sshm nakaba-lab

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sshm parses ~/.ssh/config into an ordered, byte-faithful document and only ever rewrites the lines you actually change. Connections run through plain ssh , so OpenSSH itself reads the very file you edited — ProxyJump, forwards, and IdentityFile all apply automatically. No lock-in, no parallel database, no surprises for the other tools that read your config.

What it looks like

 sshm  ›  Hosts  5/5

╭─ Hosts ───────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│     Alias       HostName              User                │
│ ▎ ● web-prod    10.0.1.20             deploy              │
│   ● db-1        db1.internal          admin               │
│   ○ staging     staging.example.com   ubuntu              │
│   — bastion     —                     —                   │
│   · old-box     192.168.1.5           root                │
│                                                           │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Detail ──────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│         status  ● up (24 ms)                              │
│                                                           │
│   Connection                                              │
│          alias  web-prod                                  │
│       HostName  10.0.1.20                                 │
│           User  deploy                                    │
│           Port  22                                        │
│      ProxyJump  bastion                                   │
│                                                           │
│   Identity                                                │
│   IdentityFile  ~/.ssh/id_ed25519                         │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
 j/k move · / search · Enter connect · t new-tab · e edit · a add · d del · K keys · ? help

A breadcrumb title bar, a searchable host table with a live reachability column, and a grouped detail pane — styled with a built-in Tokyo Night theme and a responsive layout that stacks the panes on narrow terminals.

Features

• Host list & connect — a fuzzy-searchable list of every Host entry with a live reachability dot. Connect inline (suspends the TUI, runs ssh, restores it on exit) or open the session in a new Windows Terminal tab. Copy the equivalent ssh command to the clipboard with one key.
• Lossless config editing — add, edit, and delete Host blocks through a form: HostName, User, Port, IdentityFile, ProxyJump, LocalForward / RemoteForward / DynamicForward, plus arbitrary extra options. Everything is written back surgically — only changed lines are rewritten.
• ProxyJump & port forwarding — edit them per host with pickers (choose a jump host from your other entries); they apply automatically on connect because they live in the file.
• Key manager — list ~/.ssh/*.pub with fingerprints, generate new keys (Ed25519 or RSA-4096 via ssh-keygen), copy a public key, set a key as a host's IdentityFile, or delete a key pair.
• known_hosts viewer — browse and search known_hosts (including hashed entries) and remove a stale entry safely.
• Live reachability — a background worker pool TCP-probes hosts without ever blocking the UI; round-trip time is shown in the detail pane.

Installation

Package managers

Cargo — any platform with a Rust toolchain (1.94+, edition 2024):

cargo install sshm-tui          # installs the `sshm` binary into ~/.cargo/bin

> Published on crates.io as sshm-tui (the bare sshm name was already taken), > but the installed command is still sshm.

Scoop — Windows:

scoop bucket add nakaba-lab https://github.com/nakaba-lab/scoop-bucket
scoop install sshm-tui

winget — Windows:

winget install NakabaLab.sshm

Download a prebuilt binary

Each Release attaches archives for Windows (.zip), Linux, and macOS (.tar.gz), each with a matching .sha256 checksum. Download the one for your platform, extract sshm/sshm.exe, and put it on your PATH.

> The published Windows binary is currently self-signed, so SmartScreen may show a > "Windows protected your PC" warning. Choose More info → Run anyway, or build from > source if you prefer.

From source

# install straight from git into ~/.cargo/bin (binary: sshm)
cargo install --git https://github.com/nakaba-lab/ssh-manager-tui

# …or clone and build
git clone https://github.com/nakaba-lab/ssh-manager-tui
cd ssh-manager-tui
cargo build --release      # binary at target/release/sshm(.exe)

Runtime requirements

• OpenSSH (ssh, ssh-keygen) on PATH. On Windows, sshm prefers the System32\OpenSSH build and shows a [PATH ssh] warning in the title bar if it has to fall back to a different ssh (e.g. the Git/MSYS one, which interprets the config differently).
• Windows Terminal (wt.exe) — only needed for the "connect in a new tab" action.

Usage

sshm                 launch the interactive TUI against ~/.ssh/config
sshm --list          print configured hosts and exit (non-interactive)
sshm --config PATH   use an alternate config file (great for safe testing)
sshm --version       print version and exit
sshm --help          print help and exit

-c, -l, -V, -h are accepted as short aliases.

Keybindings

Host list

Key	Action
j / k, ↓ / ↑	move selection (scroll the detail pane when it has focus)
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u	jump 5 rows down / up
g / G	first / last host
Tab	toggle focus between the list and the detail pane
/	search (fuzzy: alias / hostname / user)
Enter	connect inline (suspends the TUI, runs ssh, restores it)
t	connect in a new Windows Terminal tab
o	open the per-host action menu
c	copy the ssh command to the clipboard
e / a	edit / add a host
d	delete the host (with confirm)
r / R	refresh liveness for all / the selected host
K	key manager · H known_hosts viewer
?	help · q / Ctrl-C quit (Esc clears an active search filter first, else quits)

While searching: type to filter, Enter keep the filter, Esc clear it, ↑/↓ move.

