●moray: ssh, sftp & terminal— iphone · ipad · mac
~ moray 1.2.0 — out now
A real terminal, an SFTP file manager with a transfer queue, port-forwarding tunnels and proper key security — on iPhone · iPad · Mac. Every new server is shown to you before it’s trusted. Your keys never leave the Keychain.
deploy@prod-web-1 — moray
# your homelab, from the sofa
ssh deploy@prod-web-1
✓ host key pinned · key from Keychain · Face ID
Last login: Sat Aug 1 09:14 from 10.0.0.4
systemctl status api --no-pager
● api.service — active (running) 6 days ago
docker compose ps
api running web running db running
tunnel start postgres
→ localhost:5432 forwarded · Live Activity on
Not a toy shell in a text field. A terminal, a file manager, tunnels and keys — each one built to the standard you would expect from a Mac app, on every device you own.
terminal
SwiftTerm over SwiftNIO SSH: full color, a fast keyboard and scrollback you can search. Open sessions as tabs, split them side by side on the Mac (⌘D, ⇧⌘D), and run commands automatically on connect. Pick SF Mono, Menlo or any monospaced font you have, set the line height, and let Option act as Meta. On iPhone and iPad the Smart Bar keeps Esc, Tab, Ctrl, arrows and paste one tap away.
trust
The first time you connect, Moray shows the server's fingerprint and its key picture — the same randomart ssh-keygen draws — and waits for Trust & Connect. If a key ever changes, a “Server identity changed” screen puts the old and new keys side by side, with Cancel as the default.
+--[ED25519 256]--+
| .o=*+. |
| . +.=o . |
| o.B o |
+----[SHA256]-----+
→ Trust & Connect · or Cancel
files
Browse, upload, download, rename and delete, with Quick Look and an in-app text editor. On the Mac, Files is a sortable table — name, size, modified, kind, permissions — and a file dropped from Finder onto a terminal uploads to the folder that shell is in. With Pro, iPad and Mac get two panes that copy files and whole folders between servers.
transfers
Every upload, download and copy in one list, with its speed and time left. Drag waiting files into a new order, rename them before they land, pause and resume — Moray checks the file hasn't changed before it carries on — retry what failed and clear what's done.
Transfers · 3 waiting
↑ backup.tar.gz 62% · 4.1 MB/s
‖ logs/ paused
↻ db.sql failed · retry
filesappPRO
With Moray Pro, switch a host on and it mounts as a location in Files on iPhone and iPad — so every other app on the device can open from it and save back to it. No copy in, edit, copy out. Moray doesn't even have to be running.
Files ▸ Browse ▸ Locations
Moray → prod-web-1
→ open, edit and save from any app
history
Every command you run is kept per host, searchable, and one tap from running again — because retyping a long docker line on a phone keyboard is the worst part of SSH from a device. Start a command with a space to keep it out, and passwords typed at a prompt are never recorded.
History · prod-web-1
$ docker compose logs -f api --tail 200
→ tap to run · 12× · 2h ago
tunnelsPRO
Forward a local port to a database, dashboard or service behind your server. Import the LocalForward lines from your existing ~/.ssh/config and start every tunnel with one tap. Each one reads “This device :5432 → prod-db → localhost:5432”; on iPhone a Live Activity keeps them in view, and on the Mac they live in the menu bar.
$ grep LocalForward ~/.ssh/config
LocalForward 5432 localhost:5432
LocalForward 6379 localhost:6379
→ 2 tunnels imported · tap to start
keys
Generate Ed25519 keys, or import Ed25519 and RSA keys — on the Mac, straight from ~/.ssh, with your hosts linked to their IdentityFile. They live in the device Keychain: encrypted, biometric-gated, and never synced unless you opt in. A Known Hosts screen shows exactly which servers you've trusted.
hosts
Group servers, tag them, give each an icon and a color. Quick Connect (⇧⌘K on the Mac), Siri Shortcuts and Spotlight get you connected in seconds. Bring the list you already have — an ssh config, or a JSON or CSV export from another client. On the Mac, each window keeps its own place, and the menu bar item has your recent hosts.
jumpPRO
ProxyJump chains are dialled hop by hop — a, then b through a, then the target through b — each hop held to its own pinned key and asked about if it's new. A missing hop blocks the connection; Moray never quietly falls back to dialling the target directly.
ProxyJump bastion,inner
→ bastion ✓ → inner ✓ → prod-db
errors
“Couldn't reach db.example.com (DNS lookup failed)” instead of library text, with the raw details a tap away. A rejected password offers Enter Password…, not a Reconnect that would send it again.
✗ Couldn't reach db.example.com
(DNS lookup failed)
→ Details · Retry
autofill
Moray recognises sudo, login, passphrase and one-time-code prompts and offers a host-scoped fill gated by Face ID or Touch ID. Type the password once, not forty times a day.
