Use aoe to create, manage, and monitor AI coding agent sessions (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, etc.) in tmux. Prefer aoe over raw tmux commands for agent management.

When to use this skill

• Launching one or more AI coding agents on project directories
• Monitoring agent progress (waiting vs running vs idle)
• Capturing agent output for review
• Organizing agents into groups or profiles
• Setting up parallel worktree-based development

Do NOT use this skill for general tmux window/pane management unrelated to coding agents.

Core concepts

• Session: An agent process running in a tmux session. Each session has an ID, title, tool (e.g. claude), and project path.
• Group: A named folder for organizing sessions (supports nesting with /, e.g. backend/api).
• Profile: A separate workspace with its own sessions and config. Use -p globally or set AGENT_OF_EMPIRES_PROFILE.
• Status: One of running, waiting, idle, stopped, error, starting, unknown.

Command reference

Adding sessions

# Add a session for the current directory
aoe add . -t "my feature"
# Add with group, launch immediately
aoe add /path/to/repo -t "API work" -g backend -l
# Add with specific tool
aoe add . -t "codex session" -c codex
# Add in a git worktree (parallel branch)
aoe add . -t "fix-123" -w fix/issue-123 -l
# Add in Docker sandbox
aoe add . -t "sandboxed" -s -l
# Add as sub-session of another
aoe add . -t "sub task" -P 
# Enable YOLO mode (skip permission prompts)
aoe add . -t "yolo" -y -l

Listing sessions

# Human-readable list
aoe list
# JSON output for parsing
aoe list --json
# List across all profiles
aoe list --all

JSON output shape (aoe list --json):

[
  {
    "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "title": "my feature",
    "project_path": "/home/user/project",
    "group_path": "backend",
    "tool": "claude",
    "status": "running",
    "profile": "default"
  }
]

Session lifecycle

aoe session start 
aoe session stop 
aoe session restart 
aoe session attach    # interactive attach

Inspecting sessions

# Show session metadata
aoe session show  --json
# Capture tmux pane content (key for monitoring)
aoe session capture  --json
aoe session capture  -n 100 --strip-ansi
aoe session capture    # plain text, good for piping
# Quick status summary
aoe status --json
aoe status -q   # just the waiting count (for scripting)

JSON output shape (aoe session capture --json):

{
  "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "title": "my feature",
  "status": "waiting",
  "tool": "claude",
  "content": "... pane text ...",
  "lines": 50
}

JSON output shape (aoe session show --json):

{
  "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "title": "my feature",
  "path": "/home/user/project",
  "group": "backend",
  "tool": "claude",
  "command": "claude",
  "status": "running",
  "profile": "default"
}

JSON output shape (aoe status --json):

{
  "total": 5,
  "running": 2,
  "waiting": 1,
  "idle": 1,
  "stopped": 1,
  "sessions": [...]
}

Auto-detection (inside a tmux pane)

When called from within an aoe-managed tmux session, identifier can be omitted:

aoe session show          # auto-detects current session
aoe session capture       # auto-detects current session
aoe session current --json

Renaming and organizing

aoe session rename  -t "new title"
aoe session rename  -g "new/group"
aoe group create mygroup
aoe group move  mygroup
aoe group list --json
aoe group delete mygroup --force

Profiles

aoe profile list
aoe profile create staging
aoe profile delete staging
aoe profile default staging   # set default
aoe -p staging list            # use inline

Worktrees

aoe worktree list
aoe worktree info 
aoe worktree cleanup -f

Removing sessions

aoe remove 
aoe remove  --delete-worktree --force

Workflow patterns

Single agent

aoe add /path/to/repo -t "feature X" -l
# ... wait ...
aoe session capture "feature X" --json

Parallel worktree agents

aoe add . -t "issue-100" -w fix/issue-100 -l
aoe add . -t "issue-101" -w fix/issue-101 -l
aoe add . -t "issue-102" -w fix/issue-102 -l
aoe status --json   # check all at once

Monitoring loop

Poll all sessions until none are running:

while true; do
  status=$(aoe status --json)
  waiting=$(echo "$status" | jq '.waiting')
  running=$(echo "$status" | jq '.running')
  if [ "$running" -eq 0 ] && [ "$waiting" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "All agents finished"
    break
  fi
  echo "Running: $running, Waiting: $waiting"
  sleep 30
done

Capture and review

for id in $(aoe list --json | jq -r '.[].id'); do
  echo "=== $id ==="
  aoe session capture "$id" -n 100 --strip-ansi
  echo
done

Group operations via TUI

Groups are primarily managed through the aoe TUI (run aoe with no arguments). The TUI supports bulk start/stop/restart on groups. Use CLI commands above for scripted workflows.