Atuin's TUI shows up, but pressing TAB won't enter the command in the terminal (Linux only)

General
1

Hi everyone:

This is the output of atuin doctor

❯ atuin doctor
Atuin Doctor
Checking for diagnostics


Please include the output below with any bug reports or issues

{
  "atuin": {
    "version": "18.13.3",
    "commit": "",
    "sync": {
      "cloud": false,
      "records": true,
      "auto_sync": true,
      "last_sync": "2026-03-18 5:39:43.232369108 +00:00:00"
    },
    "sqlite_version": "3.46.0"
  },
  "shell": {
    "name": "zsh",
    "default": "zsh",
    "plugins": [
      "atuin"
    ],
    "preexec": "built-in"
  },
  "system": {
    "os": "Kali GNU/Linux",
    "arch": "x86_64",
    "version": "2025.3",
    "disks": [
      {
        "name": "/dev/sda1",
        "filesystem": "ext4"
      }
    ]
  }
}

My config is nothing out of the ordinary, the same configuration works fine in my mac. The problem started with version 18.13.3 and Linux only.

The only relevant configuration I have is enter_accept = true. Any ideas? Unfortunately, I can’t revert to an older version because the migration already ran :frowning:

2

I stand corrected, it’s now broken on my Mac as well

3

I think I found a workaround:

    if [ -x "$(which atuin)" ]; then
        eval "$(atuin init zsh --disable-ai)"
        # 18.13.3 forces ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP=false, breaking inline mode after first use in tmux
        export ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP=true
    fi

The problem seems to be related to tmux. I’m not sure, though. I’m still testing.

4

Ahh I can’t get my own install to have this problem :thinking: Is this running inside tmux?

Otherwise, would be awesome if you could please provide both your full zshrc, and your atuin config to help us reproduce this issue!

5

Hi ellie :slight_smile:

Thanks for your reply! Yes, the problem was with tmux. However, your announcement post helped me fix the problem (at least I think so). My fix caused other weird issues related to up arrow not working inside VSCode even without tmux enabled.

However, after I saw your post earlier today, I enabled hex:

command -v atuin &>/dev/null && eval “$(atuin hex init zsh)”…

## Some fzf init commands

if [ -x “$(which atuin)” ]; then
eval “$(atuin init zsh)”
export ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP=true
export ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP_WIDTH=“90%”
export ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP_HEIGHT=“80%”
fi

And that seemed to fix it, I run it twice because fzf takes control of Ctrl+R, running it again lets atuin retake control. Now I’m wondering. Is hex compatible with ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP? should I stop using that? It was kinda growing on me.