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DevsFTP
DevsFTP

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Show Dev: DevsFTP — An open-source, S/FTP client with dynamic HSL themes, embedded SSH terminals, and AES-256 local vaults.

#showdev #webdev #opensource #tooling

DevsFTP is an open-source, local-first FTP & SFTP desktop client for Windows and Linux. It was built to solve common frustrations with legacy clients (like FileZilla and WinSCP) by integrating modern styling, built-in shell access, and robust local-only credential encryption.

* GitHub: github.com/DevsFTP/DevsFTP

Why DevsFTP?

Compared to legacy clients, DevsFTP integrates developer-centric workflows directly into the interface:

  1. 🎨 Contextual HSL Accents: Recalculates HSL values dynamically based on the active profile's settings. Accent borders, terminal text, and selection outlines change color in real-time depending on whether you are connected to development, staging, or production.
  2. 💻 Side-by-Side SSH Shell: Spawns an interactive xterm.js terminal window next to the file explorer. Uses a parallel SSH channel over the same connection socket so you don't need to bounce to a separate client.
  3. 🔒 AES-256-GCM Vault: Stores profiles and credentials locally in an encrypted JSON format. Derived using 100,000 iterations of PBKDF2 with SHA-256. Zero telemetry, zero cloud dependencies.
  4. ✏️ Auto-Upload Watcher: Monitors local folders via chokidar. Saves made in external IDEs (VS Code, Vim, PHPStorm, etc.) are detected and synced back to the remote server automatically.
  5. 🔌 SSH Port Forwarding: Builds Local, Remote, and Dynamic (SOCKS5 proxy) tunnels directly into connection profiles.

6. 🐧 Signed OS Packages: Executables are fully packaged and signed (NSIS Setup and Portable for Windows; native GPG-signed .deb and AppImage for Linux).

Tech Stack

  • Core Engine: Electron / Node.js
  • SSH/SFTP: ssh2 and ssh2-streams
  • Shell Emulation: xterm / node-pty
  • File System Watching: chokidar

* UI: Vanilla CSS custom properties & ES6 Javascript

Feedback & Contributions

The project is fully open-source (G GPL-3.0-or-later) and free for personal and commercial use.
If you want to check it out:

  • What features are missing from your daily SFTP/FTP workflows?
  • Do you prefer embedded terminal shells, or do you always default to external terminal clients? Feedback, issues, and pull requests are welcome on GitHub! 12:14 AM

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