Tabset

Have a lot of iTerm2 windows open? They all look nearly indistinguishable? And when you go to the Window menu to select one, figuring out which one is impeded because they're all titled "Shell"? tabset can help.

tabset is designed to make life easier for those using iTerm2 on the Mac. It provides a CLI command that allows easy setting of iTerm2 tab/window titles, badges, and colors. If you have a lot of tabs/windows in operation simultaneously, tabset helps to visually distinguish them.

Installation

npm install -g iterm2-tab-set

(Depending on local security settings, you may need to use sudo npm ... to authorize global installation.) This will install the tabset command.

Usage

The easiest usage is just to run the command:

tabset

This will colorize the tab header, set the tab title, and set the tab badge based on the current working directory. If all you want are tabs to look a little different from each other, you're done.

For a little more precision, you can give a "tag" to use instead of the current working directory. Perhaps one related to the kind of work you're doing:

tabset html

Different tags will create different-looking tabs.

More Precise Usage

If you want more control of what tabset is setting, and how, read on.

tabset --color <colorspec>

where names or defines acolor, will set the tab header to that color. By default tabset knows all the CSS color names, and how to interpret CSS-style rgb() and hex (e.g. #663399) color definitions. You can add new color names if you like (see below).

If a color name is partially given (e.g. alice), the corresponding color will be guessed (e.g. aliceblue). If more than one named color shares that name fragment, the possible matches will be listed, and one of them will be chosen at random. Note that fragments that exactly match a color name (e.g. blue) will not trigger a search; if you want to search on all all possible blues, use a string like blu that isn't itself an actual color name.

You can see all of the color names with:

tabset --colors

Special color names also recognized include random (chooses a known named color at random) and RANDOM (chooses an RGB color completely at random, not just from the named color palette).

If you choose to define your color precisely with RGB (e.g. rgb(102,51,153)) or hex (e.g. #663399) color specs, note that quotes are probably needed to avoid Unix shell ugliness. That's especially true for rgb() colors, and true of hex specs if the optional but traditional # prefix is used.

If you want to visually pick a color rather than specify it textually:

tabset --pick

Will launch the Mac color picker and set the color based on its result.

In many cases, you may not care exactly what color is chosen, just that like terminal tabs are similarly colored. In this case, you can use hashed color option.

tabset --hash <word>

will choose a color based on a hash of <word>. So if you want all your JavaScript coding tabs to have one color, tabset --hash js will do the trick. Other words such as css, html, and server can be used for other tabs and windows. Any string can be used. Case is significant. If you don't like the hashed selection, experiment with variations. You might hate --hash js, but find --hash js_, --hash JS or --hash javascript to be just right

Titles and Badges

Beyond being distinguished by header color, iTerm2 tabs can have titles and badges. Titles appear in either the tab bar or as the window title. Badges are a large-font watermark that appears behind the tab's normal content. (Badges require iTerm2 Version 3 or later.)

tabset --badge "server 1"

Sets the badge watermark to "server 1". The quotes are needed to manage the Unix shell argument handling. Single word badges and titles do not need to be quoted, but any that include spaces should be. You can also embed newlines with \n. Unicode characters are also possible (easiest with cut-and-paste, since Unicode codepoints are difficult to specify in many shells).

iTerm2 defines some variables that badges can live-display. For example, to track the current working directory:

tabset --badge '\(session.path)'

For more of these, see the iTerem 2 docs.

To set tab titles:

tabset --title server

iTerm2 has a complex system for setting tab title, window title, or both, controlled with a mode flag. You can specify this with --mode values of 0, 1, or 2, if you are so inclined. The default, modeless operation will often suffice.

Config File

If you want to add your own named colors, create a JSON file in your home directory called .tabset.

Give it a colors map, like so:

{
  "colors": {
    "alisongreen": "rgb(125,199,53)",
    "js": "orchid",
    "html": "gold",
    "server": "alisongreen",
    "papayawhip": null
  }
}

Now new colors are defined for js, html, and other names. They can be defined in terms of existing color names (making them, in effect, aliases), or through direct rgb() or hex CSS formats.

Once you've added a named color, you use it just like you would use one of the predefined CSS color names. For example here a color alisongreen is defined, then the server color refers to alisongreen. The only restriction is that color names must be defined before they are used.

If you really don't like a color and do not want it included in your palette, remove it from service by defining its value as null. The example above nixes papayawhip.

You can also redefine the default color, using the key default.

The fastest way to get going with your own named colors is:

tabset --init

Which will create a sample .tabset in your $HOME directory if it does not already exist.

tabset also provides commands to make selecting and update custom color names easier.

tabset --add python "rgb(9,3,199)"

Will do the trick. Or to visually select the color:

tabset --add python --pick

Will bring up the Mac color picker, and set the result as your named color.

tabset --del python

Will remove that custom definition. And

tabset --list

Will list out all currently-defined custom colors. (There are many online resources for exploring the base set of CSS named colors. For example, this one.)

Shortcuts

All of the major options can be abbreviated. tabset --badge js can be said as just tabset -b js. Similarly for -c instead of --color, -h instead of --hash, -p for --pick, and -t instead of --title.

Finally, there is an --all or -a all-in-one option that sets the color, badge, and title simultaneously. This is where it's especially helpful to define named colors for the types of tabs you masy want. You don't even really need to specify the -a flag; if no flag is provided, --all is assumed.

tabset js

For example will label everything it can find with "js" and set the js color. If no color named js is defined, a hashed color will be guessed.

You can also mix and match. E.g.:

tabset js -t one.js

Makes everything js, except the title which is one.js. Conversely

tabset js -b one.js

Sets everything to js except the badge, which reflects the file name.

Mix and match to suit your workflow.