rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH

rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH

VPN over SSH and tssh

35 ratings
14 reviews
#27 in free Developer Tools
📊 Productivity
🛠️ Developer Tools
Free

Details

  • Released
  • Updated
  • April 19, 2026
  • August 20, 2026

Features

rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #1 for iPhone
rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #2 for iPhone
rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #3 for iPhone
rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #4 for iPhone
rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #5 for iPhone
rootshell: Local Terminal, SSH screenshot #6 for iPhone
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About

This app provides a powerful, desktop-class terminal emulator with GPU acceleration and native support for SSH, Mosh, and tssh. It offers features like system-wide VPN over SSH, native Git integration, and AI assistance for hands-free command execution and web searches.

GPU-accelerated terminal
Native SSH and Mosh support
System-wide VPN over SSH
Native Git client
AI voice and text agents
Cloud and Kubernetes integration
Hardware security key support
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What's New in rootshell

1.0.10

August 20, 2026

Agents & Commands - Agent Inbox: The vertical tab bar now tracks popular coding agents across SSH, tssh, Mosh, and tmux panes. See who is working, waiting, or done; jump to the right pane; get notifications; group agents by project; and monitor subscription usage. - Command Detection: Optionally track long-running builds, tests, deployments, transfers, progress, and prompts such as sudo, with the same cards and notifications. herdr - Discover herdr sessions with status, active agents, and a live pane preview; attach or restart them from the session picker; or auto-start herdr over SSH, Mosh, and tssh. SSH & Terminal - Passkey-Backed SSH Keys: Generate standard sk-ecdsa keys held by your passkey provider. Approve each signature with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode; private key material never reaches rootshell. - Post-Quantum Keys: Generate or import OpenSSH 10.4-compatible hybrid ML-DSA-44 + Ed25519 keys, with ssh-add, agent forwarding, and host-key support. - Configure TERM globally or per profile. Sessions also identify rootshell through LC_TERMINAL. - Install Key on Server works with passwords, saved passwords, 2FA, and keyboard-interactive challenges again. Locale handling now avoids setlocale warnings and works correctly over tssh. Screen Sharing - Curtain Mode: When Remote Management is enabled on the Mac, blank its physical display behind a lock screen while you stay in control. - New defaults for clipboard security and pointer panning. Connection Info adds live performance details for tssh and tmux window tabs. - High Performance audio and video stay in sync. Standard Mode responds faster on slow links, sharpens progressively, and avoids stale tiles or partially drawn first frames. - Sessions recover from stalls, idle-network interruptions, and brief app switches. Returning from the background reconnects immediately when needed. - Option keys reach Mac hosts correctly, and saved-password login is more reliable. Privacy & Automation - Auto-Redact masks names, email addresses, and other strings on screen so they stay out of screenshots and recordings, while copied text remains unchanged. Your list is encrypted in the keychain. - New Apple Shortcuts actions open a shell or SSH profile, list profiles, and run SSH commands in the background with output, stderr, and exit status. Apple Pencil & Keyboard - Apple Pencil is now a precise terminal and Screen Sharing pointer: tap, drag, scroll, select, hover, and double-tap the barrel for right-click. - Toolbar keys follow the system keyboard's Shift and caps lock. Modified keys repeat again, hardware-keyboard settings now appear on iPhone, and bottom-edge gestures no longer type accidental keys. - Opening Settings or the tab switcher with the keyboard visible is dramatically smoother and no longer repeatedly resizes remote sessions. Clipboard, Profiles & Tabs - Clipboard Manager can unwrap hard-wrapped text and reflow it to a chosen width while preserving document structure, CJK, and emoji. - Profile icons now include a searchable catalog of SF Symbols, developer icons, and site favicons. - Grouped tabs gain a quick group picker and stable saved ordering; sidebar titles can wrap to three lines. AI - Custom providers now support Anthropic-compatible APIs, model discovery, keyless local servers, correct endpoint previews, and clearer server errors. Battery & Stability - Adaptive refresh rate runs at full speed on power and caps itself on battery, alongside Low Power Mode and thermal throttling. - Fixed iOS and iPadOS background terminations, a terminal parser deadlock, AES-GCM and Screen Sharing crashes, tmux title and reconnection issues, delayed background bells, and synced biometric-key authentication.

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Charts

Top Free

📉 27-1

Developer Tools

This app dropped -1 position in Developer Tools chart.

Last updated on August 28, 2026.

User reviews

Great app for iPhone and iPad

This application meets every requirement, serving as a unified tool for SSH and high-performance screen sharing on Mac. One enhancement request: include a mouse pointer option alongside touch during screen sharing.

