AxeSSH

A native macOS menu bar app for managing SSH connections and browsing remote files over SFTP—built with SwiftUI and designed to stay out of the way until you need it.

Demo

▶ Watch the AxeSSH Demo on YouTube

Highlights

• Native experience — SwiftUI, menu bar integration, and system conventions
• Zero extra installs — Bundles sshpass for password auth; no Homebrew required
• Terminal-agnostic — Uses iTerm when available, falls back to Terminal.app
• Full SFTP workflow — List, upload (drag-and-drop), delete, with overwrite safety

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Features

Connection Management

• Save SSH profiles — Host, port, username, authentication (password or SSH key)
• Optional base path — Start sessions in a specific remote directory
• Quick connect — Opens Terminal or iTerm with one click
• Connection status — Track connected vs disconnected sessions

SFTP File Browser

• Browse remote directories — Navigate folder structure with breadcrumbs
• Upload files and folders — Toolbar button or drag-and-drop
• Delete remote items — Multi-select files and folders, confirm before delete
• Overwrite confirmation — Warns when uploading would overwrite existing files
• Refresh — Reload directory contents on demand

Authentication

• Password — Uses bundled sshpass so users don't need to install anything
• SSH keys — Private key path with recent paths for quick selection

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Requirements

• macOS 13.0 or later
• Xcode 15+ (for building)

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Quick Start

Build

# One-time: build and bundle sshpass (for password auth)
./scripts/build-sshpass.sh

# Build the app
swift build -c release

Run

swift run

The app appears in the menu bar. Click the terminal icon to add connections and connect.

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Project Structure

Sources/AxeSSH/
├── App/           # App entry point, AppState
├── Models/        # SSHProfile, RemoteFileItem
├── Services/      # SFTPService, TerminalLauncher, ProfileStore
├── Views/         # SwiftUI views (menu bar, file browser, profile editor)
└── Resources/     # sshpass binary (after build-sshpass.sh)

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Tech Stack

• Swift 6.2 with SwiftUI
• SFTP via /usr/bin/sftp and SSH via /usr/bin/ssh
• Terminal integration — AppleScript to launch Terminal or iTerm
• Persistence — UserDefaults for saved profiles

Implementation Notes

• Async SFTP — Long-running operations run off the main thread; UI stays responsive
• Auth flexibility — Password flow uses sshpass + script; key-based uses BatchMode
• Menu bar window handling — Uses NSApp.setActivationPolicy and orderFrontRegardless so file browser and editor windows reliably appear on top when opened from the menu

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Building for Distribution

See BUILD.md for detailed instructions on building sshpass and creating distributable app bundles.

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License

MIT License. See LICENSE.