Skipper

A CLI tool for managing SSH connections with an interactive terminal UI. Skipper reads your ~/.ssh/config file and lets you browse, search, and connect to hosts without memorizing aliases.You can fuzzy-search aliases and connection details, then connect immediately from the same screen — or skip the UI entirely when there's only one match.

Features

• Interactive host selection -- filterable list of SSH hosts powered by Bubbletea
• SSH config parsing -- reads host aliases, users, hostnames, ports, and identity files from your SSH config
• Fuzzy search -- quickly narrow down hosts by typing
• Seamless connection -- selects a host and drops you straight into an SSH session

Installation

Quick Install

Easily install Skipper using the provided install script, or download a release binary for your platform.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JerryAgbesi/skipper/main/install.sh | sh

Download a release binary

1. Head to the Releases page
2. Download the archive for your platform (e.g. skipper_<version>_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz)
3. Extract and move to your PATH:

tar -xzf skipper_*_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin/

4. Verify the installation:

skipper --version

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.25+

git clone https://github.com/JerryAgbesi/skipper.git
cd skipper
make build
sudo mv skipper /usr/local/bin/

Development

If you want to explore or contribute to the codebase:

git clone https://github.com/JerryAgbesi/skipper.git
cd skipper
make run

Run the test suite with:

make test

Unit tests live alongside the Go packages they exercise under cmd/ and internal/.

Usage

skipper [command] [flags]

Flag	Description
-c, --config <path>	Path to SSH config file (default: ~/.ssh/config)
-f, --find [term]	Open directly in find mode, or pre-filter hosts when a search term is provided
-v, --version	Print version
-h, --help	Show help

Commands

Command	Description
add <alias> <user@host[:port]>	Add a host entry to the SSH config under the given alias

Examples:

skipper add devone user@ipaddress:9000
skipper add bastion admin@10.0.0.5

Keyboard Controls

Key	Action
Enter	Connect to selected host
Up/Down or j/k	Navigate the list
/	Start filtering hosts
Esc / Ctrl+C / Q	Quit

Make Targets

Target	Description
make build	Compile the skipper binary
make test	Run the full Go test suite
make run	Build and run
make lint	Run golangci-lint
make fmt	Format code
make all	Format + Build + Run