TerminallySKILL ⚡

The Professional Terminal Workspace for Engineers Who Move Fast

Visual command builders, workflow automation, AI-powered review, SSH remoting, encrypted VNC desktop, and full terminal sessions — all in one app.

🚀 Download Now · 🌐 Website · 🐛 Report Issues · ⭐ Star This Repo

---

🛠️ Built with Electron, React, TypeScript, xterm.js, and node-pty. Open source. Free forever. No accounts, no telemetry, no cloud dependency.

---

What is TerminallySKILL?

TerminallySKILL is a free, open-source desktop app that replaces your scattered terminal windows, SSH clients, and CLI cheat-sheets with a single, powerful workspace.

The Problem

• 🤯 CLI fatigue — memorising flags, syntax, and argument order for dozens of tools
• 🔄 Context switching — juggling terminals, SSH sessions, and scripts across windows
• 📝 Lost knowledge — that perfect one-liner from last month? Gone forever
• 🎯 No visibility — scripts run, things break, and you're left scrolling through walls of text

The Solution

• ✅ Visual command builder — every CLI tool on your system, presented as a form
• ✅ Workflow scripts — multi-step automation with retries, approvals, and variable substitution
• ✅ Reusable snippets — save commands with {{placeholders}} for repeated use
• ✅ AI-powered review — safety checks, explanations, and natural-language command drafting
• ✅ SSH + encrypted VNC — remote terminals and full graphical desktops through SSH tunnels
• ✅ Clipboard paste into VNC — Ctrl+V pastes directly into remote desktops
• ✅ Windows support (beta) — PowerShell integration, command detection, and script execution — work in progress
• ✅ Local-first — your data stays on your machine, always

---

⚡ Quick Install

Download Pre-Built Release (Recommended)

📥 Download the latest release

Platform	File	Notes
🍎 macOS (Apple Silicon)	.dmg (arm64)	Drag to Applications
🍎 macOS (Intel)	.dmg (x64)	Drag to Applications
🐧 Linux (x64)	.AppImage or .deb	AppImage needs chmod +x
🐧 Linux (ARM64)	.deb (arm64)	sudo dpkg -i
🪟 Windows (x64)	.exe (NSIS installer)	Run as normal user (beta — work in progress)

---

🎯 Features

🔧 Visual Command Builder

Every CLI tool on your system PATH is auto-discovered and presented as a form-based builder. Select flags, fill arguments, and watch the live command preview update — no syntax memorisation required. Edit the final command directly before copying or executing.

📜 Workflow Scripts

Build multi-step automation scripts with commands, approval checkpoints, and notes. Inputs use {{placeholder}} substitution so the same script runs with different values. Export as .tvflow files to share with your team. Each step supports retry logic and continue-on-error control.

✂️ Snippets

Save reusable command templates with {{placeholder}} variables. Open a snippet, fill in the fields, and run — ideal for commands you use often with changing parameters.

💻 Terminal

Full shell sessions powered by node-pty and xterm.js:

• Editor Prompt — command bar with ghost suggestions, history cycling, and safe paste handling
• Split panes — vertical or horizontal splits with independent sessions
• Command queue — type while a command is running; input fires when the shell is ready
• Output snapshots — capture terminal output and compare any two with side-by-side diff
• In-terminal search — regex, case-sensitive, and whole-word matching
• PATH fix — detects missing commands and offers one-click binary location + shell config update

🌐 SSH & Remote Access

Projects can target remote SSH hosts as naturally as local directories. Configure host, user, port, and identity file — then every terminal session, script run, and workflow step executes on the remote machine transparently.

• SSH key setup helper — built-in guide for ssh-keygen + ssh-copy-id
• Interactive SSH shell — raw TTY shell on the remote host in a dedicated tab
• Encrypted VNC remote desktop — stream the remote graphical desktop through an SSH tunnel. No extra firewall rules — only port 22 needed
• Clipboard integration — Ctrl+V pastes into VNC sessions; clipboard syncs both directions

🤖 AI-Powered Tools

Bring your own API keys for any major provider, or run completely offline with a local model:

• Command Review — safety and syntax analysis before you run, with conversational follow-up
• Command Explain — plain-language breakdown of any command and its flags
• AI Draft — describe what you want in natural language; AI populates the command builder
• Output Review — send terminal output or saved logs to AI for analysis
• Selection Review — right-click any selected text in the terminal or logs for instant review

Supported providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, Mistral, xAI (Grok), DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Together.ai, Fireworks.ai, Ollama, LM Studio, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

📁 Projects

Organise work into named projects with their own working directory (local or SSH), environment variables, favourite commands, terminal sessions, and colour badge for instant visual identification.

