Desktop GUI Mode

Bayesian SSH ships a standalone desktop app: a SvelteKit/TypeScript front end on a Rust/Tauri backend. It manages the same hosts, profiles and session history as the CLI, and adds terminals, a file browser, tunnel rules and a security audit.

Launching

bssh desktop
bayesian-ssh desktop

desktop (alias gui) starts the GUI detached in the background and returns the prompt immediately. The launcher looks for the bayesian-ssh-gui binary next to the CLI executable, then in PATH.

Packaged installs start the same bayesian-ssh-gui binary:

• the .deb, .rpm and AppImage bundles are built under the bayesian-ssh-desktop product name; the .deb and .rpm add an entry to the application menu;
• in the snap, the bayesian-ssh.gui app runs the desktop binary and is also available from the app menu.

The first launch runs onboarding: profile name and connection defaults, an optional openSSH import, the theme, and an optional restore from a backup file.

Window layout

• Title bar — app name, a command search button (Search hosts and commands, Ctrl/Cmd + K), a keyboard-shortcuts button, an About button and the window controls. The bar is draggable.
• Sidebar — a profile switcher at the top, grouped navigation, status entries at the bottom, and a collapse toggle.
• Main area — the active view, each with a single header holding its title and one primary action.

Sidebar navigation:

• Hosts, Terminals, Files, Tunnels (Files and Tunnels appear only when they are enabled under Settings → Features)
• Security: Keys, Audit
• Activity: History, Snippets
• At the bottom: Background (only while sessions run outside the tab bar), the SSH agent entry (state plus loaded-key count; click to start the agent or open its manager), the Kerberos entry, and Settings. The Kerberos entry stays hidden until a connection actually uses Kerberos.

The sidebar collapses automatically when the window is narrower than 860 px.

Views

Hosts

The host list is the main view. It has a filter box, tag chips, a sort selector and a list/grid toggle.

• Sort — Smart rank (frequency and recency), Last used, Name or Address.
• List view — columns Name, Address, Tags and Last used. Address is shown as user@host, with :port when it is not 22. Hosts with Kerberos or a jump host carry a badge.
• Grid view — the same information as cards, mounted progressively while you scroll. The list is windowed, so large host lists stay responsive.
• Ping — checks reachability for every host, then reports n/m up and shows a latency next to each reachable host.
• Batch run — opens the batch-execution modal (see below).
• New host — opens the host form.

Row actions (also on cards): Connect, Copy SSH command, Edit, Duplicate and Delete. Duplicate creates <name> (Copy), flashes the new row and opens it for editing. Delete asks for confirmation and shows user@host:port.

Keyboard: ↑/↓ or j/k move the selection, Enter connects, Ctrl/Cmd + E edits the selected host. With no hosts yet, the empty state offers Import ~/.ssh/config and New host.

The host form (New host / Edit host) collects Name, Host, Port, User and an identity file, plus a Kerberos switch, comma-separated tags and an Advanced section for a jump host and jump user. Changes apply to new sessions; saved hosts are written to the active profile.

Terminals

Terminals open as tabs over xterm.js sessions backed by Rust PTY processes. The empty state lists your recent hosts to connect with, and the + button opens a host launcher with a Connect to host… filter.

Each tab shows a status dot (Connected, Connecting, Failed to connect, Disconnected) and a close button; middle-clicking a tab closes it. With an active session:

• Find (Ctrl/Cmd + F) opens a per-tab search bar over the scrollback (Enter next match, Shift + Enter previous).
• Font size buttons adjust the terminal text; Ctrl/Cmd + mouse wheel zooms, and Ctrl/Cmd + +/-/0 adjust or reset it when the terminal is not focused. The value is remembered in settings.
• More offers Open in new window, Run in background, Export scrollback (to a .txt file), Clear screen, Manage sessions…, and Close all sessions.

Sessions can live in three places: a tab, a pop-out window, or the background. Dragging a tab away from the tab strip opens it in its own window; dragging a pop-out or background session back onto the tab bar docks or reattaches it with its buffered output. The Running sessions manager lists everything outside the tab bar and can focus, dock, reattach or terminate each session, or terminate all of them.

Closing the window while sessions are open shows a confirmation with Cancel, Minimize to tray (keeps the sessions running) and Disconnect and quit. With no open sessions the window simply hides to the tray.

Terminal copy/paste uses the usual key combinations (Ctrl/Cmd + C for a selection, Ctrl/Shift + C, Ctrl/Cmd + V, Ctrl/Shift + V or Shift + Insert). OSC 52 clipboard writes from remote hosts are honoured; reads are refused.

Files

The Files view browses a remote directory over SFTP. Pick a host and press Connect; the header then shows user@host and the button becomes Disconnect.

• Breadcrumbs navigate the tree; a go-to button turns the path into an editable field (Enter loads, Esc cancels).
• Parent directory and Refresh buttons sit in the toolbar, next to quick bookmarks for /, ~, /var/www, /etc, /var/log and /tmp.
• The filter matches a file name or its permissions, and a Hidden files toggle shows or hides dotfiles (with a count of what is hidden).
• List and grid layouts are available; each entry shows its type icon, size, permissions and modification time, and its remote path can be copied.

The browser is read-only: it lists directories and reports errors, but it does not upload or download files.

