title: "Some Project"
    panes:
      - title: "Single Pane"
        position: "1/1"
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/some-project"
          - "git pull origin master"
          - "yarn dev"

Two Panes Vertical Split Layout

For two panes with equal split or in other words two columns with one row in each, the positions would be 1/1 for the pane on the left and 2/1 for the pane on the right i.e. the second column.

.------------------.------------------.
| 1/1              | 2/1              |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
'------------------'------------------'

Here is how it would look in the configuration

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  some-project:
    title: "Some Project"
    panes:
      - title: "First Half"
        position: "1/1"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/some-project"
      - title: "Second Half"
        position: "2/1"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/another-project"

Two Columns, Three Panes Layout

The layout below now has two columns. First column has only one row so position for that would be 1/1 . For the second column we have two panes i.e. two rows; first pane in the second column would be 2/1 and the second one would be 2/2 .

.------------------.------------------.
| 1/1              | 2/1              |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |------------------|
|                  | 2/2              |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
'------------------'------------------'

Configuration for that would be:

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  some-project:
    title: "Some Project"
    panes:
      - position: "1/1"    # <-- Notice the position
      - position: "2/1"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/dev-server"
          - "./run"
      - position: "2/2"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/project"
          - "git standup"

Note that the commands and title are optional parameters in panes. Only position is required.

Two Columns, Four Panes Layout

.------------------.------------------.
| 1/1              | 2/1              |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|------------------|                  |
| 1/2              |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
|------------------|                  |
| 1/3              |                  |
|                  |                  |
|                  |                  |
'------------------'------------------'

Configuration for that would be:

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  some-project:
    title: "Some Project"
    panes:
      - position: "1/1"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/project"
          - "Make clean"
      - position: "1/2"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/project"
          - "git standup"
      - position: "1/3"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/project"
          - "git standup"
      - position: "2/1"    # <-- Notice the position
        commands:
          - "cd ~/Workspace/dev-server"
          - "./run"

Three Columns Five Pane Layout

.------------------.------------------.------------------.
| 1/1              | 2/1              | 3/1              |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |------------------|                  |
|                  | 2/2              |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |------------------|                  |
|                  | 2/3              |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
|                  |                  |                  |
'------------------'------------------'------------------'

Configuration for that would be

version: "1.0"
tabs:
  some-project:
    title: "Some Project"
    panes:
      - position: "1/1"    # <-- Notice the position
      - position: "2/1"    # <-- Notice the position
      - position: "2/2"    # <-- Notice the position
      - position: "2/3"    # <-- Notice the position
      - position: "3/1"    # <-- Notice the position

Contributors

Special thanks to the contributors for making iTomate possible

• Zakaria
• You?

Similar Projects

There is itermocil which relies on Applescript that has been deprecated by iTerm , has limited layout options, and is pretty limited in terms of what it can achieve because of AppleScript. iTomate on the other hand uses iTerm's newly introduced Python API , has flexible layouts support and can be extended using iTerm's pretty powerful API.

Contributions

Feel free to submit pull requests, create issues, spread the word.

License

MIT © Kamran Ahmed