One Key That Starts Your Whole Agent Desk

Confirmed VIA remapping gives the anodised aluminium KM16 Macropad a way to emit an uncommon key from one of its sixteen keycaps. An operating-system hotkey can turn that output into a reviewed startup script while its three knobs remain ordinary controls.

What belongs in a desk startup script?

Check that required project directories, tools and configuration files exist. Start or attach the intended terminal multiplexer session, open the editor and task ledger, then reset stale local notification state to unknown until current events arrive. Print each failed check visibly.

Keep secrets out of the script and avoid downloading updates during startup. A morning routine should create a predictable view, not change the toolchain before work begins.

How do you resume agent sessions automatically?

Resume terminal infrastructure, not agent authority. Attach to named tmux or Zellij sessions and show their working directories and Git status. If a process survived overnight, reveal its prompt and logs without sending input. If it did not, offer the normal manual command to resume the conversation.

Do not blindly restart commands that may have side effects. A missing session should be an explicit state the person reviews.

How do you bind the script to a single key?

Map a pad position to a spare function code in VIA, confirm the raw output, then bind that code in a user-level hotkey service to an absolute wrapper path. The wrapper should prevent concurrent copies and bring an existing workspace forward instead of opening duplicates.

Test from several frontmost applications, after restart and while the workspace already exists. Keep a normal shell command as a recovery route.

What should the script refuse to automate?

It should not approve prompts, press Enter, pull or merge unknown changes, rotate credentials, deploy, delete worktrees or bypass permission systems. It should also refuse ambiguous repository state and missing paths instead of guessing.

The KM16 Macropad can make the launch gesture consistent, but the script determines safety. Keep startup read-only where possible, log safe step names and review the wrapper whenever project paths, hotkey software or terminal versions change. Add a dry-run mode that prints intended actions without launching applications. Version the wrapper and its expected paths, then run a small self-check after every operating-system or multiplexer update. If any prerequisite fails, stop the sequence and leave the desk in a clearly incomplete state. Do not let later successful steps hide an earlier failure. Record a safe startup summary with the date, host and workspace names, but omit command arguments that may contain credentials.