This tmux tpm plugin makes your status bar appear only after the <prefix> key is pressed (and for a small amout of time thereafter).

You can install this plugin through tpm:

1. Install tpm (duh)
2. Add this line to your tmux.conf:

set -g @plugin 'thesast/tmux-transient-status'

3. Install the plugin with <prefix>I, unless you changed @tpm-install, in which case you should use the keybind you set.

This plugins offers two options to be set in your tmux.conf with these defaults:

set -g @transient-status-delay '0.5'
set -g @transient-status-stall '2.5'

The first one controls the amount of seconds the status bar will wait after you press <prefix> before appearing (set to 0 to make it instant).
The second one controls the amount of seconds the status bar will linger for after you are done with your command (set to 0 to disable lingering).

Make sure to source your tmux.conf (and run tpm in it!) after you bind a key to send-prefix, as the plugin is not hot-reloaded.

See the previous answer as it also applies to <prefix>. This plugin only deals with the primary <prefix> not the secondary one or any other extra ones.

You might also like these plugins:

• tmux-powerline - A tmux plugin giving you a hackable status bar consisting of dynamic & beautiful looking powerline segments, written purely in bash. This was shown in preview.

• tmux-nav-master - Easy cross-navigation between tmux and other terminal applications.

• tmux-keylocker - Lock away your tmux keybinds temporarely.

MIT and Apache 2.0