Every other GUI SSH client is bloated, slow, or ships your sessions through someone else's cloud. ShadowSSH is the opposite. A single native binary, no telemetry, no account, no internet round-trip. Open it, connect, work — that's it.
Built on SDL2 + Dear ImGui + libssh + libvterm, it boots instantly, draws a real terminal locally, and stays out of your way.
- Native everywhere — macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel), Linux (x64 & ARM64), Windows (x64). Same UI, same shortcuts, same speed.
- In-app VT terminal — libvterm emulation with colors, scrollback, selection, copy/paste, control codes (^C/^Z/^D).
- SFTP file browser & editor — browse, open, edit with syntax highlighting, save-uploads in one keystroke.
- Live system monitor — CPU, load, memory, disk, network on a dedicated SSH channel.
- Zero config — auto-loads
~/.ssh/config, remembers recent hosts, pulls credentials from the OS keystore (Keychain / DPAPI / secured file). - Strict host-key checking — known hosts only. No "type yes to ignore" prompts.
- One-click native terminal launch — drops you into Terminal.app / Windows Terminal / your
$TERMINALof choice.
Grab the release for your platform from the Releases page:
| Platform | Artifact |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | ShadowSSH-<v>-macos-arm64.tar.gz |
| macOS (Intel) | ShadowSSH-<v>-macos-x64.tar.gz |
| Linux x86_64 | ShadowSSH-<v>-linux-x64.tar.gz |
| Linux ARM64 | ShadowSSH-<v>-linux-arm64.tar.gz |
| Windows x86_64 | ShadowSSH-<v>-windows-x64.zip |
Install the runtime libraries — libssh, SDL2, freetype — then:
git clone https://github.com/beltromatti/ShadowSSH.git
cd ShadowSSH
./scripts/build.sh --version 1.1.0 --target macos-arm64scripts/build.sh is the single entry point for every target. Omit --target to build all available targets sequentially. Omit --version for 0.0.0. The chosen version is baked into the binary, .app bundle, and archive name.
| Action | macOS | Linux / Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Save active editor tab | ⌘ S | Ctrl + S |
| Copy terminal selection | Ctrl + C | Ctrl + C |
| Paste into terminal | Ctrl + V | Ctrl + V |
| Send Ctrl+C / Ctrl+Z / etc | Terminal menu | Terminal menu |
ShadowSSH never phones home. There is no account, no analytics, no auto-update beacon. Credentials live in the OS-native secure store. Connection history stays in your config directory. Your keys never leave your machine.
C++17 · SDL2 · Dear ImGui (docking) · libssh · libvterm · ImGuiColorTextEdit · CMake.
ShadowSSH is the personal project of Mattia Beltrami, Computer Engineering student at Politecnico di Milano. Built because the tools available weren't fast or honest enough.
Apache License 2.0 — free for personal and commercial use.
#ssh · #sftp · #terminal · #cpp · #imgui · #sdl2 · #cross-platform · #devtools