Easy SSH – SSH Client, SFTP & SSH Terminal

An SSH client in a terminal tab of VS Code, Cursor and other VS Code-based editors. Save your hosts, hop through jump hosts, import ~/.ssh/config, Ctrl+click a file or folder name to download, open, rename or delete it, and drag files onto the terminal to upload them.

Easy SSH talks SSH directly from your editor. Nothing is installed on the server, and no remote editor server is downloaded, so it works on old, small, and locked-down machines where Remote-SSH can't run.

Real recording: connect from the home screen, Ctrl+click a file, Download, and follow the progress (mp4).

Install

• VS Code: open the Extensions view, search for Easy SSH, or run ext install easy-ssh.easy-ssh in Quick Open (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P).
• Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Trae, Kiro, Antigravity, code-server and other editors that install from Open VSX: search for Easy SSH in the Extensions view (Open VSX page).
• Offline: download the .vsix from GitHub Releases, then run Extensions: Install from VSIX….

What you can do

• Pick a connection from a home screen that shows your most recent connection, a table with sign-in method and last use, and the details of the selected host
• Add connections with a guided /new setup: one field per step with checks, the matching ssh command, and Test connection before you save. /edit changes one field at a time, /delete asks first
• Sign in with a password (saved, or asked every time), a private key, an SSH agent or Pageant. Two-factor prompts are shown in the terminal
• Hop through one or more jump hosts
• Import hosts from ~/.ssh/config, including Host * defaults and ProxyJump chains
• Open your remote login shell (bash, zsh, fish and others) and use it exactly as over ssh, including vim, top and sudo
• Ctrl+click a file or folder name (Cmd+click on macOS) for its action menu. Files: Download, Open, Rename, Delete. Folders: Download, Upload, Rename, Delete
• Open a remote text file in a VS Code editor tab and save it back to the server with Ctrl+S (Cmd+S). Permissions are kept, and saving warns you if the file changed on the server in the meantime
• Download a folder with everything in it, the same way
• Upload: drag files or folders onto the terminal, as before. They go into the current remote folder
• Names you create with commands (touch, mv, tar, …) can be clicked right away, without a cd
• Follow big transfers in a progress notification with Cancel
• Reconnect after a dropped connection, back into the same folder
• Open several sessions, each in its own terminal tab named after the server
• Colors that follow your VS Code theme: Easy SSH Dark on dark themes, Easy SSH Light on light ones, switching as soon as you change the theme

Requirements and limitations

• Your side: VS Code 1.74 or newer, or an editor built on it (Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Trae, Kiro, Antigravity, code-server), on Windows, macOS or Linux.
• Browser-based editors (code-server): Easy SSH runs on the machine that serves the editor. Connections start from there and use its ~/.ssh, and downloads and uploads use its disk, not the computer running the browser. In desktop editors, also over Remote-SSH, it runs on your own computer.
• Server: a Linux or Unix server with OpenSSH or a compatible SSH server. Windows servers aren't supported.
• Downloads and uploads need SFTP. On a server without SFTP you still get the terminal, but no file transfers.
• Folder tracking needs bash, zsh or fish. In these shells the terminal follows cd, so clicks and drops use the right folder. Other shells work, but names aren't linked until Easy SSH knows the folder.
• After sudo su, su or a nested ssh, Easy SSH follows the cd commands it can see. Transfers still run as the user you signed in as.
• ProxyCommand isn't supported. Imported hosts that need it are listed and skipped; use ProxyJump instead.
• A single upload or folder download is limited to 5000 files (easySsh.maxTransferFiles).

Open it

Click the Easy SSH icon in the activity bar, or run Easy SSH: New Terminal. Each opens another terminal tab with its own connection list. Each terminal connects on its own: the first is named Easy SSH, the next Easy SSH 2, Easy SSH 3, and so on. Close the tab, or type /quit in it, to dismiss it.

The connection list. Up and Down select a connection, Enter connects.

The list shows each connection's user@host:port, sign-in method (key, password, agent, and the jump host it goes through) and when you last used it. The Last: line under the Easy SSH mark names the connection you used most recently; the list starts on it, so Enter reconnects. When there is room, the selected connection's details (host, port, sign-in, jump host, last used, start folder) show under the list. The key hints sit at the bottom, and the prompt shows a different tip each time. With no connections yet, a Getting started box points to /new and /import.

