SSM — Secure Shell Manager

A fast, keyboard-driven TUI that makes your existing ~/.ssh/config delightful to use at fleet scale.

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No agents. No changes on your servers. Just a better way to navigate the SSH config you already have.

30-second quick start

# 1. Install
curl -fsSL https://github.com/lfaoro/ssm/raw/main/scripts/get.sh | bash

# 2. Tag a few hosts in ~/.ssh/config
Host prod-api
#tag: production,api
    HostName 10.0.0.42
    User deploy

# 3. Launch
ssm production          # filter to production hosts
ssm                     # or see everything

That's it. SSM reads your existing config (including Include directives), adds powerful navigation on top, and never touches your remote machines.

What you get

• Instant filtering by tags, names, or fuzzy search (/)
• Live reachability — p pings the selected host, P pings everything visible (bounded concurrency based on CPU cores)
• One-keystroke connect — Enter (toggle SSH/Mosh with Tab)
• Batch commands — ssm [tag] -r 'uptime && whoami' runs across any filtered set, non-interactively
• Integrated SFTP — Ctrl+s opens a two-pane file browser with batch transfers
• Remote execution — Ctrl+r for interactive commands on the selected host
• Cloud discovery — ssm sync hetzner|aws|gcp|azure pulls running instances into your config automatically
• Live config editing — Ctrl+e opens your SSH config in $EDITOR, then reloads
• Everything else — copy host name with y/Y, config inspector (Ctrl+v), themes, --ping at startup, --exit for clean handoff, and more

How tagging works

Add lightweight comments to your existing entries:

#tagorder                 # optional: show tagged hosts first

Host web-01
#tag: production,web,eu
    HostName 203.0.113.10
    User deploy
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/prod_ed25519

Host db-primary
#tag: production,database
    HostName 203.0.113.20
    ProxyJump web-01

Then use those tags as filters:

ssm production          # all production hosts
ssm web                 # anything tagged "web"
ssm eu,production       # combine tags

SSM supports full Include recursion, globs, #tagorder, and cycle detection.

Cloud provider sync

Discover running servers and write them into your SSH config with zero manual work:

ssm sync                    # all configured providers
ssm sync aws hetzner        # specific providers
ssm sync --dry-run          # preview only
ssm sync --user deploy --key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

• Each provider gets its own file under ~/.ssh/config.d/50-ssm-{provider}
• Include config.d/* is added to your main config automatically
• Hosts are tagged with the provider name so you can filter with ssm aws

Supported providers and credentials:

• Hetzner: HCLOUD_TOKEN
• AWS: standard SDK chain (AWS_PROFILE, env vars, IAM role)
• GCP: GCP_PROJECT + Application Default Credentials
• Azure: AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID + Azure auth chain

Key bindings (TUI)

Key	Action
Enter	Connect (SSH or Mosh)
Tab	Toggle SSH ↔ Mosh
p	Ping selected host
P	Ping all visible hosts
y / Y	Copy host name to clipboard
/	Fuzzy search / filter
q or Ctrl+c	Quit
Ctrl+e	Edit ~/.ssh/config in $EDITOR
Ctrl+r	Run command on selected host
Ctrl+s	Open SFTP file browser
Ctrl+v	Toggle parsed config inspector
Ctrl+y	Open cloud sync panel
Esc	Clear filter / close panels

Emacs navigation (Ctrl+p/n/b/f) also works.

CLI flags & batch usage

ssm [tag]                           # launch TUI, optionally filtered
ssm --backend mosh                  # launch with mosh as default for direct connections (Tab toggles; Ctrl+r and batch stay on ssh)
ssm exec prod 'uptime'              # run command on matching hosts and exit (recommended)
ssm e web --delay 150ms 'nginx -t'  # with pacing and concurrency control
ssm [tag] -r 'uptime'               # legacy form (still works; see --help)
ssm --exit prod-api           # connect and fully replace the ssm process
ssm --order production        # show tagged hosts first
ssm -t matrix                 # use a different theme (sky | matrix)
ssm -c ~/.ssh/work_config     # use a custom config file
# env var also works: SSM_BACKEND=mosh ssm

The -r / --command flag (and the newer ssm exec subcommand) are fully scriptable and exit non-zero if any host fails. Use ssm exec --help for the current options including --delay, --threads, and jitter control.

Note: --backend / SSM_BACKEND (and the Tab toggle) only affect direct Enter connections in the TUI. Batch execution, the legacy -r path, and the Ctrl+r "run command" submodel always use ssh.

Security & hardening

SSM is built for production infrastructure teams:

• Zero software is ever installed on remote hosts
• Every SSH, mosh, and SFTP invocation uses the -- delimiter to prevent flag injection
• BatchMode=yes + RequestTTY=no for all non-interactive operations
• Sensitive keys (IdentityFile, ProxyCommand, etc.) are filtered from the config viewer
• SSH config file permissions are checked (warns if not 0600)
• All remote output is sanitized (ANSI stripped, stderr truncated)
• Ping uses ordinary TCP connects — no raw sockets or elevated privileges

See SECURITY.md for the full model.

Installation

Fastest:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/lfaoro/ssm/raw/main/scripts/get.sh | bash

Package managers:

Platform	Command
Go	go install github.com/lfaoro/ssm@latest
macOS	brew install lfaoro/tap/ssm
Arch Linux	yay -S ssm-bin (AUR)
Nix	nix profile install github:lfaoro/ssm
Nix (run)	nix run github:lfaoro/ssm
Debian	sudo apt install ./ssm_*_linux_*.deb download from Releases
RPM	sudo rpm -i ssm_*_linux_*.rpm download from Releases

Pre-built static binaries for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD (amd64 + arm64) are available on the releases page.

From source:

# requires Go
git clone https://github.com/lfaoro/ssm.git \
  && cd ssm \
  && make \
  && bin/ssm

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

The project follows a strict “never commit unless explicitly told” policy for AI agents and careful humans. Full rules are in AGENTS.md.

Release process is documented in DEPLOY.md.

Sponsorship

SSM is developed in the open.

• GitHub Sponsors
• BTC: bc1qzaqeqwklaq86uz8h2lww87qwfpnyh9fveyh3hs
• XMR: 89XCyahmZiQgcVwjrSZTcJepPqCxZgMqwbABvzPKVpzC7gi8URDme8H6UThpCqX69y5i1aA81AKq57Wynjovy7g4K9MeY5c
• FIAT: Revolut
• Telegram: @leonarth

License

MIT © Leonardo Faoro and contributors