I have been a tmux and Vim user for a very long time. When I started using Claude Code as my daily driver, I kept losing track of workspaces, sessions, windows and Claude Code sessions.
Since I already had a tool at my disposal that could help me iterate quickly on ideas, and encouraged by discussions with a colleague, I’ve decided to prototype something to scratch my itch. But instead of only quickly creating something, I wanted to use it to learn Rust (more on that later).
I decided to start with a simple tmux session management where each tmux session was associated with a Claude Code session. The session was created as I usually set them up: a vertical split with Claude Code and another horizontal split with nvim and an idle terminal for running commands.
This prototype allowed me to quickly iterate on van-dame itself, adding features like giving an initial prompt, choosing to use git worktrees or working directly on a branch. During the development I noticed something that has been recurring on my projects: it’s very easy to keep adding features. And knowing when to stop or how to curate the product becomes even more important.
Today I use it as my daily driver for work and my side projects. If you feel inclined to test it, it’s at https://github.com/gvc/van-damme share any feedback you have.