SSH Menu

A beautiful terminal-based SSH connection manager that reads your SSH config and presents it as an interactive menu with filtering and group organization.

Features

• 🚀 Filtering: Type to instantly filter hosts by name or number
• 📋 Intuitive Navigation: Arrow keys to navigate, left/right to switch between views
• 🗂️ Group Organization: Organize hosts into groups
• 📂 Config Integration: Reads from ~/.ssh/config and ~/.ssh/config.d/
• 🎯 Quick Selection: Type host numbers or names for instant filtering
• 🌈 Customizable Themes: Full color customization support
• 🔒 Secure: Uses native SSH

Screenshot

Installation

From Source

Requires Go 1.21 or later.

go install github.com/evix1101/ssh-menu@latest

Binary Releases

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

Each release contains the binary named ssh-menu (or ssh-menu.exe on Windows) in an archive:

• ssh-menu-linux-amd64.tar.gz - Linux x86_64
• ssh-menu-darwin-amd64.tar.gz - macOS Intel
• ssh-menu-darwin-arm64.tar.gz - macOS Apple Silicon
• ssh-menu-windows-amd64.zip - Windows x86_64

Installation from release

# Linux/macOS - extract and install
tar -xzf ssh-menu-*.tar.gz
chmod +x ssh-menu
sudo mv ssh-menu /usr/local/bin/

# Or install to user directory
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv ssh-menu ~/.local/bin/
# Add ~/.local/bin to your PATH if not already there

Security warnings

Since the binaries are not signed, you may encounter security warnings:

macOS: When you first run ssh-menu, you'll see "ssh-menu cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer"

• Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security
• Find the message about ssh-menu being blocked
• Click "Open Anyway"
• Or, from Terminal: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ssh-menu-darwin-*

Windows: You may see "Windows protected your PC"

• Click "More info"
• Click "Run anyway"

Quick Start

Just run the command to see the interactive menu:

ssh-menu

You can also directly connect to a host:

ssh-menu 3          # Connect to host with menu number 3
ssh-menu webserver  # Connect to host with name 'webserver'

User Interface

Navigation

• ↑/↓: Navigate through hosts
• ←/→: Switch between views (All hosts → Groups)
• Type: Filter hosts by typing numbers or letters
• Enter: Connect to selected host (auto-selects if only one match)
• Esc: Quit without connecting
• Tab: Alternative way to cycle through views

Filtering

• Type numbers to filter by menu number (e.g., "1" shows hosts 1, 10-19, 100-199)
• Type letters to filter by hostname (case-insensitive prefix matching)
• Filtering works on both short names and full hostnames

SSH Config Setup

For a host to appear in the menu, add a # Menu: comment in your SSH config:

Host myserver
    HostName server.example.com
    User admin
    Port 22
    # Menu: Production web server
    # IP: 203.0.113.10
    # Group: Production

You can specify an explicit menu number:

Host database
    HostName db.example.com
    User dbadmin
    # Menu 5: Primary database server
    # Group: Database
    # Group: Critical

Host Groups

Organize hosts into groups for better management:

Host webserver
    HostName web1.example.com
    # Menu: Web server 1
    # Group: Frontend
    # Group: Production

Usage Options

Option	Description
-d	Show detailed connection information
-V	Enable SSH verbose mode
-s "opts"	Pass additional SSH options
-g <group>	Filter hosts by group
-l	List all available groups

Examples

Connect with agent forwarding:

ssh-menu -s "-A" webserver

Connect through a jump host:

ssh-menu -s "-J jumphost.example.com" database

Filter by group with details:

ssh-menu -g Production -d

Theme Customization

Customize colors using environment variables:

export SSH_MENU_COLOR_BACKGROUND="#1e1e2e"  # Dark background
export SSH_MENU_COLOR_FOREGROUND="#cdd6f4"  # Light text
export SSH_MENU_COLOR_BORDER="#9399b2"      # Border color
export SSH_MENU_COLOR_SELECTED="#a6e3a1"    # Selected item/active view
export SSH_MENU_COLOR_ACCENT="#89dceb"      # Titles and accents
export SSH_MENU_COLOR_DIMMED="#585b70"      # Help text and separators

Or add color settings to your SSH config:

# ColorBackground: #1e1e2e
# ColorForeground: #cdd6f4
# ColorBorder: #9399b2
# ColorSelected: #a6e3a1
# ColorAccent: #89dceb
# ColorDimmed: #585b70

Integration with tmux

Add to ~/.tmux.conf:

bind-key S split-window -h "ssh-menu"

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Acknowledgments

• Bubble Tea for the amazing TUI framework
• Lip Gloss for beautiful terminal styling