Input — Siri Remote and Gamepad

How input works on Apple TV

Apple TV does not have a hardware keyboard. vmuxTV uses three input paths to make the terminal usable from the couch:

1. The Siri Remote, which sends a small set of button presses and arrow events to the focused app.
2. A paired game controller, which sends a much larger set of buttons that vmuxTV maps through the same keybind system used on the Mac, iPhone, and visionOS apps.
3. Text input fields — anywhere a text field is focused, tvOS shows the on-screen keyboard and offers an iPhone Keyboard banner on a paired iPhone.

Inside a live terminal session, the Siri Remote is enough for navigation and for triggering the dictation bar. To enter text, you use the dictation bar; see Voice Dictation for that flow.

Siri Remote inside a terminal

When the Sessions tab is active and a terminal fills the screen, the Siri Remote behaves as follows:

The arrow keys auto-repeat at the same rate as a hardware keyboard, so holding the directional edge of the clickpad scrolls a man page or steps through your shell history exactly the way you expect.

Siri Remote outside a terminal

Outside the Sessions view (Hosts tab, Settings tab, host editor), the Siri Remote behaves like a normal tvOS focus engine:

• Swipe the clickpad to move focus between rows, fields, and tab items.
• Click to activate a button or select a row.
• Long-press the center of the clickpad on a host row to open the context menu (Edit / Delete).
• Menu / Back moves focus back up the navigation stack and eventually closes the app.

Tab switches happen by swiping all the way to the top of the screen, focusing the tab bar, and then swiping left or right.

Game controller support

Any controller paired to the Apple TV through Settings → Remotes and Devices → Bluetooth is recognized by vmuxTV. Tested working:

• Apple-licensed MFi controllers (gamesir, SteelSeries Nimbus, Razer Kishi).
• Sony DualShock 4 and DualSense (PlayStation 4 and 5 controllers).
• Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller (Xbox One, Series X/S, and Bluetooth-capable Elite models).

vmuxTV uses the standard tvOS GameController framework, so any controller that tvOS exposes as an extended gamepad will work.

Controller button reference

Inside a terminal session, the controller buttons map to terminal input through vmux's keybind system. The defaults are:

If a button is unbound, it does nothing. The triggers have a soft press threshold — partial pulls are ignored, full pulls fire once per pull. Holding a button does not auto-repeat unless the underlying terminal key would auto-repeat (arrows do; Tab and Enter do not).

The keybind table is shared across the vmux family. If you have customized keybinds on vmuxMac or vmuxPhone and your changes are synced, those bindings apply on Apple TV as well. There is no keybind editor inside vmuxTV — edit your bindings on another vmux app first.

Pairing a controller

1. Put the controller into Bluetooth pairing mode (the procedure depends on the controller; for DualSense, hold the PS button + Share until the light bar flashes).
2. On the Apple TV, open Settings → Remotes and Devices → Bluetooth.
3. Wait for the controller name to appear, then select it.
4. Confirm pairing on screen.

Once paired, the controller stays paired across reboots. Buttons start working in vmuxTV immediately — there is no setting to enable.

Multiple controllers

If you pair more than one controller, all of them are listened to simultaneously. Whoever presses a button first wins. This is useful for handing off the "keyboard" without re-pairing.

Text input — the on-screen keyboard

Anywhere vmuxTV shows a text field — the host editor, the dictation bar, the password field — focusing the field brings up the standard tvOS on-screen keyboard. On the keyboard:

• Swipe the clickpad to move the highlight across letters.
• Click to type the highlighted letter.
• Microphone button in the keyboard's top-right enables system dictation. This is different from the dictation bar — the keyboard's mic dictates into the field, then you submit; the dictation bar dictates and submits to the terminal.

Long passwords or hostnames are tedious on the on-screen keyboard. Two faster paths:

iPhone Keyboard

When a text field is focused on the Apple TV, every iPhone or iPad on the same iCloud account that is unlocked and within Bluetooth range gets a banner notification reading "Apple TV Keyboard" or "Type for Apple TV". Tap the banner and the iPhone shows a full keyboard. Whatever you type appears on the TV in real time. Tap Done on the iPhone to submit.

This is the fastest way to enter passwords, paste hostnames, and fill out the host editor.

Bluetooth keyboard

A Bluetooth keyboard paired to the Apple TV through Settings → Remotes and Devices → Bluetooth is treated as a system keyboard. Inside a terminal session, every keystroke is forwarded directly to the remote — no dictation bar, no on-screen keyboard. This is the closest experience to vmuxMac on Apple TV.

Modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Cmd) work as expected on a Bluetooth keyboard. Function keys, arrow keys, Page Up/Down, Home/End, and Esc all forward correctly.

Multiple sessions and the Menu button

When more than one session is open, the Menu button on the Siri Remote (or the Menu button on a paired controller) cycles to the next session. With three sessions open, the cycle is 1 → 2 → 3 → 1. The dot indicator near the bottom of the screen highlights the active session.

If you want to close a session, the only path is Settings → Sessions → long-press → Close.

Related

• Voice Dictation — the dictation bar and what it can do.
• Connecting — the host form and connection lifecycle.
• Themes and Settings — make the terminal readable across the room.
• Keyboard Shortcuts — the shared keybind reference for the whole vmux family.