Commands

On the connection panel, type / to open the command list. Connections and system commands are listed in separate groups. Up and Down move through the list, further typing filters it, and Enter runs the highlighted row.

Type / to open the command list.

New, edit, and delete

/new	/edit	/delete
One field per step, with help and checks	Pick a field, change it, save	Confirm before a connection is removed

/new asks one field per step (Step 2 of 6, …), with a short help line under each field and a red message when a value can't work: an empty host, a port that isn't a number from 1 to 65535, a key file that doesn't exist. Esc goes back one step. The last page shows every value and the matching ssh command; from there, Test connection connects and signs in without saving, Save adds the connection, and Back returns to the last step. Enter on a value changes just that field.

The last page of /new: the values, the matching ssh command, and Test connection.

/edit opens the same page for a saved connection: pick the field to change, then Save. /delete asks in red, with the connection's name and host, before anything is removed.

Passwords and key passphrases are hidden while you type and never shown afterwards. Press Enter on a saved secret to keep it. Sign-in method and jump host are choices: move with Up and Down, then press Enter. For a custom jump host, type user@host:port, and separate extra hops with commas.

For password sign-in you choose whether Easy SSH saves the password or asks for it at every connect. If you change a connection's sign-in method or key, jump hosts that signed in the same way change with it.

Themes

The Easy SSH screens follow your VS Code theme: Easy SSH Dark with a dark theme, Easy SSH Light with a light one (high-contrast themes get the palette of their brightness). Change the VS Code theme and open Easy SSH terminals switch at once; there is nothing to set. Both palettes sit on VS Code's own terminal background and use the icon's purple and pink only for the brand mark, accents and a soft tint on the selected row.

Easy SSH Light, with VS Code's Light Modern theme.

Connected shells get the palette's cursor and ANSI colors too, in Easy SSH terminals only, and the terminal's own colors come back when the session ends; turn that off with easySsh.themeSession. easySsh.colorDepth switches to 256 or 16 colors if colors look wrong.

Remote shell

A connection opens your login shell in the home folder (or in the connection's start folder), the same kind of shell ssh starts. The login message and "Last login" line are shown as usual. What you type goes to the server, and what the server prints is shown as-is. Aliases, functions and the current folder stay in effect. vim, less, top and sudo work as in any terminal, and resizing the panel updates the window size on the server.

A remote login shell, the same as over ssh.

Ctrl+click a name: the action menu

Ctrl+click a file or folder name in the remote shell (Cmd+click on macOS) to open a menu of what you can do with it. Its title shows the name and the folder it's in, for example access.log — /home/deploy/logs, and its placeholder the size or the number of items. Download is first, so Enter downloads.

A folder	A text file
Download, Upload, Rename, Delete	Download, Open, Rename, Delete

Open is offered for text files only, so the menu for an archive, image or program is Download, Rename, Delete:

Easy SSH decides by the name first (.txt, .json, .yaml, .log, .conf, .sh, .py, Dockerfile, .bashrc, authorized_keys and many more are text; .zip, .tar.gz, .png, .pdf, .so, .exe and the like are not). For any other name it reads the first 8 KB over SFTP: no NUL bytes and valid UTF-8 means text. If that read fails or takes too long, Open is offered.

For a symbolic link, Rename and Delete change the link itself, not what it points to.

Cancelling a dialog does nothing. Every rename and delete runs over SFTP as the user you signed in as.

Open and edit a remote file

Ctrl+click a text file name and choose Open. The file opens in a normal VS Code editor tab, with syntax highlighting, search and everything else the editor has. Press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on macOS) to save it straight back to the server.

config.yaml opened from the action menu, changed and saved; grep in the shell shows the new value.

• The tab's address is easyssh://<connection>/<full path>. It reads and saves through the terminal's own connection, as the user you signed in as. Nothing is installed on the server.
• A save writes a temporary file next to the original with the same permissions, then puts it in place. A symbolic link stays a link, and a file owned by another user (or in a folder you can't write to) is rewritten in place so its owner doesn't change.
• Big files ask first. A text file over 5 MB shows its size and asks: Open Anyway, Download or Cancel. Files over 256 MB aren't opened in the editor; download them instead.
• Changed on the server? If someone else (or a command in your shell) changed the file after you opened it, saving shows both versions' size and time and asks before overwriting. Cancel keeps your edits in the editor.
• Disconnected? While the terminal is disconnected or closed, saving fails with a message that says so, and your changes stay in the editor. Reconnect and save again. A tab still open after VS Code reloads works again once you open a terminal for the same connection.

