A friendly desktop app for working with your machines over SSH.
Browse and transfer files, forward ports and open terminals, all in one window.
Patchbay works with the SSH setup you already have. Your hosts come straight from
~/.ssh/config, your keys and agent just work, and there's nothing to install on the
servers. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it's free and open source.
- Your SSH config is your host list. Patchbay reads
~/.ssh/config(withInclude, patterns andProxyJump), so it always agrees withssh. Adding or editing a host changes only that host's lines, keeping your comments and formatting. Sort hosts into groups and tag them. - Files. Tabs, side-by-side panes and drag and drop, between your computer and a server or between two servers. Transfers can be paused and resumed. Preview files, search, change permissions, or edit a remote file in your own editor and have it upload when you save. Works on SFTP-only servers too.
- Terminals. Tabs and splits for remote and local shells, "open terminal here" from the file browser, and saved snippets.
- Port forwarding. Open a server's port on your computer or yours on a server, relay between two servers, or run a SOCKS proxy on either end. Forwards are saved as named rules that can start with the app and reconnect on their own, and keep running from the system tray.
- Tailscale. Devices on your tailnet show up automatically, and Tailscale SSH just works.
- Sign-in and security. Key files, the SSH agent (including Pageant and Windows
OpenSSH), passwords and two-factor prompts. Passwords can be saved in your system
keychain. Host keys are checked against your
known_hosts, and you're warned loudly if one changes. - It picks up where you left off. Your tabs come back when you restart, and the app updates itself.
Download the latest version from the releases page.
| System | Download |
|---|---|
| Windows 10/11 | Patchbay_<version>_x64-setup.exe (or the .msi) |
| macOS, Apple Silicon | Patchbay_<version>_aarch64.dmg |
| macOS, Intel | Patchbay_<version>_x64.dmg |
| Linux | .AppImage, .deb (Debian, Ubuntu) or .rpm (Fedora, openSUSE) |
Once installed, Patchbay keeps itself up to date.
The builds aren't code-signed yet, so the first launch needs one extra step:
- Windows: if SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.
- macOS: open the app once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and
click Open Anyway. Or run
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Patchbay.app. - Linux: install the package with
sudo apt install ./Patchbay_<version>_amd64.deborsudo dnf install ./Patchbay-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm, or make the AppImage executable (chmod +x Patchbay_*.AppImage) and run it.
To build Patchbay yourself, see CONTRIBUTING.md.
Patchbay is young, so bug reports and ideas are very welcome. Please open an issue. To work on the code, start with CONTRIBUTING.md.
Copyright (C) the Patchbay contributors.
Patchbay is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE.