What’s new in Upshell

Every release since Upshell arrived on the Mac App Store — what changed, and why. Upshell is actively developed: version 1.0 shipped on 26 July 2026.

Version 1.0 Latest

Upshell arrives on the Mac App Store

The first public release: native SSH terminal with splits and tabs, in-process agent forwarding, SOCKS port forwarding, ProxyJump bastions, and co-session SFTP. Built in Swift & SwiftNIO.

The Terminal

  • Tabs and split panes: view multiple terminal sessions in horizontal or vertical splits inside a single window, with stable user-controlled sizing.
  • Environment vibes: tab coloring and backdrop tints (active/idle alpha-blended overlay) to clearly show if you are in production, staging, or development.
  • ⌘K Command Palette: search, select, and connect to hosts or run snippets instantly with keyboard-only fuzzy matching.
  • Local NSEvent monitoring: arrow, enter, and esc keys work correctly in overlays without losing terminal focus.

Connectivity & Security

  • In-process Agent Forwarding (FULL): securely forwards credentials from the app-scoped key manager without exposing private keys to the network or writing them to disk.
  • Multi-hop ProxyJump (FULL): tunnel through multiple SSH bastions (up to 8 hops) resolving inline hosts and chains automatically.
  • Safe Keychain storage: private keys, passphrases, and passwords stay inside the secure macOS Keychain. The app is fully Apple Sandbox compliant.
  • Keyboard-Interactive 2FA: full support for PAM multi-round challenges, showing TOTP/OTP prompt sheets cleanly.
  • TOFU Host Key Verification: strict host key pinning (Trust On First Use) with a blocking screen on fingerprint changes to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

Beyond the Shell

  • Co-session SFTP: browse files, upload/download with folder queue, and set permissions via CHMOD editor on the same SSH channel — no secondary login or credentials required.
  • Quick Look integration: preview remote files instantly by hitting the spacebar, without downloading them.
  • Port Forwarding (FULL): Local (-L), Remote (-R), and Dynamic SOCKS5 (-D) port tunnels with an active status panel in the lower pane.
  • Saved Snippets (FULL): execute snippets on one or multiple hosts concurrently with progress logging and timeout control.
  • ~/.ssh/config Import (FULL): parses OpenSSH configs, respects wildcard precedence, and converts inline jump hosts into proper nodes.
  • iCloud Sync (FULL): synchronize hosts, tags, and settings via CloudKit, and passwords through iCloud Keychain.

Built for secure remote operations

Upshell is a native macOS client for SSH and SFTP: tabbed terminal with splits, local/remote/dynamic SOCKS port forwarding, multi-hop jump hosts, in-process agent forwarding, and co-session SFTP file transfers.