Tunnels

The Tunnels view manages port-forwarding rules: local (-L), remote (-R) and SOCKS5 dynamic (-D). You can start from a preset or add a rule with a host, type, local port, remote host and remote port; the form validates the values and previews the matching ssh command. Each rule can be enabled or disabled, edited, deleted, or have its local address copied.

Rules are configuration held by the view: no tunnel process is started, and rules are not persisted across restarts. The section is hidden when Tunnels is turned off under Settings → Features.

Keys

The Keys view lists the identity files in ~/.ssh, paired from each *.pub file:

• columns Key (name, comment and shortened path), Type, Fingerprint (copyable) and Permissions;
• a green permissions badge means the private key is only readable by you; a red badge means group/other bits are set, and an alert at the top gives a copyable chmod 600 command for every affected key;
• Generate key creates a new pair in ~/.ssh (Ed25519, or RSA for older servers) with an empty passphrase;
• Deploy copies a public key to a chosen host’s authorized_keys.

Security audit

The audit view runs on open and scores the local setup out of 100 with a grade, plus counts for Critical, Warnings and Info findings. A severity filter narrows the list. Each finding shows its description and a copyable remediation command.

The checks cover StrictHostKeyChecking being disabled, overly permissive permissions on the config directory and database file, private keys readable by other users, connections with no identity key and no Kerberos, and connections unused for more than 90 days. Fix permissions tightens the config directory, database file, ~/.ssh and key files that are group/other-accessible, then re-runs the audit. Re-scan re-runs it manually.

History

Session history is grouped by day (Today, Yesterday, then dates) and shows Host, Started (relative, with an absolute tooltip in the configured timezone), Duration, Status and Exit code. Rows are badged Succeeded, Failed or Running; the status chips (All, Succeeded, Failed) and the search box filter the table. Export CSV downloads every recorded session.

Settings

Settings has its own sidebar of sections. Every control saves immediately; there is no Save button.

• Profiles & workspace — switch or manage profiles, choose how hosts are ranked (usage-ranked Bayesian scoring or fuzzy matching), set the OpenSSH config file used for imports, import hosts, encrypt/export/restore backups, and see the config, profile and database paths.

• SSH agent — start the agent on launch, point at a custom agent socket, and set the default user and port used by hosts that don’t define their own.

• Kerberos — monitor ticket expiry and set the warning threshold in minutes.

• Terminal — font family, size and line height, cursor style and blinking, scrollback size, copy-on-select, snippet confirmation, and whether the file browser lists dotfiles.

• History — record session history, cap the number of stored entries, and set the backend log level.

• Appearance — pick a theme and the timezone used for dates in history, logs and audit. Themes: Graphite, Midnight, OLED black and Slate.

• Features — turn the SFTP file browser and the Tunnels section on or off; the sidebar updates immediately.

• Updates — shows the current version and handles updates for the way the app was installed.

  

  In-app updates apply to the AppImage and to the bayesian-ssh-desktop .deb/.rpm from GitHub releases: Check for updates reports a newer signed build, and Install and restart downloads, verifies and installs it. Open terminal sessions are closed and the app restarts. Snap installs are updated by the Snap Store (the section shows sudo snap refresh bayesian-ssh), and other installs (raw binaries from install.sh or release tarballs, the unified CLI+GUI packages, and source builds) are updated the way they were installed.

Modals and dialogs

• Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + K) — searches hosts and commands. It groups results into Hosts, Actions, Navigation and Themes; with an empty query it shows the first hosts plus the actions and navigation entries. Host entries connect on selection; actions cover New host, Run command on hosts, Ping all hosts, Manage sessions and Fix key permissions; navigation entries jump to a view; theme entries switch the theme.
• Batch run — runs one command on several hosts in parallel. Pick hosts (with filter, tag chips and All/None/Invert/Prod/Non-prod shortcuts), enter a command, optionally save it as a template, choose dry run and a timeout, then preview or run. Results list each host with its exit code, duration and stdout/stderr, and can be exported as Markdown, CSV, JSON or plain text. A History tab keeps recent runs (for inspection or repeat) and a Templates tab manages built-in and custom commands. Ctrl/Cmd + Enter runs, Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + D toggles dry run.
• Snippets — saved commands with a title, category, description and command. Search and category chips narrow the list; snippets can be created, edited, deleted, copied, or sent to the active terminal tab (Run in terminal, which asks for confirmation unless that is disabled in settings; with no active terminal the command is copied instead).
• Profiles — list profiles, create a new one, and delete any profile that is neither active nor the default. Switching profiles happens from the sidebar profile menu, which also opens this dialog through Manage profiles….
• SSH agent — shows the agent socket and the loaded keys with their fingerprints, and adds a private key file to the agent.
• Kerberos — shows ticket status (principal, realm, remaining lifetime, renew time, cache and config paths) and acquires a ticket with kinit, or renews the existing one (kinit -R, with an optional password). Ticket options cover forwardable, proxiable, lifetime and renewal lifetime.
• About — version, active profile, config and database paths, license, and links to the source code, release notes and issue tracker.
• Confirmations — host deletion, all-session close, and quitting with open sessions all use in-app dialogs instead of native prompts.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ?, F1 or Ctrl/Cmd + / to open the shortcut sheet. Single-key shortcuts work when no text field is focused.