Servers in a sidebar
Folders, servers, one click to connect. Click a folder and it opens every server inside as splits. Already have a ~/.ssh/config? Import it. Done.
psst. you ssh into stuff all day, right?
A terminal
that doesn't
try too hard.
Tabs. Split panes. A sidebar full of your servers. Click one, you're in. Written in Rust, runs native on Windows, and starts before you finish blinking.
Download for Windows
grabbing latest version...
free. MIT. no account. ↩
100%native no
electron
What's in the box
Tabs & splits
Split right, split down, split the split. Drag the dividers around. Close the app, open it again, your layout is still there.
An AI on a leash
Say what you want in plain words, get a command. It gets typed into the terminal and then waits for you to press Enter. It never runs anything by itself. We took its hands away. Scary commands (rm -rf, mkfs...) get a warning first.
Passwords stay put
Passwords and API keys go to Windows Credential Manager. Not in a config file, not in a log. Boring on purpose.
Your shell, your pick
PowerShell, cmd, Git Bash, WSL, PowerShell 7. Whatever you have installed shows up in the menu.
Okay, get it.
The installer lives on GitHub Releases. It installs just for you, no admin password needed.
ctermin-setup.exe from GitHub ReleasesHeads up: it isn't code signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may frown at it. Click More info → Run anyway. Yes, we know.
Docs (the short version)
Install
- Download the installer from above.
- Run it. It goes into your user folder, no admin.
- Open ctermin from the Start menu.
Needs Windows 10 version 1809 or newer. SSH uses the OpenSSH client that ships with Windows.
Servers
Use + Server and + Folder at the top of the sidebar. Pick SSH key or password login. A saved password goes to Credential Manager; leave it empty and you just type it when you connect.
Click a server to connect. Click a folder name to open all of its servers at once. Right-click anything to edit, rename, or delete. Import from ~/.ssh/config pulls in the hosts you already have.
Tabs & splits
Ctrl+T opens a tab. Ctrl+Shift+D splits right, Ctrl+Shift+E splits down. Move around with Alt+arrows. Right-click a tab for more. Turn session restore on or off in Settings.
The AI bar
Hit Ctrl+K. Type what you want ("find files bigger than 1gb"), or ask it to explain the last output. The command lands in your terminal and sits there until you press Enter.
Pick how it talks to Claude in AI Settings: a Claude Code install you're already signed into, or your own API key (stored in Credential Manager). Dangerous-looking commands ask for confirmation before they're inserted.
Shortcuts
| New tab | Ctrl+T |
| Close pane | Ctrl+W |
| Next / previous tab | Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
| Split right / down | Ctrl+Shift+D / Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Move between panes | Alt+Arrow |
| Toggle sidebar | Ctrl+Shift+B |
| AI bar | Ctrl+K |
| Settings | Ctrl+, |
| Copy | Ctrl+C with a selection, or Ctrl+Shift+C |
| Paste | Ctrl+V or Ctrl+Shift+V |
Don't like them? Edit the [shortcuts] section of config.toml and restart.
Where stuff lives
| Settings | %APPDATA%\ctermin\config.toml |
| Servers | %APPDATA%\ctermin\servers.toml |
| Last session | %APPDATA%\ctermin\session.toml |
| Passwords & API key | Windows Credential Manager |
Build it yourself
git clone https://github.com/CHELVYN01/ctermin cd ctermin cargo run --release
You need Rust stable with the MSVC toolchain.