Scrollback history for mosh. A lightweight terminal multiplexer that gives you the one thing mosh is missing — the ability to scroll back through your terminal output.

Unlike tmux or screen, mhist doesn't require switching to a "copy mode" to view history. Just use keyboard shortcuts to scroll, and copy/paste works normally at all times.

go install github.com/jaigner-hub/mhist@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/jaigner-hub/mhist.git
cd mhist
make build

Produces a single mhist binary with no runtime dependencies.

Requirements: Go 1.23+

# Start a new session
mhist

# Start a named session
mhist new -n work

# List sessions
mhist ls

# Attach to a session by name or ID prefix
mhist attach work

# Kill a session
mhist kill work

Add this to your ~/.bashrc on the server to automatically start mhist when you connect:

# Auto-start mhist
if [ -z "$MHIST_SESSION" ] && [ -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" ]; then
    exec mhist
fi

Each SSH/mosh connection gets its own session. Mosh reconnections reuse the existing session automatically. Use Ctrl+a s to switch between sessions.

A position indicator [line N/total] appears at the top-right while scrolling.

Copy/paste works normally in both modes — text selection is never intercepted.

Terminal  -->  mosh  -->  mhist (client)  -->  Unix socket  -->  mhist (session)  -->  PTY  -->  shell

Each session runs as an independent background process — no central daemon. Sessions persist after you detach and survive mosh reconnections.

• Scrollback buffer — ring buffer stores the last 10,000 lines of output
• Raw PTY replay — 64 KB circular buffer preserves exact terminal state (colors, cursor, prompt) for lossless screen redraw on reattach
• Session switching — Ctrl+a s lets you switch between sessions without disconnecting
• Partial line tracking — your current shell prompt is preserved in scrollback
• Binary protocol — framed messages over Unix domain sockets for efficient client-session communication

Sessions are stored in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/mhist/ (falls back to /tmp/mhist-$UID/). Each session creates:

• <id>.sock — Unix socket for client connections
• <id>.json — metadata (name, PID, creation time)

Stale sessions are automatically cleaned up when you run mhist ls. Connecting to a session with a dead client (e.g., from a dropped mosh connection) automatically takes over.

mhist works well over mosh from mobile terminals:

• Ctrl+s to enter scroll mode, then swipe (sends arrow keys) to scroll through history
• Copy/paste works normally — no mouse capture to interfere with text selection
• Ctrl+a s to switch sessions

• creack/pty — PTY allocation
• x/term — terminal raw mode and size detection

MIT