---
name: never-tmux-kill-server
description: "Never run `tmux kill-server` (or any tmux kill) from this session — $TMUX overrides TMUX_TMPDIR and it kills the user's real server, including this session's pane"
metadata:
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: 0ffc9ffc-1268-4f68-8d99-85f48962dfdb
  modified: 2026-10-05T01:25:20.401Z
---

Never run `tmux kill-server`, even as `env TMUX_TMPDIR=<tmp> tmux kill-server`. This session runs inside tmux (`TMUX=/tmp/tmux-1001/default,…`), and tmux uses the `$TMUX` socket in preference to `TMUX_TMPDIR`. So that command killed the user's REAL default tmux server: every lane pane and the pane hosting this conversation. It happened twice on 2026-10-05 while cleaning up an isolated test server.

**Why:** It destroys the user's live agent sessions and stops this conversation; that is irreversible.

**How to apply:** To clean up a private test tmux server, either leave it alone (it dies with its temp dir/processes), or address its socket explicitly: `env -u TMUX tmux -S <tmpdir>/tmux-<uid>/default kill-server`, after checking with `ls` that the socket path is under the temp dir. `npm run test:server` already cleans up its own server; never add a manual kill. Kill test processes only by verified PID (check `/proc/<pid>/environ`). Never use `pkill -f <pattern>`: it also matches the shell running it. Related: [[agenthub-flaky-codex-ingest-tests]].