Noverterm
A native SSH terminal client for macOS and Windows, built with Tauri 2 & Rust. No Electron, no bloat.
Noverterm is a lightweight SSH terminal app with multi-session tabs, SFTP file transfer, port forwarding, SSH key management, and snippets. All data stays in a local SQLite database. It is designed as a fast, native alternative to Electron-based SSH clients.
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Why Noverterm?
Most SSH clients today are Electron wrappers — hundreds of MBs of RAM just to run a terminal.
Noverterm is different. Built on Tauri 2 and Rust, it delivers:
- ~50MB memory footprint (vs 500MB+ for Electron apps)
- Native performance — no JavaScript runtime overhead
- Real security — Rust's memory safety, no CVE-ridden dependencies
Features
✅ What's Done
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| SSH Connections | Password & SSH key auth, host fingerprint verification, known hosts manager |
| Multi-Session Tabs | Multiple SSH sessions in tabs, duplicate sessions, instant local terminal |
| Terminal I/O | Immediate idle SSH output, bounded binary streaming, ordered input with visible write failures |
| TUI Keyboard | Negotiated Kitty keyboard protocol, modifier/repeat/release events, IME text and paste handling |
| Port Forwarding | Local SSH tunneling with saved presets, several ports per preset |
| SFTP File Transfer | Dual-pane browser (local or any host per pane), drag & drop, multi-select, recursive folder transfer, progress, conflict resolution, create/rename/delete |
| Snippets | Save and execute frequent commands across active sessions, pin them to the sidebar as one-click launchers with a custom icon |
| SSH Key Manager | Import and manage SSH keys |
| Connection Groups | Organize connections into folders |
| Auto-Update | Built-in updater — download and install updates from GitHub Releases |
| Modern UI | Dark theme, responsive layout, keyboard shortcuts, context menus |
Keyboard encoding uses the layout information exposed by the WebView. On WebKit,
previously unseen shifted punctuation on non-US layouts may lack its unshifted
key value; the browser-reported key and physical alternate remain available.
🚧 In Progress
Screenshots
Coming soon
Installation
macOS (Apple Silicon)
Download the latest .dmg from Releases.
Windows
Download the .exe installer from Releases.
Build from Source
# Prerequisites: Node.js 22+, Rust stable, cargo-make
cargo make frontend:install
cargo make tauri:build
The bundled app will be in target/release/bundle/.
Tech Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|
| Frontend | Svelte 5, Vite, TailwindCSS |
| Desktop | Tauri 2 |
| SSH | Russh (pure Rust SSH library) |
| Async Runtime | Tokio |
| Database | SQLite + Diesel ORM (local, in the app data folder) |
Project Structure
noverterm/
├── packages/
│ ├── desktop/ # Tauri app (Rust + Svelte UI), owns the SQLite database
│ ├── shared/ # Types shared between the Rust commands and the UI
│ └── orm/ # Diesel ORM models and schema
├── Cargo.toml # Rust workspace
└── Makefile.toml # cargo-make tasks
Development
# Install dependencies
cargo make frontend:install
# Run in dev mode
cargo make tauri:dev
# Run lint & typecheck
cargo make lint # Rust clippy
cargo make fmt # Rust format
npm run lint # Frontend ESLint (in packages/desktop/ui)
npm run check # Svelte typecheck (in packages/desktop/ui)
License
Noverterm is Source Available under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1).
- ✅ Free for personal & internal company use
- ✅ Fork and modify for your own use
- 🚫 No commercial resale or managed hosting
- 📅 Auto-converts to MIT License on 2029-05-25
See LICENSE for details.
Contributing
This repository is public for transparency and security auditing.
- 🐛 Bug reports → Open an Issue
- 🔒 Security disclosures → Contact maintainer directly
- 🔀 Pull Requests → Not accepted (fork freely instead)
Acknowledgements
Built with:
- 🦀 Tauri — Desktop framework
- ⚡ Russh — Pure Rust SSH implementation
- 🎨 Svelte — UI framework
Noverterm — Because your SSH client shouldn't need its own memory allocator.