[sudo] password for deploy:
→ Fill from Moray · Face ID
deploy is in the sudoers file.
snippets
Save the commands you run constantly, leave fill-in blanks where the arguments go, and run or paste them into any session. Three are free; Pro makes it unlimited.
themes
Start from the built-in terminal themes, or — with Pro — design your own with a full color editor that syncs to every device. Font, size, line height and cursor style are yours either way.
iPhone · dark · en-US
Terminal
Tabs, color, searchable scrollback
Hosts
Groups, tags, icons, Quick Connect
Files
SFTP browse, edit, Quick Look
Tunnels
One-tap port forwards
Keychain
Ed25519 & RSA, biometric-gated
Snippets
Commands with placeholders
Themes
Built-in or build your own
Privacy
What syncs, what never does
scroll →
On Mac it is a proper Mac app: every window keeps its own place, Settings live in ⌘,, every shortcut sits in the menus, terminals split with ⌘D, and Files is a sortable table you can drop Finder files into. On iPad a file pane can sit beside the terminal, and with Pro the file manager splits into two. On iPhone it is four tabs and a Smart Bar you can reach one-handed. Same SwiftUI codebase, three genuinely native shapes.
04 — private by design
Most SSH clients ask you to trust a company with the keys to every server you own. Moray is built so that trust is never required.
There is no Moray login, no email verification, no forgotten-password flow. You open the app and add a host.
Your device connects straight to your server. We operate nothing your traffic passes through, so there is nothing of yours for us to lose.
With Moray Pro, hosts, groups, snippets and known host keys move through the private database in your own iCloud account. Leave it off and they stay on the device.
Private keys and saved passwords live in the device Keychain, biometric-gated and device-local by default. One switch shares them through iCloud Keychain — end-to-end encrypted by Apple — and nothing else moves them. They are never in the app's synced store.
The free tier is the app, not a demo — terminal, SFTP, keys, the host-key checks and host organization, with no host limit. Pro adds sync, tunnels, jump hosts and the power-user extras, for less than a dollar a month. We can price it that way because there is no server of ours to pay for — and if subscriptions are not your thing, buy it once.
Free
$0
forever, no account
The terminal, SFTP, keys and host organization. Not a trial — the actual app.
Pro · monthly
$0.99
per month
The full Pro unlock, month to month. Cancel from the App Store whenever.
Pro · yearly
$7.99
per year — save 33%
The same unlock for what eight months would cost. The one most people want.
Pro · lifetime
$24.99
once, then never again
About three years of the yearly plan, paid once. No subscription, no expiry.
Prices in USD, billed through the App Store (or on the web for the direct Mac download); local pricing may differ.
| capability | free | pro |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited hosts, groups, tags & Quick Connect | ✓ | ✓ |
| Terminal sessionsup to 3 open at once; unlimited with Pro | ✓ | ✓ |
| Command history, searchable per host | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single-pane SFTP: browse, transfer, edit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transfer queue: reorder, pause, rename, retry | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ed25519 / RSA keys in the Keychain, ~/.ssh import | ✓ | ✓ |
| Host-key trust prompt, randomart & Known Hosts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Smart autofill for sudo, login & passphrase prompts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Snippets with placeholders3 free; unlimited with Pro | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSH config, JSON & CSV import · JSON backup | ✓ | ✓ |
| Biometric app lock | ✓ | ✓ |
| iCloud sync of hosts, snippets & host keys | — | ✓ |
| iCloud Keychain sync of keys & passwords | — | ✓ |
| Port-forwarding tunnels (incl. the Mac menu bar) | — | ✓ |
| Jump hosts, including multi-hop ProxyJump | — | ✓ |
| Automatic key auth (each key offered in turn) | — | ✓ |
| Dual-pane SFTP & server-to-server copy (iPad, Mac) | — | ✓ |
| Hosts mounted in the Files app (iPhone, iPad) | — | ✓ |
| Custom terminal themes | — | ✓ |
| Recent-hosts widgets (iPhone, iPad) | — | ✓ |
Import your ~/.ssh/config, or type a hostname. Free, no account, nothing to cancel.
Practical guides to keys, tunnels, jump hosts and running a homelab from an iPhone — written by someone who uses them daily.
Basics · 11 min
What iOS actually permits, how to get a usable keyboard, and why your session drops when you switch apps.
read →Keys · 10 min
Which algorithm to pick, how the two halves work, and the one place a private key should ever be stored.
read →Tunnels · 11 min
-L, -R and -D, finally in an order that makes sense — with the mental model that makes the flags obvious.
read →Tunnels · 8 min
How to reach a server that refuses to talk to you — and why ProxyJump replaced agent forwarding.
read →Basics · 8 min
Why SCP fell out of favour, what SFTP does better, and how to copy server-to-server directly.
read →Basics · 10 min
Stop retyping hostnames and flags — and learn the first-match-wins rule that silently breaks most configs.
read →A protocol Moray should speak, a server it chokes on, a shortcut you keep reaching for — it all reaches the person who writes the code. Or email hello@bartstudio.io.