ssher

A minimal, modern SSH companion app for macOS — file browsing, folder sync, and port forwarding for the hosts already in your ~/.ssh/config, living quietly in your menu bar.

Install

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, and drag ssher into Applications.

The build is unsigned (no Apple Developer certificate yet), so macOS Gatekeeper will block the first launch. To open it:

xattr -cr /Applications/ssher.app

or right-click the app in Finder → Open → Open again on the warning dialog.

Requires Apple Silicon (M-series) macOS. Intel isn't built yet — see Build to compile locally.

Features

• File system view — browse remote directories over SFTP
• File download — pull individual files to your machine
• Folder sync — two-way rsync-over-ssh between a local folder and a remote path
• Port forwarding — start/stop local (-L) and remote (-R) forwards
• SSH config aliases — reads ~/.ssh/config Host entries automatically, uses your ssh-agent or identity file for auth
• Add New SSH Host — add a new alias (VS Code Remote-SSH style) straight from the sidebar; it's appended to ~/.ssh/config
• Permission guidance — if the SSH agent has no usable key for a host, ssher tells you exactly what to run and lets you retry
• Background app — runs from the menu bar tray, no Dock icon; closing the window hides it instead of quitting; open the full window or quit from the in-app menu or tray

Stack

• Tauri 2 (Rust backend)
• React + TypeScript (Vite) frontend
• ssh2 crate for SFTP, system rsync/ssh binaries for sync and forwarding

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Build

npm run tauri build

Produces a .app bundle and .dmg under src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Notes

• Authentication tries your running ssh-agent first, then falls back to the IdentityFile configured for the host alias (defaults to ~/.ssh/id_ed25519).
• Port forwarding and sync shell out to your system's ssh/rsync binaries, so any ProxyCommand/ProxyJump/agent-forwarding setup in your SSH config is respected automatically.
• If ssher reports a permission/auth error, it will show the exact ssh-add command to run to grant it access via your agent.

License

MIT