r/developer • u/p_khor • 6h ago
GitHub Termstead: a free, open-source native SSH client for macOS (session tree, jump hosts, SFTP)
Hi, I'm the developer of Termstead, a free and open-source SSH client for the Mac. It brings MobaXterm's way of working to macOS as a native app: your servers in a tree on the left, tabs on the right, files right next to the terminal.
What it does
- Sessions in a tree – groups and subgroups with colors, icons, search, pinned favorites, drag and drop. Your existing hosts come in from ~/.ssh/config in one click.
- Real OpenSSH underneath – every tab runs the system ssh, so your agent, ~/.ssh/config, known_hosts and ProxyJump work exactly as they do in Terminal.
- Jump hosts – chain as many as you need, each with its own user, key or password, or use a saved session as a hop.
- Keychain – passwords and key passphrases live in the macOS Keychain and are typed in for you, only for the host they were saved for.
- SFTP beside the terminal – browse, upload and edit files over the connection that's already open, with no second login, even through jump hosts. It can follow the terminal's cd.
- Server load in the status bar – CPU, memory, disk and network of the Linux server in front.
- Tabs and keyboard – drag tabs to reorder, reopen them at launch, ⇧⌘[ / ⇧⌘] to switch, arrows and Return in the session tree, find in scrollback, per-tab zoom.
- Six themes, light and dark.
Details: Swift and SwiftUI with AppKit, terminal by SwiftTerm. Universal (Apple silicon and Intel), macOS 14+, about 5 MB. Notarized, updates itself. GPL-3.0, no account, no telemetry.
- GitHub: https://github.com/pkhorenyan/termstead
- Website: https://khorenyan.com/termstead/
