ShellStation

Cross-platform terminal manager and SSH/Telnet client for network engineers and sysadmins.

ShellStation replaces tools like mRemoteNG and SecureCRT with a modern, open-source alternative that runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Why ShellStation?

Problem	ShellStation
mRemoteNG is Windows-only	Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows
XML session storage degrades at scale	SQLite (local) or PostgreSQL (team) backend
PuTTY dependency for SSH	Built-in SSH2 and Telnet — no external tools
Jump host setup is cumbersome	First-class ProxyJump chaining with arbitrary hop depth
SecureCRT costs $100+/seat	Free and open source
No multi-user session sharing	PostgreSQL mode with row-level security for teams

Features

• Built-in terminal emulator — xterm.js with WebGL rendering, themes, search, ligatures
• SSH2 and Telnet — password, public key, keyboard-interactive authentication
• Jump host chaining — connect through multiple bastions (A -> B -> C -> target)
• Session management — folders, tags, search, drag-and-drop, bulk editing
• Command broadcast — send commands to multiple sessions simultaneously
• Import — migrate from mRemoteNG XML, SecureCRT XML, or CSV
• Credential manager — secrets stored in the OS keychain (Keychain, Secret Service, Credential Manager)
• Multi-user mode — shared PostgreSQL database with per-user visibility and credential isolation
• Keyword highlighting — import SecureCRT highlight profiles or create your own
• Session logging — automatic plain-text logs with ANSI stripping

Installation

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

• Linux: .deb or .AppImage
• macOS: .dmg
• Windows: .msi

Building from Source

Prerequisites: Rust, Node.js (v18+), and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS.

git clone https://github.com/LuminaApps/shellstation.git
cd shellstation
npm install
npm run tauri build

The built application will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
App shell	Tauri 2 (native webview, small binaries)
Backend	Rust (async via Tokio)
Frontend	React + TypeScript
Terminal	xterm.js
SSH	russh (pure Rust SSH2)
Database	SQLite (single-user) / PostgreSQL (teams) via sqlx

Configuration

ShellStation stores its configuration in the platform config directory:

• Linux: ~/.config/shellstation/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/shellstation/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\shellstation\

PostgreSQL Multi-User Setup

For team deployments with shared session databases, see the PostgreSQL Administration Guide.

Development

# Start the dev server with hot reload
npm run tauri dev

# Lint (must pass before committing)
cd src-tauri && cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cd src-tauri && cargo fmt -- --check
npx eslint .
npx prettier --check "src/**/*.{ts,tsx,css,json}"
npx tsc --noEmit

See DESIGN.md for architecture details, database schema, and the development roadmap.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please ensure all linters pass with zero warnings before submitting a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.