Over 5 MB	Changed on the server

Download a folder

Ctrl+click a folder name (Cmd+click on macOS) and choose Download to download the whole folder, including subfolders. Pick the folder it goes into; your download folder is preselected.

• The folder keeps its structure and permission bits.
• If a folder with that name already exists locally, the download is named logs (1).
• Symbolic links and special files are skipped. Easy SSH lists them when the download finishes.
• The download is written into a hidden temporary folder and renamed when it's complete. A cancelled or failed download leaves nothing behind.

Big downloads and uploads, any folder, and every transfer from the action menu that takes longer than a moment show a notification with the size, speed, time left, file count and a Cancel button. If you start another transfer in the same terminal, it waits in a queue.

Download a file

Ctrl+click a file name (Cmd+click on macOS) and choose Download. The save dialog starts in your download folder with the file's name; if you pick an existing file, the dialog asks before replacing it. When the download finishes, a message says where it was saved.

Upload

Drag files or folders from your computer onto the Easy SSH terminal, as before. They're written into the current remote folder of the terminal you drop them on. In a split view, a drop goes to the pane under the mouse. You can also Ctrl+click a folder name and choose Upload… to pick files (on macOS, files or folders) to put into that folder.

• A folder is uploaded with its contents, keeping its permission bits. Symbolic links inside it are skipped.
• If something with the same name already exists, Easy SSH asks first: Replace, Keep Both (uploads as name (1)), or Skip.
• Each file is written to a hidden temporary name, then renamed into place.

Drag onto the terminal	Upload finished

A path you paste is typed, never uploaded, when it matches what's on your clipboard. Inside full-screen programs such as vim, a dropped path is always typed. A drop from outside your home folder asks before it uploads.

Names stay current

Every name the remote folder holds is a link, also right after a command creates or renames it: after each command the terminal lists the folder again (once, shortly after the prompt returns; very big folders only when they changed). So touch notes.md, mv a b or tar xf release.tgz give you clickable names without a cd.

VS Code can keep a link under a pointer that hasn't moved while the text below it changes, for example after clear && ls. Easy SSH checks the row when you click: if a different name is there now, the menu is for that name; if it can't tell, it asks you to move the pointer off the name and click again.

When the connection drops

Easy SSH sends a keepalive every 15 seconds. If the server stops answering, or the network goes away, the terminal says so and offers Reconnect, which signs in again and opens the shell in the same folder. Turn on easySsh.autoReconnect to retry by itself after 2, 5 and 10 seconds.

Keyboard and mouse

If editor.multiCursorModifier is set to ctrlCmd, names open with Alt+click instead, like other VS Code terminal links. With Easy SSH: Plain Click (easySsh.plainClick) a plain click opens the action menu, and selecting text needs Shift+drag. On macOS, turn on terminal.integrated.macOptionClickForcesSelection and use Option+drag.

Downloads

Downloads go to your Downloads folder: the one your system actually uses, including a localized or redirected folder on Windows and Linux. If there's none, they go to the Desktop. Type /folder on the connection panel, or run Easy SSH: Set Download Folder, to choose another folder. The folder in use is named in one of the connection panel's tips and in Output → Easy SSH.

Jump hosts and ~/.ssh/config

Use a hostname, an IP address, or one or more jump hosts when the server is only reachable through a bastion. Jump hosts entered in the terminal sign in the same way as the connection. A saved password is tried once on each password hop, and Easy SSH asks when it doesn't work.

A session on staging-db, reached through bastion.example.com.

/import reads ~/.ssh/config, including Include files under ~/.ssh. It keeps each host's user, port, identity file and ProxyJump chain, and applies Host * and wildcard defaults the way ssh does: the first value wins. Hosts that need a ProxyCommand are listed and skipped. Importing again updates hosts without losing your manual edits or start folder.

/import reads the hosts from ~/.ssh/config.

With SSH agent sign-in, Easy SSH tries the agent first, then ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, id_ecdsa and id_rsa, like ssh. On Windows it uses the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service, or Pageant (easySsh.windowsAgent).

