Tabby is a terminal emulator that provides SSH, Telnet, and serial connectivity across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Tabby addresses the need for a unified interface to local shells, remote systems, and serial devices. Rather than juggling separate tools like PuTTY for SSH or built-in terminal applications, Tabby integrates SSH and Telnet clients with a serial terminal, connection manager, and local shell support in a single configurable application. It handles fast-flowing output without performance degradation, supports Unicode including double-width characters, and includes features like split panes, tab persistence, and Zmodem file transfer for SSH sessions. On Windows, it provides proper shell completion through Clink integration and supports multiple shell environments including PowerShell, WSL, Git-Bash, Cygwin, MSYS2, and Cmder.
Tabby suits developers and system administrators who work across multiple connection types and want to reduce tool fragmentation. It works well for teams managing remote infrastructure via SSH, embedded systems work requiring serial access, and Windows users seeking a modern alternative to conhost or PuTTY. The tool is particularly valuable for those who value keyboard-driven workflows, since it offers fully configurable shortcuts including multi-chord combinations. The project also provides a web app version of the SSH, SFTP, and Telnet client for browser-based access, with self-hosting available.
The project maintains active development with regular releases and nightly builds available. The codebase is written in TypeScript and the team actively solicits translations, indicating ongoing internationalization efforts. Community engagement occurs through a Discord server, and the maintainer has published related infrastructure tooling that integrates with Tabby.
