A sleek, local-first terminal emulator with AI autocomplete, split panes, SSH/SFTP, and a built-in AI agents catalog. Works with PowerShell, bash, zsh, and any shell your OS provides — free and open source.
- AI Autocomplete — Powered by Ollama, LM Studio, or any OpenAI-compatible API. Suggestions appear as you type; press Tab to accept. Supports natural language → command mode.
- Split Panes — Horizontal and vertical splits with drag-and-drop rearrangement.
- 17 Built-in Themes — Midnight, Ocean, Nord, Monokai Pro, Dracula, Solarized Dark, Matrix, Red Hacker, Cyberpunk Blue, Deep Purple, Synthwave, Catppuccin Mocha, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox Dark, One Dark Pro, Rosé Pine, Ayu Dark, Light.
- Enhanced History — Ctrl+R fuzzy search across all past commands, persisted to disk (up to 5,000 entries).
- Multi-tab Sessions — Ctrl+Shift+T for new tabs. Each tab runs its own independent shell process (PowerShell on Windows, zsh/bash on macOS/Linux).
- SSH Host Manager — Save and connect to SSH profiles with password or identity file authentication.
- SFTP Client — Dual-pane SFTP file browser with upload, download, rename, delete, and mkdir support.
- SSH Key Manager — Store references to local key files with fingerprint display.
- Environment Variables Manager — Define per-session env vars injected into every new shell.
- AI Agents Catalog — Browse, install, and launch popular AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Aider, OpenHands, Gemini CLI, Amazon Q, Goose, Continue, and more).
- Command Snippets — Save and reuse frequently used commands.
- Custom Titlebar — Frameless window with minimize/maximize/close controls.
- Settings Panel — Font, cursor style, scrollback, theme, and AI configuration.
- Status Bar — Shows session count, shell type, theme, and AI connectivity status.
# Install dependencies (rebuilds node-pty for Electron)
npm install
# Run in development mode (hot reload)
npm run electron:dev
# Build for production
npm run buildNexShell uses Ollama for local AI autocomplete by default. No API keys, no cloud — everything runs on your machine.
# Install Ollama, then pull a model:
ollama pull codellama
# The app auto-detects Ollama at http://localhost:11434You can also point NexShell at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (LM Studio, etc.) in Settings > AI. An optional API key field is provided for hosted endpoints.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Shift+T | New tab |
| Ctrl+R | Fuzzy search command history |
| Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- | Increase / decrease font size |
| Ctrl+0 | Reset font size |
| Tab | Accept AI autocomplete suggestion |
- Electron — Desktop app shell
- React 19 + TypeScript — UI
- xterm.js — Terminal emulation (same as VS Code)
- node-pty — Cross-platform shell process management
- ssh2 — SSH and SFTP
- Vite — Build tooling
- Ollama / OpenAI-compatible API — Local AI inference
NexShell
├── electron/
│ ├── main.ts # Window, PTY lifecycle, AI proxy, SSH/SFTP, persistence
│ └── preload.ts # Context bridge (renderer ↔ main, nodeIntegration: false)
├── src/
│ ├── components/ # Terminal, TitleBar, TabBar, Panes, Settings, History, SFTP, SidePanel
│ │ └── sidepanel/ # Agents, Hosts, Keys, Variables, Snippets, Libraries, Logs
│ ├── themes.ts # 17 terminal color themes
│ ├── store.ts # Lightweight pub/sub state + split-pane tree logic
│ └── types.ts # TypeScript interfaces + window.api declaration
└── package.json
SSH passwords saved in the SSH host manager are stored in plaintext in your local app data folder (%APPDATA%/NexShell/ssh-hosts.json on Windows). They never leave your machine.
NexShell is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of the GPL v3. Any derivative work must also be distributed under the GPL v3.
"NexShell" is a trademark of Cyrus James Khan Hauri. You may not use the name "NexShell" to identify forks, derivative products, or commercial offerings without written permission.