Launch iTerm 2 with a predefined tab & split configuration using Apple's "Javascript for Automation"

iterm-launcher.js

/**
 * AppleScript to launch iterm2 terminals/tabs with configurable:
 * ~ Name <name>
 * ~ List of commands <cmds>
 * ~ Split behavior horizontal(h) or vertical(v) <split> :: (h, v)
 *
 * Run from terminal with `osascript iterm-launcher.js`.
 * Don't unfocus with the mouse/keyboard while executing the script.
 *
 * JS port of https://github.com/luismartingil/scripts/blob/master/iterm_launcher02.applescript
 */
var layout = [
  [{
    name: 'Pane 1',
    cmds: ['echo 1', 'ls'],
    split: 'v'
  }, {
    name: 'Pane 2',
    cmds: ['echo 2', 'ls']
  }],
  [{
    name: 'Pane A',
    cmds: ['echo A', 'ls'],
    split: 'h'
  }, {
    name: 'Pane B',
    cmds: ['echo B', 'ls']
  }]
];

/****************************************************************/

var SystemEvents = Application('System Events');
var iTerm = Application('iTerm');

// Returns the last pane that was created in iTerm
function lastPane() {
  var len = iTerm.currentTerminal.sessions.length;
  return iTerm.currentTerminal.sessions[len - 1];
}

for (var i = 0; i < layout.length; i++) {
  var tabItem = layout[i];

  // Create a new tab
  iTerm.currentTerminal.launch({session: i + ''});

  for (var j = 0; j < tabItem.length; j++) {
    var paneItem = tabItem[j];

    // Initialize a new pane
    var pane = lastPane();
    pane.name = paneItem.name;

    // Run the commands
    for (var k = 0; k < paneItem.cmds.length; k++) {
      pane.write({text: paneItem.cmds[k]});
    }

    // Execute the split
    if ('split' in paneItem) {
      var splitChar = 'd';
      if (paneItem.split == 'h') {
        splitChar = 'D';
      }
      SystemEvents.keystroke(splitChar, {using: 'command down'});
    }
  }
}

This is a convenient script, thank you for putting it together. I tried modifying it to read the layout data from a file in your home directory (and parse it as JSON), but I cannot seem to find clear documentation on how to read a file from disk. Any thoughts on this?

@bruth I've had the same problem — the documentation on JXA is pretty awful. You should be able to do something like this:

// iterm.json
{
  "layout": [
    [{
      "name": "Pane 1",
      "cmds": ["echo 1", "ls"],
      "split": "v"
    }, {
      "name": "Pane 2",
      "cmds": ["echo 2", "ls"]
    }],
    [{
      "name": "Pane A",
      "cmds": ["echo A", "ls"],
      "split": "h"
    }, {
      "name": "Pane B",
      "cmds": ["echo B", "ls"]
    }]
  ]
}

// iterm-launcher.js
var fileContents = $.NSString.stringWithContentsOfFile('iterm.json').js;
var layout = JSON.parse(fileContents).layout;

...

@pmdarrow I thought you may be interested in my recent project:

https://github.com/TomAnthony/itermocil

It is a Python script that writes Applescript to do the same thing in iTerm, and uses teamocil compatible YAML files for configuration.

@TomAnthony your project looks great. Seems you've figured out the timing issues, I'm having all sorts of problems with that!

Thank you so much. Spent an hour trying to figure this out!