📊 Runs & Logs

• Unified log browser — workflow runs and terminal logs in a single time-ordered list
• Structured run history — step timings, status, retry counts, and linked terminal logs
• Full-text log search — search across all saved output with match highlighting
• Run comparison — diff consecutive runs to catch regressions or confirm fixes
• AI review from logs — send selected text directly to AI Review

📂 File Browser

Browse your project directory with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and a code-editor layout for any file type. Open files directly in the terminal or send to AI for review.

🎨 Themes

Eight built-in themes:

Dark	Light
Void (teal)	Chalk (cream)
Ember (amber)	Latte (espresso)
Dusk (indigo)	Sage (olive)
Forest (green)	Mist (cool paper)

⚙️ Settings & Customisation

• AI provider configuration with live connection testing and fallback routing
• Terminal input mode: Classic shell or Editor Prompt
• Safe paste mode — confirmation dialog before executing multi-line pastes
• Configurable log storage directory with per-project overrides
• Rich help tooltips (togglable) with descriptions and keyboard shortcuts
• Command palette (Cmd+K / Ctrl+K) for instant access to any action
• Auto-update with configurable channel

---

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/)	Toggle terminal panel
Cmd+K (Ctrl+K)	Open command palette
Cmd+T (Ctrl+T)	New terminal tab
Cmd+W (Ctrl+W)	Close active tab
Cmd+D (Ctrl+D)	Split terminal vertically
Cmd+Shift+D	Split terminal horizontally
Cmd+] / Cmd+[	Switch focus between split panes
Cmd+F (Ctrl+F)	Search in terminal
Cmd+Shift+S	Capture terminal snapshot
Cmd+E (Ctrl+E)	Toggle Editor Prompt mode
Cmd+I (Ctrl+I)	Help guide
Cmd+S (Ctrl+S)	Settings

---

🛠️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18.17.0 (LTS recommended)
• npm (included with Node.js)
• macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
• Linux: build-essential, python3, libsecret-1-dev

  sudo apt install build-essential python3 libsecret-1-dev

• Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools with "Desktop development with C++" workload

Clone & Install

git clone https://github.com/cryptopoly/TerminallySKILL.git
cd TerminallySKILL
npm install

Run in Development

npm run dev

Starts the Electron app with hot module replacement. Main process changes require a restart.

Build

npm run build

Compiles into out/. Useful for checking TypeScript/build errors.

Package (Create Installers)

# macOS
npm run package:mac          # Universal (x64 + arm64)
npm run package:mac:x64      # Intel only
npm run package:mac:arm64    # Apple Silicon only

# Linux
npm run package:linux        # AppImage + .deb (x64 and arm64)
npm run package:linux:x64
npm run package:linux:arm64

# Windows
npm run package:win          # NSIS installer (x64 and arm64)
npm run package:win:x64
npm run package:win:arm64

Output is written to dist/.

Tests

npm test

---

🐛 Troubleshooting

macOS: "App is damaged and can't be opened"

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TerminallySKILL.app

Linux: AppImage won't run

chmod +x TerminallySKILL-*.AppImage
./TerminallySKILL-*.AppImage

Windows: SmartScreen warning

Click More info → Run anyway.

---

🏗️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop shell	Electron 33
UI framework	React 18
Language	TypeScript (end-to-end)
Styling	Tailwind CSS 3 + CSS custom properties
State management	Zustand
Terminal emulator	xterm.js (fit, search, serialise, web-links addons)
PTY / shell	node-pty
VNC client	@novnc/novnc
WebSocket proxy	ws
Fuzzy search	Fuse.js
Syntax highlighting	highlight.js
Panel layout	react-resizable-panels
Build & HMR	Vite via electron-vite
Packaging	electron-builder

---

📁 Project Structure

src/
  main/           # Electron main process — IPC handlers, PTY, VNC tunnel, AI, file ops
  preload/        # Context bridge (electronAPI surface exposed to renderer)
  renderer/       # React application
    src/
      components/ # UI — command builder, terminal, scripts, VNC panel, etc.
      store/      # Zustand stores
      lib/        # Utilities and helpers
  shared/         # Types and schemas shared between main and renderer
build/            # App icons and platform assets
scripts/          # Build and packaging helpers

---

💻 System Requirements

Platform	Minimum Version
macOS	12 Monterey or later (M1/M2/M3 or Intel)
Linux	glibc 2.28+ (Ubuntu 20.04+ / Debian 10+)
Windows	Windows 10 (1903) or later, x64 (beta — some features may be limited)

---

❤️ Support TerminallySKILL

TerminallySKILL is free, open source, and built independently. If it saves you time or makes your workflow better, consider supporting development:

• ⭐ Star this repo — helps with visibility and discovery
• ☕ Buy Me a Coffee — quick one-time support
• 💜 PayPal Donate — one-time or recurring
• 🌐 Support via Website — more options
• 🐛 Report issues — bug reports and feature requests welcome
• 📢 Share on Twitter — spread the word

---

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

---

🚀 Download Now · 🌐 Website · ⭐ Star on GitHub

Made with ⚡ by cryptopoly