📝 Description

Kerminal is a modern, high-performance terminal emulator that combines the power of a full-featured local terminal with advanced SSH connection management. Built with security-first architecture using Tauri (Rust) for native performance and Vue 3 for a responsive UI, Kerminal offers everything from basic terminal operations to complex SSH workflows with encrypted profile management, tunneling, and multi-device synchronization—all in a beautiful native desktop application.

Perfect for developers, DevOps engineers, system administrators, and anyone who lives in the terminal and values security, organization, and productivity.

🚀 Table Of Content

• 📝 Description
• 🚀 Table Of Content
• 📸 Screenshots
  • Dashboard
  • Main Interface
  • Demo
• ✨ Features
  • 💻 Terminal Emulator
  • 📡 SSH Management & Tunneling
  • 💾 Session & File Management
  • 🔄 Security & Synchronization
  • 🎨 User Interface
• 📦 Installation Guide
  • Flatpak (Linux)
  • Arch Linux (install from AUR)
  • Other Platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• 🚀 Development
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Project Structure
  • Key Technologies
• 🔒 Security Considerations
• 🤝 Contributing
• ❗ Known Issues
• 📝 License
• 👤 Author
• 🙏 Acknowledgments
• 📮 Support
• 👥 Contributors
• ⭐ Star History

📸 Screenshots

Dashboard

Main Interface

Demo

Kerminal Basic Demo

✨ Features

💻 Terminal Emulator

• Multiple tabs and split panes
• Native shell integration (bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell, etc.)
• Hardware-accelerated Canvas 2D rendering with Unicode 11 support
• Sixel graphics protocol support for inline images
• Search, clickable links, and clipboard integration
• Built-in Command Palette

📡 SSH Management & Tunneling

• Profile organization with groups, colors, and descriptions
• Authentication via password and SSH keys
• Built-in SSH key manager (import, export, connection testing)
• Proxy support (HTTP, SOCKS4/5)
• Jump Host Chain for connecting through multiple bastion hosts
• Port forwarding (Local, Remote, Dynamic SOCKS)
• Automatic parsing of ~/.ssh/config

💾 Session & File Management

• Record and playback sessions in asciicast format
• Saved commands library with groups and syntax highlighting
• SFTP file transfer integration

🔄 Security & Synchronization

• Multi-device sync via MySQL/PostgreSQL/MongoDB
• AES-256-GCM encryption with master password
• Device-specific keys and OS keychain integration
• Configurable session auto-lock

🎨 User Interface

• Customizable terminal themes, color schemes, and fonts
• Native dark theme and keyboard shortcuts
• Dashboard interface and first-time user tour

📦 Installation Guide

Flatpak (Linux)

You can download the .flatpak file from the Releases page and install it using:

flatpak install /path/to/kerminal_*.flatpak

Arch Linux (install from AUR)

• Using an AUR helper (e.g., yay):

yay -S kerminal # or kerminal-bin

• Manually:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/kerminal.git # or kerminal-bin.git
cd kerminal
makepkg -si

Other Platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux)

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Follow the installation instructions for your operating system

🚀 Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v20 or higher)
• Rust (latest stable)
• Tauri CLI: cargo install tauri-cli

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/klpod221/kerminal.git
cd kerminal

1. Install dependencies

npm install

1. Run in development mode

# Option A: Tauri v2 + Vue 3 (Default)
npm run tauri dev

# Option B: Native Pure-Rust GUI (Iced)
npm run gui:dev

1. Build for production

npm run tauri build

The application will be available in target/release/bundle/.

Project Structure

Kerminal is organized into a clean src/ modular workspace:

• src/core: Core business domain (PTY, SSH/russh, SFTP, multi-engine Database, Encryption, Sync, History, Recording) without any framework dependencies.
• src/tauri: Tauri v2 desktop & mobile adapter with direct binary streaming IPC and lifecycle management.
• src/vue: Vue 3 frontend (Composition API, Pinia, TailwindCSS, xterm.js with Canvas 2D renderer).

Key Technologies

Layer	Technology	Purpose
Frontend	Vue 3 + TypeScript	Reactive UI framework
State	Pinia	Centralized state management
Backend	Rust + Tauri v2	Native performance and security
SSH	russh	SSH protocol implementation
Terminal	xterm.js	Terminal emulation
Recording	asciinema-player	Session playback
Database	SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB	Local and sync storage
Encryption	AES-256-GCM + Argon2	Data encryption and key derivation

🔒 Security Considerations

• All sensitive data encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM
• Master password never stored, only verification hash
• Device-specific encryption keys prevent data access from other devices
• SSH private keys never leave the device unencrypted
• Sync data encrypted before transmission
• Automatic session locking after inactivity
• Platform keychain integration for secure auto-unlock

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

❗ Known Issues

• Limited support for some SSH authentication methods
• MacOS version is not signed/notarized yet due to Apple Developer Program restrictions (it takes 99 USD/year!) So please build from source if you want to use on MacOS or run unsigned app with xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /path/to/Kerminal.app after first launch.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👤 Author

Bùi Thanh Xuân (klpod221)

• Website: klpod221.com
• GitHub: @klpod221
• Email: [email protected]

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Tauri - For the amazing Rust-based desktop framework
• Vue 3 - For the reactive and performant frontend framework
• xterm.js - For the excellent terminal emulator
• asciinema-player - For the powerful terminal session player
• russh - For the robust SSH implementation in Rust
• Lucide - For the beautiful icon set

📮 Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check existing Issues
2. Create a new issue with detailed information
3. Contact via email: [email protected]

👥 Contributors

Thanks to all the amazing people who have contributed to this project! 🎉

Bùi Thanh Xuân

Thuan Vo

Vitaly Barakov

⭐ Star History

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