SSH Tunnel Manager

A terminal user interface (TUI) application to manage multiple SSH tunnels from a single configuration file.

Features

• Multiple tunnel types: Local (-L), Remote (-R), and Dynamic SOCKS5 (-D) port forwarding
• Jump host support: Connect through bastion/jump hosts with chained jumps
• Auto-reconnection: Automatic reconnection with exponential backoff
• SSH keep-alive: Prevent connections from timing out
• Tunnel groups: Organize tunnels into groups for batch operations
• Real-time stats: Monitor connections, bytes transferred, and uptime
• Interactive TUI: Navigate and control tunnels with keyboard shortcuts

Installation

From source

go install github.com/labbs/sshtunnel/cmd/sshtunnel@latest

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/labbs/sshtunnel.git
cd sshtunnel
go build -o sshtunnel ./cmd/sshtunnel

Quick Start

1. Create a default configuration file:

sshtunnel --init

This creates ~/.config/sshtunnel/config.yaml with example configuration.

2. Edit the configuration file with your hosts and tunnels.

3. Run the application:

sshtunnel

Or specify a custom config path:

sshtunnel --config /path/to/config.yaml

Configuration

Global settings

global:
  log_level: info  # debug, info, warn, error
  log_file: ""     # Leave empty to disable file logging

  reconnect:
    enabled: true
    max_attempts: 5        # 0 = unlimited
    initial_delay: 1s
    max_delay: 60s
    backoff_multiplier: 2.0

  keep_alive:
    enabled: true
    interval: 30s
    timeout: 15s

Hosts

Define reusable SSH host configurations:

hosts:
  bastion:
    hostname: bastion.example.com
    port: 22
    user: deploy
    identity_file: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    agent_forwarding: false

  internal-server:
    hostname: internal.private
    port: 22
    user: admin
    identity_file: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    jump_host: bastion  # Connect through bastion first

Tunnels

Local port forwarding (-L)

Forward a remote service to a local port:

tunnels:
  - name: postgres-prod
    description: "PostgreSQL production database"
    host: bastion
    type: local
    local:
      address: 127.0.0.1
      port: 5432
    remote:
      address: db.internal
      port: 5432
    auto_start: true

Remote port forwarding (-R)

Expose a local service on the remote server:

tunnels:
  - name: expose-metrics
    description: "Expose local Prometheus"
    host: bastion
    type: remote
    local:
      address: 127.0.0.1
      port: 9090
    remote:
      address: 0.0.0.0
      port: 9090

Dynamic SOCKS5 proxy (-D)

Create a SOCKS5 proxy through the SSH connection:

tunnels:
  - name: socks-proxy
    description: "SOCKS5 proxy"
    host: bastion
    type: dynamic
    local:
      address: 127.0.0.1
      port: 1080

Groups

Organize tunnels into groups:

groups:
  - name: production
    description: "All production tunnels"
    tunnels:
      - postgres-prod
      - redis-prod
    auto_start: false

Keyboard Shortcuts

Main view

Key	Action
↑/k	Move up
↓/j	Move down
Enter/Space	Toggle selected tunnel
a	Start all tunnels
s	Stop all tunnels
g	View groups
r	Reload configuration
?	Show help
q	Quit

Groups view

Key	Action
↑/k	Move up
↓/j	Move down
Enter/s	Start group
x	Stop group
Esc	Back to main view
q	Quit

Project Structure

sshtunnel/
├── cmd/sshtunnel/         # Application entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── config/            # Configuration loading and validation
│   ├── format/            # Formatting utilities
│   ├── ssh/               # SSH client with jump host support
│   ├── tunnel/            # Tunnel implementations (local, remote, dynamic)
│   └── ui/                # Terminal UI (BubbleTea)
│       ├── components/    # Reusable UI components
│       ├── messages/      # Message types for UI events
│       ├── styles/        # Visual styling (lipgloss)
│       └── views/         # Screen implementations
└── config.example.yaml    # Example configuration

Dependencies

• BubbleTea - Terminal UI framework
• Lipgloss - Styling
• Viper - Configuration management
• x/crypto/ssh - SSH client

License

MIT