Has potential, but increasingly bloated with slop

EDIT: sorry app author i ain’t allat, happy for u / sorry that happened tho. oh also i forgot to mention: the ‘funny’ ‘jokes’ shown while connecting to a remote host are truly awful claudeslop

I was psyched when I read about this project—a libghostty-based, totally free SSH client as a desperately needed alternative to Termius & Blink? Yes, please. And the rendering is indeed very nice thanks to libghostty. There are some nice features like the Tailscale SSH integration.

Unfortunately the app has very clearly been developed with heavy LLM assistance to pile in feature upon feature, and the cracks are starting to show. Lots of awesome sounding features barely work once you give them a try—for example, screen sharing inexplicably has *seconds* of lag on the same connection Screens is perfectly snappy on. And then there are the useless features, like the location diary… why?

Also the UI, though pretty enough, is absolutely infuriating, not documented, and not discoverable. The entire project IMO is a cautionary tale on the dangers of `claude —yolo`.
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Response from developer

Feel free to reach out on our GitHub page if you are having issues. Our Screen Sharing feature is the only application in the I am aware of on this platform delivering low latency and high resolution and was created due to my frustration with the poor performance of existing apps. Screens only support low resolution and high latency under the best of network conditions limited by legacy RFB only support. It is worth confirming you are not connecting over Tailscale as the app warns as it is unable to handle the high packet rate required. High Performance mode Screen Sharing is intended for use over your local network. Location Diary is similar to Blink and its “geo” command which requires manually activating location services if you are using a TCP based connection and leave the app. Use is optional and is implemented to stay within AppStore guidelines. Fortunately in rootshell we offer multiple options that survive even a full device reboot including both mosh and tssh. Each update has detailed release notes on our website where we have already published over 130 free updates. A large number of our users prefer that we offer options to completely get out of the way turning off app UI chrome and extending full screen. This is always a trade off with discoverability.

Amazing local terminal

Feels at home with Ghostty users. Works amazingly well on iPhone and iPad and allow actual work to be done via terminal.

Works with AI coding agents and herdr.

The very best, finally!

Great design. Everything I need

Great App!

I was originally very suspicious of this app due to some detected high background activity. However, after a couple of weeks of careful packet monitoring I see I was mistaken! This is an excellent application with a nice interface and I can confirm it does not phone home.

Response from developer

We are happy to investigate any unexpected battery usage. We have provided this user with detailed instructions on how to share relevant debug logs from the application. We are not aware of other users reporting similar issues. In general, iOS and iPadOS prevent our application from running in the background except in limited system-managed scenarios. No user data is sent to us. rootshell does not collect analytics or credentials from users of this application. rootshell also goes beyond many applications by offering multiple authentication options in which we never see a private key, including support for YubiKey, FIDO2, and opkssh. Any claims suggesting otherwise are inaccurate and unsupported.

Developer apps

FAQ

What is rootshell?

rootshell is a desktop-class terminal emulator built on a GPU-accelerated engine. It offers native SSH, Mosh compatibility, system-wide VPN over SSH, native Git, and AI assistance, all within a single application.

Does rootshell have ads?

No, rootshell is ad-free. The application is available for free and does not contain advertisements, allowing for an uninterrupted user experience.

What protocols does rootshell support for remote connections?

rootshell supports native SSH with various key exchange algorithms including post-quantum options. It also offers Mosh-compatible roaming sessions and tssh integration with QUIC and KCP transport for lower latency.

Can rootshell be used as a VPN?

Yes, rootshell can turn any SSH or tssh session into a system-wide VPN. This allows you to route all your device traffic through your remote server using standard SSH, QUIC, or KCP transport without requiring extra server software.

How does rootshell integrate with tmux?

rootshell provides native tmux integration by allowing you to attach in control mode. This transforms tmux windows into native tabs and panes into real splits, enabling seamless copy, paste, search, and scrolling with native gestures.

What AI features are available in rootshell?

rootshell includes a voice AI agent that can read scrollback, run commands over SSH hands-free, and search the web. There's also optional text AI integration with models like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini for command execution and output analysis.

Is rootshell suitable for managing cloud resources?

Yes, rootshell supports connections to major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean. You can browse instances, access serial consoles, and generate EKS kubeconfigs, as well as debug Kubernetes nodes.

What is the rating and update frequency of rootshell?

rootshell has a high rating of 4.8 stars from 23 ratings. It was last updated on June 29, 2026, indicating active development and maintenance.