sshm-rs

Website | Install | Features

A beautiful and performant TUI SSH connection manager written in Rust, with integrated SSH terminal and SFTP browser.

Highlights

🔍 Fuzzy search across all SSH hosts with field prefixes (tag:, user:, host:)
🔐 OS-native keyring for secure credential storage
📂 Integrated SFTP browser with progress tracking
🏷️ Tags & groups for server organization
⚡ Built in Rust — fast, safe, cross-platform single binary
🎨 Customizable themes via JSON configuration

📖 Table of Contents

Features
Installation
Usage
Keybindings
Configuration
Security
CLI Flags
Development
Troubleshooting
Contributing
License

Features

sshm-rs (Main TUI)

SSH Config Management — Parse and browse SSH hosts from ~/.ssh/config with Include support
Interactive Host List — Fuzzy search, sorting, and multi-select with async connectivity status
Host Operations — Add, edit, delete, favorite, and organize hosts
Connection Tracking — Automatic history recording for frequently used hosts
Port Forwarding — Setup local, remote, and dynamic SSH port forwarding
Groups and Tags — Organize hosts into groups or tag them for quick filtering
Command Snippets — Save and execute pre-configured commands across hosts
Multi-Host Operations — Broadcast commands or delete multiple hosts at once
Themes — Eight built-in themes (Tokyo Night, Catppuccin Mocha, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox Dark, Solarized Dark, One Dark, High Contrast) with custom theme support
Password Storage — Secure credential storage using OS keyring
Copy to Clipboard — Quick copy host information for use elsewhere
Cross-platform — Windows, Linux, macOS

sshm-rs term (SSH Terminal + SFTP Browser)

SSH Terminal — Full interactive terminal with pseudo-TTY support
SFTP Browser — Integrated file browser for remote filesystem navigation
Bidirectional Transfers — Download and upload files with progress tracking
Syntax Highlighting — Terminal output with proper VT100 escape sequence support
Directory Following — SFTP panel auto-follows terminal working directory (OSC 7)
File Editing — Edit remote files with your local editor
Context Menu — Right-click support for file operations (edit, download, upload, delete, zip)
Snippet Access — Quick access to saved command snippets within the terminal
Batch Operations — Compress and download multiple files as ZIP

Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew tap bit5hift/tap
brew install sshm-rs

Windows (winget)

winget install bit5hift.sshm-rs

Cargo (from source)

cargo install --git https://github.com/bit5hift/sshm-rs

Pre-built binaries

Download from GitHub Releases or use the install script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bit5hift/sshm-rs/master/install.sh | bash

Quick Install (Windows PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bit5hift/sshm-rs/master/install.ps1 | iex

Usage

sshm-rs (Main Application)

# Interactive TUI
sshm-rs

# Direct connection to a host
sshm-rs myhost

# Execute command on remote host
sshm-rs myhost "ls -la /tmp"

# Execute with pseudo-TTY
sshm-rs myhost -t "sudo -s"

# Search mode (focus on search)
sshm-rs --search

# Use alternate SSH config
sshm-rs --config /path/to/config

sshm-rs Subcommands

# Add a new host interactively
sshm-rs add

# Edit an existing host
sshm-rs edit myhost

# Search hosts and display results
sshm-rs search "database"

# Export hosts to JSON
sshm-rs export --output hosts.json

# Import hosts from JSON
sshm-rs import hosts.json [--skip-duplicates]

# Validate SSH config for warnings
sshm-rs validate

# Generate shell completions
sshm-rs completions bash > sshm-rs.bash

sshm-rs term (SSH Terminal)

The term subcommand launches an SSH terminal with integrated SFTP browser. You can access it from sshm-rs with the W key or run it directly:

# SSH terminal with SFTP browser
sshm-rs term user@host

# Connect to specific port
sshm-rs term user@host --port 2222

# Use specific key
sshm-rs term user@host --key ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Prompt for password
sshm-rs term user@host --password

