An all-in-one native macOS remote workbench

SSH · SFTP · Terminal · Windows Remote Desktop · Port forwarding · Host monitoring

简体中文 · English

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Overview

Termo is a native macOS remote-operations client built with SwiftUI + AppKit. It brings the tasks you usually juggle across separate tools — SSH terminals, file transfer, Windows Remote Desktop, port forwarding, host monitoring, and key management — into a single, polished interface.

Under the hood, Termo runs its SSH / SFTP / terminal / port forwarding / keys entirely in-process (libssh2 + OpenSSL) — no reliance on the system ssh, no spawning of external processes; Windows Remote Desktop embeds FreeRDP. The result is a self-contained, Apple-signed and notarized single binary: steadier connections, faster startup, and nothing to set up.

Features

Capability	Details
SSH terminal	Full terminal powered by SwiftTerm; in-process libssh2 engine for stable, fast connections
SFTP browsing	Upload / download / rename / chmod, resumable transfers, concurrent queue, in-app remote code editing
Windows Remote Desktop	Embedded FreeRDP: full-color graphics pipeline, keyboard input, two-way clipboard sync, resolution that follows the window
Port forwarding	Local (-L) / remote (-R) / dynamic SOCKS (-D), running in the background with a menu-bar dashboard
Host monitoring	Live CPU / memory / disk / network charts, with system notifications on sustained load
SSH key management	Generate / import ed25519 · RSA in-process — no ssh-keygen dependency
Snippets	Insert or run frequently used commands in one click
Unified custom UI	Dark / light themes, a menu-bar breathing indicator, detail polished toward Ghostty / Xcode
In-app auto-update	Sparkle with EdDSA signatures, delivered via Cloudflare R2
Bilingual	Switch the interface language in Settings

Download & install

Requirements: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later · Apple Silicon (M-series)

• Recommended: get it from the official website via the button above
• Or grab past versions from GitHub Releases

Termo is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper recognizes it as coming from an identified developer. Once installed, new versions are offered automatically — no need to re-download manually.

Quick start

1. In the left activity bar, open Hosts and click + to add an SSH host (address, account, password or key)
2. Click a host to open its overview; choose Terminal to start a session, or Files to browse the remote tree
3. For Windows machines, switch to the RDP panel to add one, then hit Remote Desktop
4. Need tunneling? Configure -L / -R / -D rules under Port forwarding — they keep running in the background

Passwords and key passphrases are stored in the system Keychain, never in plaintext on disk.

Build from source

The project is managed declaratively with XcodeGen; native third-party dependencies (FreeRDP / libssh2 / Sparkle) ship in the repo as xcframeworks.

brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/icloudza/termo.git && cd termo
xcodegen generate            # generates Termo.xcodeproj from project.yml
open Termo.xcodeproj         # open in Xcode, or build from the CLI:
xcodebuild -scheme Termo -configuration Release build

Requires Xcode 16+ on an Apple Silicon machine. Re-run xcodegen generate after adding or removing source files.

Architecture

• UI: SwiftUI + AppKit, fully custom unified components; single window with a persistent menu-bar item
• SSH stack: in-process libssh2 (static) + shared OpenSSL — terminal PTY / SFTP subsystem / direct-TCP forwarding / known-hosts verification / key generation
• RDP stack: embedded FreeRDP static library + an Objective-C bridge; BGRA frames marshalled to the main thread and drawn as CGImage
• Persistence: hosts / sessions as JSON + passwords merged into the Keychain (optimistic locking against multi-device races)
• Distribution: Developer ID signing + notarization; a git tag triggers GitHub Actions → Sparkle appcast → R2/CDN

License

Termo is licensed under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0.

• Allowed: personal use, study and research, hobby projects, use by nonprofits — you may read, modify, and redistribute the source
• Not allowed: any commercial use

© 2026 cloudza

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