Edit / add form

Key	Action
Tab / Shift-Tab, j / k	next / previous field
← / →	select a row (in the IdentityFile / forward / extras lists)
Enter	edit the field — on IdentityFile opens the key picker, on ProxyJump opens the host picker
i	always edit the field value inline (even on IdentityFile / ProxyJump)
a / d	add / remove a row in a list field
Ctrl-S	validate & save
Esc	cancel the field, then leave the form (prompts if there are unsaved changes)

While editing a field: ←/→ move the cursor, Home/End jump, Backspace/Delete remove, Enter commit, Esc revert the field.

Key manager

Key	Action
j / k, ↓ / ↑, Home / End	move
g	generate a key (Ed25519 / RSA-4096 wizard)
y	copy the public key
s	set as the IdentityFile of the host you opened from (K)
d	delete the key pair (with confirm) · r rescan · Esc back

known_hosts

Key	Action
j / k, ↓ / ↑	move · g / G top / bottom
/	search (substring: host / key type)
d	remove the entry (with confirm) · r reload · Esc back

Modals

The confirm dialog takes y / Enter to confirm and n / Esc to cancel. The action menu and pickers use j / k to move, Enter to choose, and Esc to close.

Liveness indicators

The dot in the host list (and the status line in the detail pane) shows reachability:

Glyph	Meaning
●	up — TCP connect succeeded (detail pane shows the round-trip time)
○	down — TCP connect failed (refused, timed out, or the host name didn't resolve)
…	checking — a probe is in flight
—	skipped — behind a ProxyJump / ProxyCommand, or no resolvable target (a wildcard-only alias with no HostName), so a direct probe is impossible
·	unknown — not probed yet (before the first sweep)

Probes are direct TCP connects to the host's HostName — or the alias itself when no HostName is set — on its Port (default 22), run on a small background worker pool with a 1.5s timeout, so the UI never blocks. Press r to re-probe everything or R for just the selected host.

Safety & the lossless guarantee

The core contract is render(parse(file)) == file, byte-for-byte, for anything you don't edit. The config document is an ordered list of lines that each preserve their original indentation, keyword casing, and separators; editing mutates only the lines that changed and only rewrites a Host header when its patterns actually change. Options without a dedicated form field round-trip through an "extra options" list rather than being dropped.

On top of that:

• A backup on first save — the previous file is copied to config.bak the first time you save in a session.
• Atomic writes — saves go to a temp file and then rename over the target (on Unix with 0o600 perms).
• Private keys are never read or displayed — only key paths are passed to ssh via -i.
• Validation before write — a missing alias, a non-numeric port, or a value containing a " (which ssh_config cannot escape) is rejected rather than silently corrupting the file.
• known_hosts edits are content-addressed — an entry is removed by matching its verbatim line (a .old backup is written), so a stale index can't delete the wrong key after an external change.

Notes & limitations

• Hosts pulled in via Include directives are not listed or edited — only ~/.ssh/config itself is (a note is shown when Include directives are present).
• Generated keys currently have no passphrase, and the generator refuses to overwrite an existing file.
• Connections to saved hosts use plain ssh ; explicit flags (-i, -J, -L, …) are only ever emitted for ad-hoc overrides, never for saved values.

Platform support

sshm is Windows-first but fully cross-platform; CI runs the formatter, Clippy (-D warnings), and the test suite on both Linux and Windows. Windows-specific care includes:

• preferring System32\OpenSSH over a PATH ssh that would interpret the config differently,
• acting only on key press events (the Windows console also emits key-up),
• a Windows-safe atomic rename (remove-then-rename), and
• correct wt.exe argument escaping for the new-tab connect.

Architecture

Three layers with a strict, one-way dependency direction:

• config/ — the lossless ~/.ssh/config parser and surgical writer. Zero UI dependency; this is the most heavily tested module.
• os/ — all outside-world integration: spawning ssh / ssh-keygen, TCP liveness probing, known_hosts parsing, clipboard, binary resolution.
• ui/ — pure rendering only; never mutates domain state.

State flow is Elm-ish: event_loop.rs draws then polls, update.rs routes every keypress by the active Screen, and app.rs holds the single App struct. See CLAUDE.md for the full design notes.

Development

cargo build                     # debug build
cargo run                       # launch against ~/.ssh/config
cargo run -- --config ./test    # run against a throwaway config (recommended)

cargo test                      # config/ and os/ unit + round-trip tests
cargo test roundtrip_crlf       # a single test by name
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo fmt

The test suite is headless and pure — no test spawns ssh, ssh-keygen, or wt. When manually testing save behavior, always point --config at a throwaway file: the app writes to whatever path it is given.

Support

sshm is free and open source, built in spare time. If it saves you time, you can optionally sponsor its development via GitHub Sponsors — entirely optional and genuinely appreciated. Starring the repo helps just as much. ⭐

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Before opening a PR, please run cargo fmt, cargo clippy -- -D warnings, and cargo test. When touching the config/ layer, keep the lossless round-trip invariant intact and preserve the regression tests (labelled by bug id in comments).

License

Licensed under either of

• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

at your option.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.

Acknowledgements

Built with ratatui (terminal UI), nucleo-matcher (fuzzy search), arboard (clipboard), and dirs (home resolution).