ssha

Manage and connect to SSH servers from your terminal — fast.

A minimal TUI command built on top of ~/.ssh/config. No extra config files, no daemons, no cloud accounts. Just your existing SSH setup, with a keyboard-driven interface.

ssha              → pick a server and connect
ssha multi        → open multiple servers in new windows/tabs
ssha add          → add a new server (wizard)
ssha edit         → edit an existing server
ssha copy         → copy ssh command to clipboard
ssha check        → test connectivity to all servers
ssha rm           → remove a server
ssha ls           → list all servers

Demo

  Select SSH server  (↑↓ · Enter · Esc · q quit · f tunnel)
  / prod

› ● production  root@ → prod.example.com :2222  [web,prod]  2h ago
  ● prod-db     deploy@ → db.prod.internal       [db,prod]   1d ago
  · staging     root@ → 10.0.1.50               [web]       3d ago

Servers are sorted by last used, most recent first. Type to filter live — by alias, hostname, username, or tag. The status dot shows real-time TCP connectivity (● reachable, ● unreachable, · checking).

Install

npm install -g ssh-tui

Or run without installing:

npx ssh-tui

Requires Node.js ≥ 22.6.0 and OpenSSH (ssh in PATH).

Commands

ssha — pick and connect

Opens an interactive list of your SSH servers. Navigate with ↑↓, press Enter to connect, q or Esc to quit.

Start typing to filter in real time — the list narrows as you type across alias, hostname, username, and tags. Esc clears the filter; Ctrl+C always exits.

Last-used time is shown next to each server and the list is sorted by recency. If a server has port forwards configured, press f to connect with tunnels active.

The list scrolls automatically when there are more servers than fit on screen — ↑ N more / ↓ N more indicators show when items exist outside the visible window.

ssha multi — open multiple connections

ssha multi

Same interface as ssha, but with multi-select: press Space to toggle servers on/off (✓ marks selected entries), then Enter to open all selected servers simultaneously, each in a new terminal window or tab.

If you press Enter without selecting anything, it connects to the server under the cursor (same as ssha).

Supported terminal emulators:

Platform	Primary	Fallback
Windows	Windows Terminal (wt)	start cmd /k
macOS	iTerm2	Terminal.app
Linux	tmux (if inside a session)	gnome-terminal → xterm → konsole

ssha add — add a server

$ ssha add

? Server alias (required): staging
? Hostname or IP (required): 10.0.1.50
? Username (optional, Enter to skip): deploy
? Port (default 22) (optional, Enter to skip): 2222
? Path to private key (IdentityFile) (optional, Enter to skip): ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
? Tags (comma-separated, e.g. prod,web) (optional, Enter to skip): web,staging
? Port forwards (e.g. 8080:localhost:80, 5432:db:5432) (optional, Enter to skip):

✓ Server 'staging' added to ~/.ssh/config

Appends a Host block to ~/.ssh/config. Creates the file with permissions 600 if it does not exist. Tags and port forwards are stored as comments inside the block and parsed back transparently.

ssha edit — edit a server

Opens the interactive list, select a server, and update any of its fields — hostname, user, port, identity key, tags, or port forwards. Leave a field blank to keep the current value.

ssha copy — copy ssh command

ssha copy             # pick from the list
ssha copy my-server   # copy directly for a specific alias

Copies ssh <alias> to the clipboard. Works on macOS (pbcopy), Windows (clip), and Linux (xclip / xsel / wl-copy).

ssha check — test connectivity

$ ssha check

  Checking 4 servers...

  ●  production  prod.example.com:22     OK           (42ms)
  ●  staging     10.0.1.50:2222          OK           (87ms)
  ●  db          db.internal:22          UNREACHABLE  (3001ms)
  ●  old-vps     1.2.3.4:22             UNREACHABLE  (3001ms)

  Summary: 2 reachable · 2 unreachable

Tests TCP connectivity to every server in parallel. Exits with code 1 if any server is unreachable.

ssha rm — remove a server

Opens the interactive list. Select a server, confirm, and its Host block is removed from ~/.ssh/config. All other blocks are left untouched.

ssha ls — list servers

$ ssha ls

ALIAS       HOSTNAME              USER    PORT  KEY  TAGS
---------------------------------------------------------
production  prod.example.com      root    2222  ✓    web,prod
staging     10.0.1.50             deploy  2222  ✓    web,staging
db          db.internal           -       22    -    db,prod

ssha ls --json

[
  {
    "alias": "production",
    "hostname": "prod.example.com",
    "user": "root",
    "port": 2222,
    "identityFile": true
  }
]

Options

Flag	Description
--config <path>	Use an alternative SSH config file
--json	JSON output (ls only)
-v, --version	Show version
-h, --help	Show help

Port forwarding

Port forwards can be configured per server via ssha add or ssha edit:

? Port forwards (e.g. 8080:localhost:80, 5432:db:5432): 5432:localhost:5432

In the connect TUI, a server with tunnels shows an f tunnel hint in the header. Press f to connect with all port forwards active (ssh -L ...).

Security

• Private keys are never read or displayed. ssha writes the key path to ~/.ssh/config and delegates all authentication to the system ssh client — it never touches key files.
• ssha ls and --json output show only whether a key is configured (✓ / true), not the path.
• ~/.ssh/config is created with permissions 600 if it does not exist.
• ssha spawns the native ssh binary — it does not implement SSH itself.
• Usage history is stored locally at ~/.config/ssha/history.json (timestamps only, no credentials).

Compatibility

macOS, Linux, and Windows. Interactive commands require a TTY.

Development

git clone https://github.com/MrViSiOn/ssha.git
cd ssha
pnpm install
pnpm build          # compile TypeScript → dist/
pnpm dev            # run directly with tsx (no build step)
pnpm test           # run tests
pnpm lint           # oxlint
pnpm fmt            # prettier
pnpm hooks:install  # register git pre-commit hook

License

MIT © MrViSiOn