SSH Lite (SSH Tools) — Lightweight SSH Suite for VS Code

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Active development. Please report issues on GitHub.

A visual SSH client for VS Code. Browse files, edit in your editor, manage services, view processes, edit cron, forward ports — by clicking, not by typing vi / systemctl / crontab -e / ps aux | grep. Runs entirely over plain SSH/SFTP with nothing installed on the remote server. Perfect for VPS, small VMs, shared hosting, and resource-constrained Linux boxes.

SSH Lite Overview

Why SSH Lite?

Three ways to drive a Linux box from VS Code — pick the one that fits your VPS.

	SSH Lite	Raw SSH (terminal + vi)	Remote-SSH
Interaction	Visual — click to browse, edit, monitor	Type every command	Full IDE feel
Remote install	None	None	~200MB+
Edit files	In VS Code	`vi` / `nano`	In VS Code
Terminal at any folder	1-click — then do whatever in raw shell	login, then `cd /path/...`	open terminal + `cd`
Tiny VMs (512MB RAM)	✓	✓	Often fails
Multiple connections	✓ many in one window	Multiple terminals	1 per window
Server resource usage	Zero	Zero	High

SSH Lite sits in the middle: as light as raw SSH, as friendly as Remote-SSH.

Features

📖 Full feature reference → - every feature, with what you click vs. what you would otherwise type. Highlights:

Filter files/folders _{gray out non-matches, no find . -name}	Multi-server search _{one webview, not per-host grep -r}
	Server monitor _{CPU / memory / disk + top processes}
The pixel coder _{reacts to your typing and your AI}	Side-by-side diff of changes _{review edits, no scp then diff}

Also: file browser · terminals · cron editor · port forwarding · process viewer · service manager · env inspector · snippets · batch runner · key gen + push · auto-backup + restore · sudo fallback · copy / paste across hosts · activity + audit · pinned folders

Quick Start

Install — search "SSH Lite" in Extensions, or code --install-extension hybr8.ssh-lite
Click + in the SSH Lite sidebar, add a host
Click the host to connect — credentials are saved automatically

Reads ~/.ssh/config. Supports SSH keys (RSA / Ed25519 / ECDSA, encrypted), agent, and password.

115 commands — full reference at docs/COMMANDS.md.

Remote-SSH compatibility

SSH Lite prefers to run on your local machine — Windows, macOS, or Linux — even when VS Code is connected to a remote workspace via the built-in Remote-SSH extension. When you install SSH Lite from the Marketplace inside a Remote-SSH session, you will see the Install in Local button on the extension page — click it. SSH Lite then connects to remote servers directly from your local machine and downloads files to your local home directory:

Windows: C:\Users\<you>\...
macOS: /Users/<you>/...
Linux: /home/<you>/...

Side-by-side use works without surprises: keep your Remote-SSH editing session on remote server A, and use SSH Lite to browse, download from, terminal into, and port-forward from any number of other servers B, C, D — all from your own machine. File browsing, editing, terminals, port forwards, search, snippets, cron, diffs, and the rest of the SSH Tools suite all operate over SSH Lite's own SSH/SFTP connections, independent of where the VS Code workspace lives or which OS you run VS Code on.

Two edge cases worth knowing:

Port forwards bind to your local machine. A process running inside the Remote-SSH workspace (e.g. curl in the Remote-SSH terminal) cannot reach the forwarded port. Use VS Code's built-in Remote-SSH port forwarding for that direction.
Chained SSH (rare). If you specifically want to run SSH Lite from the remote server to a third server, install SSH Lite on the workspace host as well. SSH Lite will detect this and show a one-time hint pointing you back to Install in Local; dismiss it with the sshLite.suppressLocalInstallHint setting.

Release Notes

0.10.1 - Much faster remote search: SSH Lite now detects and uses the fastest search tools already on your server, automatically — ripgrep for content (up to ~10× faster than grep) and fd for filenames — and safely falls back to grep/find when they aren't installed (control with sshLite.searchNativeTools). On a multi-core server without ripgrep it runs grep in parallel across the cores. For filename search you can opt into a server index (the ⚡ button, plocate) or right-click a folder → Index Folder for Fast Filename Search for instant, offline name matching on any server. Also fixes a bug where a content search with a file filter could silently return zero results on busybox/Alpine servers.

0.10.0 - Import / Export / Sync your connections (issue #11): back up every saved server — and its pinned folders — to a JSON file, then restore them on another machine with a click. Use the new Import / Export / Sync button on the SSH Hosts toolbar; on import you choose Merge (add and update) or Replace all. Native Google Drive sync (sign in once, then Push / Pull) is coming soon — the commands are present but grayed out until the cloud client is provisioned. Passwords are never put in the export: they stay in VS Code's secret storage, so you're simply prompted on the first connect after an import.

Full changelog

License

Apache-2.0

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SSH Lite (SSH Tools)

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