Eugeny/tabby

A modern terminal emulator with built-in SSH client, serial console, and Telnet — Electron-based, cross-platform, plugin-extensible.

What it is

A terminal emulator that targets the gap between traditional terminals (iTerm2, Windows Terminal) and "I need an SSH/serial/Telnet client" tools (PuTTY, MobaXterm). Built on Electron + TypeScript for cross-platform consistency. Bundles SFTP, port forwarding, and a plugin system. Distinct from huacnlee/tabby and the unrelated TabbyML/tabby (an AI coding agent).

Key features

Multi-protocol terminal: local shell, SSH, serial, Telnet, port forwarding.
SSH client with credential vault, jump hosts, mosh support.
SFTP integration alongside SSH sessions.
Tab management, split panes, tab grouping.
Theme + plugin system; many community plugins.
Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux).
MIT-licensed.

Tech stack

TypeScript primary.
Electron for cross-platform packaging.

When to reach for it

You want one terminal app that handles local + SSH + serial + Telnet without separate tools.
You're on Windows and want MobaXterm-class features in an OSS package.

When not to reach for it

You want a lightweight terminal — Tabby is Electron, ships ~150MB.
You want a vendor-supported terminal — iTerm2, Windows Terminal, Warp have larger teams.

Maturity signal

72k stars, 4k forks, MIT, actively maintained. Open-issues count of 2,697 is high but tracks the breadth of platform-specific + protocol-specific reports.

Alternatives

Warp — modern, AI-augmented terminal (commercial).
iTerm2 (macOS), Windows Terminal — platform-native.
Hyper — Electron-based but more minimal.

Wiki: Eugeny/tabby