What is assh used for?

assh is a transparent wrapper around the ssh command that adds regex hosts, aliases, gateways, templates, includes, and YAML-based configuration. It is a good fit for managing many servers with jump hosts and simplifying large SSH configuration files.

Yes. assh is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at moul/assh and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. assh is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What are some alternatives to assh?

Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Apprise, witr and Google Workspace CLI. SaaS products in the same category include GoLand, SecureCRT and Termius.

Is assh actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to assh was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.17.3, published on 24 July 2026. The project has 3.2k stars on GitHub.

assh: open-source developer tools

About assh

Assh, short for advanced SSH, is a command-line tool that makes your existing SSH client smarter. It sits in front of ssh as a transparent wrapper, so it also works with scp, rsync, git, and desktop applications that rely on ssh, such as Tower or SSH Tunnel Manager. It is written in Go and released under the MIT license.

Configuration is written in YAML and adds features that plain ssh config lacks: regular expressions in host names, aliases, gateways for chaining connections through bastion hosts, dynamic host names, includes to split configuration across files, templates for inheritance, and running local commands. It can also produce Graphviz diagrams of your hosts and JSON output.

Assh is aimed at developers, system administrators, and DevOps engineers who manage many servers and want a cleaner way to describe connections and jump hosts. It installs locally, requires no server component, and has been developed since 2011.

Key features

Regex support in host definitions
Host aliases and templates with inheritance
Gateways for chained SSH connections
Dynamic host names
Config includes across multiple files
Graphviz and JSON output
Works with scp, rsync, and git

Good fit for

→Managing many servers with jump hosts
→Simplifying large SSH configuration files

Built with: Go
Tags: ssh; cli; devops; config-management; automation; go; sysadmin; proxy

assh: questions and answers

What is assh used for?: assh is a transparent wrapper around the ssh command that adds regex hosts, aliases, gateways, templates, includes, and YAML-based configuration. It is a good fit for managing many servers with jump hosts and simplifying large SSH configuration files.
Is assh open source?: Yes. assh is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at moul/assh and is written mainly in Go.
Is assh free?: Yes. assh is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to assh?: Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Apprise, witr and Google Workspace CLI. SaaS products in the same category include GoLand, SecureCRT and Termius.
Is assh actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to assh was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.17.3, published on 24 July 2026. The project has 3.2k stars on GitHub.