SSH Tunnel Manager

A lightweight macOS menu bar app for managing SSH port forwards. No electron, no bloat — just native Swift and AppKit.

   

Why?

If you work with remote servers, you constantly need SSH tunnels:

• Database access (localhost:5432 → production PostgreSQL)
• Internal services (localhost:8080 → staging API)
• Development proxies

Running ssh -N -L ... in terminal works, but:

• You forget which tunnels are running
• They die silently when your laptop sleeps
• You need to remember the exact command for each tunnel

This app solves that. Configure once, connect with one click.

Features

• Menu bar app — always accessible, no dock icon clutter
• Auto-reconnect — tunnels automatically reconnect when they drop
• Launch at login — start tunnels when your Mac boots
• Auto-connect — mark tunnels to connect automatically on app launch
• Native macOS — uses system SSH, no bundled binaries

Alternatives

App	Issues
Core Tunnel	$10, closed source
Secure Pipes	Abandoned (last update 2019)
SSH Tunnel Manager (Java)	Requires JRE, clunky UI
Termius	Subscription model, overkill for just tunnels
Manual terminal	No auto-reconnect, easy to forget

This app is free, open source, and does one thing well.

Install

Download SSHTunnelManager.dmg from Releases.

On first launch, macOS will warn about unsigned app:

1. Right-click the app → Open, or
2. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/user/ssh-tunnel-manager.git
cd ssh-tunnel-manager/SSHTunnelManager
xcodebuild -scheme SSHTunnelManager -configuration Release

Requires Xcode 15+ and macOS 14+.

Usage

1. Click the network icon in menu bar
2. Click "Settings" to add tunnels
3. Toggle tunnels on/off from the menu bar

Config is stored in ~/Library/Application Support/SSHTunnelManager/tunnels.json.

License

MIT