Keybindings

sshm-rs Keybindings

Navigation & Connection

Key	Action
`j` / `Down`	Move down
`k` / `Up`	Move up
`PgUp`	Page up
`PgDn`	Page down
`Home`	Jump to first host
`End`	Jump to last host
`/`	Search hosts
`Tab`	Switch focus (search ↔ host list)
`Enter`	Connect to selected host

Multi-Select

Key	Action
`Space`	Toggle select host, move down
`Ctrl+a`	Select all visible hosts
`d`	Delete all selected hosts
`b`	Broadcast command to selected hosts
`Esc`	Clear selection

Host Management

Key	Action
`a`	Add new host
`e`	Edit selected host
`d`	Delete selected host
`p`	Set/remove password for host
`f`	Toggle favorite
`F`	Setup port forwarding
`i`	Show host info
`s`	Toggle sort mode
`y`	Copy host to clipboard
`t`	Toggle tag sidebar
`r`	Refresh connectivity status
`T`	Cycle color theme
`S`	Show command snippets
`G`	Create new group
`g`	Assign host to group
`Enter`	Collapse/expand group (on group header)

File Transfer

Key	Action
`x`	Quick SFTP session
`X`	SCP file transfer
`W`	Open with sshm-rs term (terminal + SFTP)

System

Key	Action
`?` / `h`	Show keybindings
`q`	Quit

sshm-rs term Keybindings

Global

Key	Action
`Ctrl+q`	Quit
`Ctrl+s`	Switch panel (Terminal ↔ SFTP)
`Ctrl+b`	Toggle SFTP panel visibility
`Ctrl+f`	Toggle SFTP directory follow mode
`Ctrl+p`	Show snippets overlay

Terminal Panel

Key	Action
Any key	Send to terminal (when focused)
`Ctrl+s`	Switch to SFTP panel

SFTP Panel

Key	Action
`j` / `Down`	Move down
`k` / `Up`	Move up
`Enter`	Open folder or file
`Backspace`	Go to parent directory
`/`	Edit current path
`e`	Edit file (launches local editor)
`d`	Download file
`u`	Upload file
`a`	Add snippet from file
`Right-click`	Context menu (edit, download, open, go up, refresh, zip, etc.)

Context Menu

Action	Description
Edit	Edit file with local editor
Download	Download to local machine
Upload	Upload file to this location
Open Folder	Navigate into folder
Go Up	Navigate to parent directory
Refresh	Refresh directory listing
Zip	Compress file/directory
Download as ZIP	Compress and download
Delete	Delete remote file/directory

Snippet Overlay

Key	Action
`j` / `Down`	Move down
`k` / `Up`	Move up
`Tab` / `Right`	Next field in editor
`Shift+Tab` / `Left`	Previous field in editor
`Enter`	Save and execute snippet
`Esc`	Cancel

Configuration

SSH Config Parsing

sshm-rs reads from ~/.ssh/config (or %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config on Windows) with full support for:

Standard SSH config keywords (Host, Hostname, User, Port, IdentityFile, ProxyJump, etc.)
Include directive with glob pattern expansion
Tags via # Tags: tag1, tag2 comments above Host entries
Multi-alias hosts (multiple space-separated names per Host block)

Example SSH config:

# Tags: production, web
Host webserver web
    Hostname 192.168.1.100
    User ubuntu
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/web.pem

# Tags: development
Host devenv
    Hostname dev.example.com
    User dev
    ProxyJump bastion

Host bastion
    Hostname jump.example.com
    User ops

sshm Configuration

Configuration files are stored in:

Linux/macOS: ~/.config/sshm-rs/
Windows: %APPDATA%\sshm-rs\

Snippets

Save command snippets in snippets.json:

[
  {
    "name": "Check Disk Space",
    "command": "df -h",
    "description": "Show disk usage"
  },
  {
    "name": "List Processes",
    "command": "ps aux | grep",
    "description": "Find process by name"
  }
]

Accessed via S in sshm-rs or Ctrl+P in sshm-rs term.

