How to Install and Use Tabby for SSH and SFTP Connections

Tabby Overview

Tabby is an open‑source terminal client hosted on GitHub that has amassed over 20K stars. It runs on Windows, macOS (Intel and M1), and Linux, and includes built‑in SFTP support, a sleek UI, and extensible plugins.

Downloading the Installer

GitHub release URL: https://github.com/Eugeny/tabby/releases/tag/v1.0.164

Choose the installer that matches your operating system from the release page and run it. After installation, the main Tabby window appears.

Configuring an SSH Connection

Click Settings to open the configuration panel, then select profiles&connections and press New profile. Choose ssh connection as the profile type.

Enter the connection details—profile name, IP address, port, username, and password—then save.

After saving, the new profile appears in the list; click the run icon (or the small square next to it) to open a remote terminal session.

Using the Built‑in SFTP Tool

In the terminal window, click the SFTP icon to open the remote file browser.

To download a file, navigate to the desired file on the server and click it; a save dialog will appear.

To upload, drag files from your local machine into the remote directory or use the upload button in the top‑right corner.

Customizing Tabby

Tabby offers various terminal themes and font size settings, as well as a collection of useful keyboard shortcuts. Detailed configuration options are documented on the project's GitHub page.