SimpleShell

A powerful cross-platform SSH terminal application built with Electron + React

中文 | Download | Features | Development

Overview

SimpleShell is a modern, feature-rich SSH terminal application that combines the power of Electron's desktop capabilities with React's intuitive development experience. Designed for developers and system administrators who need efficient remote server management.

Features

🔌 Connection Management

• Multi-Protocol Support: SSH, Telnet, and local PowerShell terminals
• Connection Pooling: Intelligent connection reuse to minimize resource usage
• Smart Tabs: Drag-drop tab reordering, merging, and split-screen support
• Group Synchronization: Execute commands across multiple connections simultaneously
• Visual Server Map: Geographic visualization of server locations worldwide

📁 Advanced File Management

• Full SFTP Browser: Intuitive file browsing with drag-drop operations
• Bulk Transfers: Upload/download entire folders with progress tracking
• Zero-Copy Engine: High-performance file transfers with minimal memory usage
• Smart Caching: Multi-level cache for improved file access speed
• File Preview: Built-in viewer for text, images, code, and PDFs

🤖 AI-Powered Assistant

• Intelligent Command Helper: AI assistant for command suggestions and explanations
• Multi-Model Support: Configurable AI providers and models
• Streaming Responses: Real-time AI responses with context awareness
• Worker Thread Processing: Non-blocking AI operations for smooth performance

🎨 User Experience

• Modern UI: Material-UI v7 with smooth animations and transitions
• Theme Support: Dark and light modes with system preference detection
• Command History: Intelligent command suggestions and auto-completion
• Multi-Language: Full internationalization (English and Chinese)
• Shortcut Management: Custom command shortcuts and macros

📊 Monitoring & Tools

• Resource Monitor: Real-time CPU, memory, and network statistics
• Remote System Info: Monitor remote server performance via SSH
• Network Diagnostics: IP address lookup with geolocation
• Security Tools: Built-in password generator with customizable rules

⚡ Performance Optimizations

• Lazy Loading: Components loaded on-demand for faster startup
• Backpressure Control: Stable file transfers with flow control
• Memory Management: Active memory pool with leak detection
• Connection Health Monitoring: Automatic reconnection and failover

Installation

Download Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

• Windows: .exe installer

Build from Source

If you prefer to build from source, follow the development instructions below.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ and npm
• Git
• Python (for node-gyp compilation)
• Build tools for your platform:
  • Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools or Visual Studio
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Linux: build-essential package

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/funkpopo/simpleshell.git
cd simpleshell

# Install dependencies
npm install

Development Mode

# Start development server with hot reload
npm run start

This will:

• Start the Webpack dev server on port 3001
• Launch Electron in development mode
• Enable hot module replacement for React components

Available Scripts

# Format code with Prettier
npm run format

# Run ESLint (configure via .eslintrc.json)
npx eslint src/

# Package application for current platform
npm run package

# Build distributable installers
npm run make

# Publish application (requires configuration)
npm run publish

Build for Production

# Build for current platform
npm run make

# Build for specific platform
npm run make -- --platform=win32
npm run make -- --platform=darwin
npm run make -- --platform=linux