Themes

Custom themes can be saved to theme.json:

{
  "name": "Custom Dark",
  "bg": [20, 20, 30],
  "fg": [200, 200, 220],
  "primary": [100, 150, 255],
  "green": [100, 200, 100],
  "red": [255, 100, 100],
  "yellow": [255, 200, 50],
  "muted": [150, 150, 170],
  "cyan": [100, 200, 200],
  "purple": [200, 150, 255],
  "orange": [255, 160, 100],
  "selection_bg": [50, 80, 150]
}

Cycle through themes in sshm-rs with T.

History

Connection history is stored in history.json and automatically updated each time you connect to a host.

Credential Storage

Passwords and credentials are stored securely using the OS keyring:

Linux — Uses secret-service (GNOME Keyring, KDE Wallet, etc.)
macOS — Uses Keychain
Windows — Uses Credential Manager

Set a password for a host with p in the host list, then sshm-rs will use it automatically on future connections.

Security

Trust on First Use (TOFU)

sshm-rs term implements TOFU for SSH host key verification:

First connection to a new host automatically trusts the server key (TOFU)
Key mismatches are rejected with a warning

Password Handling

Passwords are stored in the OS keyring, never in plaintext
Keyring access requires user authentication (password, biometric, etc.)
Environment variable SSHM_PASSWORD can be set for automation (cleared after use)

SSH Key Management

Public key authentication is preferred over password authentication
Supports OpenSSH and PuTTY-format private keys
SSH agent integration (via SSH_AUTH_SOCK)
Per-host identity file configuration

CLI Flags

USAGE:
    sshm-rs [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [HOST] [COMMAND]...

FLAGS:
    -h, --help                Print help
    -t, --tty                 Force pseudo-TTY allocation
    -s, --search              Focus on search at startup

OPTIONS:
    -c, --config <FILE>       SSH config file (default: ~/.ssh/config)

SUBCOMMANDS:
    add                       Add new SSH host
    edit <HOST>               Edit SSH host
    search <QUERY>            Search hosts
    export [--output FILE]    Export hosts to JSON
    import <FILE>             Import hosts from JSON
    validate                  Validate SSH config
    completions <SHELL>       Generate shell completions

Development

Build Requirements

Rust 1.70+
OpenSSL development headers (Linux)
macOS: Xcode command-line tools

Build

cargo build --release

Run Tests

cargo test

Troubleshooting

sshm.exe locked on Windows

If sshm-rs.exe is locked after execution:

Press Ctrl+C to terminate the running process
Close any open SSH connections
Retry the command

SFTP unavailable

If sshm-rs term shows "SFTP unavailable":

Ensure the remote server has /usr/lib/sftp-server or equivalent
Some restricted shells or environments may not support SFTP
Check server logs for SFTP subsystem errors

Host key changed warning

If sshm-rs term warns "host key changed":

Verify the server hasn't been compromised
If you know the host key changed (server maintenance), remove the entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Reconnect to accept the new key

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes
Push to the branch
Open a Pull Request

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 76 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
docs		docs
packaging		packaging
site		site
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
install.ps1		install.ps1
install.sh		install.sh

Folders and files

Latest commit

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sshm-rs

Highlights

Features

sshm-rs (Main TUI)

sshm-rs term (SSH Terminal + SFTP Browser)

Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

Windows (winget)

Cargo (from source)

Pre-built binaries

Quick Install (Windows PowerShell)

Usage

sshm-rs (Main Application)

sshm-rs Subcommands

sshm-rs term (SSH Terminal)

Keybindings

sshm-rs Keybindings

Navigation & Connection

Multi-Select

Host Management

File Transfer

System

sshm-rs term Keybindings

Global

Terminal Panel

SFTP Panel

Context Menu

Snippet Overlay

Configuration

SSH Config Parsing

sshm Configuration

Snippets

Themes

History

Credential Storage

Security

Trust on First Use (TOFU)

Password Handling

SSH Key Management

CLI Flags

Development

Build Requirements

Build

Run Tests

Troubleshooting

sshm.exe locked on Windows

SFTP unavailable

Host key changed warning

Contributing

License

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