Security

• Host keys. The first time you connect to a server, Easy SSH shows its key fingerprint and connects only if you accept it. Keys listed in ~/.ssh/known_hosts are trusted without asking, and @revoked keys are refused. If a key changes, Easy SSH shows the old and the new fingerprint and asks again. Behind jump hosts, each hop is checked separately. known_hosts is only read, unless you turn on easySsh.knownHostsWriteBack.

  

• Forget Trusted Host Keys… lets you pick hosts, or all of them, and asks before it forgets anything.

• Passwords and key passphrases are kept in the editor's secret storage. That's the OS keychain: Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain, or the Secret Service / libsecret keyring on Linux. On Linux without a keyring, VS Code may fall back to weaker storage; choose ask every time for those connections. Private keys stay in the files you point at.

• The saved password is only sent where it belongs: to the password prompt, once. Two-factor and other keyboard-interactive prompts are always shown to you.

• Connection details (host, user, port, key path, jump hosts) and trusted fingerprints are stored in the editor's extension storage. They're not secrets, but they're not synced either.

• Defaults stay strict. Easy SSH uses ssh2's modern algorithms. It doesn't enable legacy ones such as ssh-rsa with SHA-1 or diffie-hellman-group1, and it has no agent forwarding.

• Transfers keep permission bits: a downloaded 0600 file stays 0600.

Settings

How it compares

Use Remote-SSH when you want to develop on the server. Use Easy SSH when you want a quick, reliable shell with easy file transfer, especially on servers you can't or don't want to install anything on.

FAQ

Does it work with two-factor authentication? Yes. Keyboard-interactive prompts (OTP codes, Duo, PAM questions) are shown in the terminal. The saved password only answers the password prompt.

My host uses ProxyCommand. Easy SSH can't run proxy commands. If it's an ssh -W hop, use ProxyJump instead. /import lists the hosts it skipped.

Where did my download go? To your Downloads folder, unless you chose another one with /folder. The status bar and Output → Easy SSH show the full path.

How do I download a folder? Ctrl+click its name (Cmd+click on macOS) and choose Download. It downloads with all its files and subfolders.

How do I delete or rename a remote file? Ctrl+click its name and choose Rename… or Delete…. Both ask before they change anything.

How do I edit a remote file? Ctrl+click its name and choose Open, then save with Ctrl+S (Cmd+S). Open is only offered for text files; for anything else, download it.

Why is there no Open for this file? Easy SSH thinks it isn't text: its name says so (an archive, image, program…), or its first 8 KB contain NUL bytes or invalid UTF-8. Download it instead.

How do I change directory? Type cd, as in any shell. Tab completes remote paths.

I can't select text with the mouse. Easy SSH doesn't turn on mouse reporting, so a normal drag selects text. Some full-screen programs (vim with mouse=a, tmux with mouse on, htop, mc) do. While they run, or with easySsh.plainClick on, hold Shift and drag (on macOS: Option+drag with terminal.integrated.macOptionClickForcesSelection).

An upload after sudo su asks where to put the file. Uploads go over SFTP as the user you signed in as, not as root. If Easy SSH can't tell which folder the switched shell is in, it asks: upload to the last known folder, your home folder, or a folder you type. To put a file where only root can write, upload it to your home folder, then sudo mv it. Easy SSH shows that command after the upload.

Upload fails with "Permission denied". The server refused the write for the signed-in user. The message names the path. Check it with ls -ld <folder>.

The connection drops when idle. Lower easySsh.keepaliveInterval, for example to 10000. Turn on easySsh.autoReconnect to reconnect by itself.

Sign-in fails with the agent. Make sure an agent is running and holds your key (ssh-add -l). On Windows, start the "OpenSSH Authentication Agent" service or Pageant. The error message says what Easy SSH tried.

Develop

npm install
npm run check     # typecheck
npm run lint
npm test          # unit tests
npm run compile

To run the integration tests, start the test server from test/integration/Dockerfile (the file explains how), then set EASYSSH_IT_PORT and EASYSSH_IT_KEY and run npm run test:integration. Press F5 in VS Code or Cursor to run the extension. Both editors use the same extension API, so there is no separate Cursor build.

Questions and ideas: GitHub Discussions. Bugs: issues.

Rate it

If Easy SSH helps you, a rating on the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX helps others find it.

Support

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