Project Structure

simpleshell/
├── src/
│   ├── main.js              # Main process entry (Electron main)
│   ├── app.jsx              # Renderer entry (React app)
│   ├── preload.js           # Preload script (contextBridge/expose)
│   ├── components/         # React UI components
│   ├── core/                # Core modules / low-level primitives
│   │   ├── app/            # App bootstrap wiring
│   │   ├── connection/     # Protocol connection primitives/pools
│   │   ├── ipc/            # IPC helpers/services
│   │   ├── terminal/       # Terminal runtime (local/remote)
│   │   ├── local-terminal/ # Local terminal integration
│   │   ├── process/        # Process/pty helpers
│   │   ├── proxy/          # Proxy management
│   │   ├── services/       # Shared core services
│   │   ├── window/         # Window + lifecycle helpers
│   │   └── workers/        # Worker-thread logic
│   ├── modules/            # Feature modules (used by the UI)
│   │   ├── connection/     # Connection handling (app-level orchestration)
│   │   ├── filemanagement/ # File manager / transfer orchestration
│   │   ├── sftp/           # SFTP operations
│   │   ├── system-info/   # System monitoring (local/remote)
│   │   └── terminal/      # Terminal feature
│   ├── services/           # App services (e.g. config)
│   ├── store/              # State management
│   ├── workers/            # Worker entry points
│   ├── hooks/              # React hooks
│   ├── contexts/           # React contexts
│   ├── i18n/               # Internationalization
│   ├── styles/             # Global styles
│   ├── theme/              # Theme tokens/styles
│   └── utils/              # Shared utilities
├── transfernative/         # Native transfer sidecar (Rust)
├── forge.config.js         # Electron Forge configuration
├── webpack.main.config.js  # Webpack config for Electron main
└── webpack.renderer.config.js # Webpack config for Electron renderer

Tech Stack

Core Technologies

• Electron 40.4.1 - Cross-platform desktop framework
• React 19.2.4 - UI library (React 19)
• Material UI 7.3.9 - Component library
• Electron Forge + Webpack + ESLint/Prettier - Build and code quality toolchain
• JavaScript/JSX + Babel toolchain (no TypeScript build in this repo)

Terminal & SSH

• xterm.js 6.1.0-beta.167 - Terminal emulator + add-ons
  • @xterm/addon-fit, @xterm/addon-search, @xterm/addon-web-links, @xterm/addon-image, @xterm/addon-webgl
• ssh2 1.17.0 - SSH/SFTP client
• node-pty 1.2.0-beta.11 - Pseudo terminal support
• telnet-client 2.2.13 - Telnet client

File Transfer (Native Sidecar)

• Rust sidecar (transfernative/) - Native “transfer-sidecar” to speed up/robustify large transfers

Editing, Preview & Rendering

• CodeMirror 6 (@codemirror/*, @uiw/react-codemirror) - Syntax highlighting and editors
• highlight.js - Additional code highlighting
• react-markdown + remark-gfm - Markdown rendering
• react-syntax-highlighter - Fallback code highlighting for rendered markdown/code
• react-pdf - PDF preview
• DND kit (@dnd-kit/*) - Drag-and-drop interactions

Internationalization, UI & Utilities

• i18next + react-i18next - Internationalization
• react-simple-maps - World map visualization
• systeminformation - System info collection
• Proxy support: http-proxy-agent, https-proxy-agent, socks-proxy-agent
• Performance helpers: react-window, react-window-infinite-loader

Connection Architecture

• Core vs Modules

  • src/core/connection: Canonical, low-level connection primitives and pools. Files follow *-connection-pool.js naming (e.g., ssh-connection-pool.js, telnet-connection-pool.js) and a shared base-connection-pool.js.
  • src/modules/connection: App-level orchestration that composes the core pools and SFTP manager into a single service used by the app (exposed via require("./modules/connection")).

• Naming consistency

  • Use *-connection-pool for protocol-specific pools.
  • Legacy advanced pool/manager have been removed.
    • ssh-advanced-pool.js was consolidated into src/core/connection/ssh-pool.js.
    • Deprecated src/core/connection/connection-manager.js has been deleted to avoid split control paths.
  • Deprecated src/core/connection/connection-monitor.js has been removed. Connection health and observability now rely on:
    • Pool health checks (base-connection-pool.js)
    • Reconnection state machine (reconnection-manager.js)
    • Network latency service (networkLatencyService.js)

• Import guidance

  • For pools: const { sshConnectionPool, telnetConnectionPool } = require("../../core/connection");
  • For app-level connection features (incl. SFTP): const connectionManager = require("./modules/connection");

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

• Open an issue on GitHub Issues
• Check existing issues for solutions
• Provide detailed information about your environment and the problem

License

Distributed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for more information.

Author

funkpopo - [email protected]