Vibe SSH Monitoring

Monitor and update your Debian / Ubuntu servers (VPS, dedicated, Raspberry Pi…) over SSH, from a native Windows app.

🇬🇧 English · 🇫🇷 Français

The interface is available in English, French, German and Spanish. It follows the Windows display language by default; change it in Settings → General → Language.

Features

• Server list with live status, refreshed in the background: online / offline and latency, CPU, RAM, disk, load, distribution, kernel, uptime, number of pending updates (including security updates) and reboot required.
• Check updates: runs apt-get update as root, then shows the apt list --upgradable list package by package (current → new version, repository, security badge).
• Update: non-interactive apt-get upgrade (or full-upgrade) with a live log. Locally modified configuration files are kept (--force-confold), services are restarted by needrestart, optional autoremove.
• Root access, per server: direct root login, sudo, or su (log in as a regular user, then switch to root with the root password, for servers that refuse root logins).
• Open SSH: built-in terminal (tabs, xterm.js: colors, htop, nano, copy / paste) or an external one: Windows Terminal, PowerShell, Command Prompt, PuTTY or any custom command. Optional open as root (sudo -i / su -, password typed for you in the built-in terminal).
• Bulk actions on a selection of servers (refresh, check updates, update, reboot four servers at a time), groups / tags with filters, search, Reboot button.
• System tray: monitoring keeps running when the window is closed; Windows notifications for new updates, unreachable servers and changed host keys; scheduled update checks (every 6 / 12 / 24 h).
• Global settings + per-server overrides for monitoring, terminal and update options.
• Installer and automatic updates: per-user installer (no admin rights); the app updates itself from GitHub Releases (small delta downloads, installed when you close the app).
• Multilingual: English, French, German and Spanish.

Settings	Server editor

Requirements

Your PC	Windows 10 or Windows 11, x64. Nothing else to install (the .NET runtime is bundled). The built-in terminal uses the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, included in Windows 11 and in up-to-date Windows 10.
Your servers	Debian, Ubuntu or a derivative (anything with apt-get), reachable over SSH. Password or key authentication.

Installation

1. Download VibeSSHMonitoring-win-Setup.exe from the latest release.
2. Run it. The app is installed for your Windows account only, without administrator rights, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\VibeSSHMonitoring, with a Start menu and a desktop shortcut, then starts.

Windows SmartScreen: the installer is not code-signed, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway. Each release publishes SHA256SUMS.txt to check the download:

Get-FileHash .\VibeSSHMonitoring-win-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Portable version: VibeSSHMonitoring-win-Portable.zip, extract it anywhere (USB drive…) and run VibeSSHMonitoring.exe. It can update itself too.

Updates

The app checks GitHub Releases at startup and then every 12 hours, downloads new versions in the background (usually only a small delta) and installs them when you close the app, or right away with Restart and update (Settings → Application updates, or the button that appears in the side menu). You can turn off automatic checks or automatic installation, and opt in to pre-releases, in the same settings section.

Uninstalling

Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Vibe SSH Monitoring → Uninstall. This removes the app, its shortcuts, the start with Windows entry and the built-in terminal cache. Your servers and passwords (%APPDATA%\VibeSSHMonitoring) are kept for a future reinstall: delete that folder to remove them too.

Getting started

1. Add server: address, port, user, then a password or an SSH key.
2. Pick the root access method (None if you log in as root, sudo or su).
3. Click Test connection: it checks the login, then root access. On the first connection, compare the displayed host key fingerprint with the server's (ssh-keygen -lf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub) before approving it.
4. Optional but recommended: Deploy my key creates an SSH key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519) if needed, installs it on the server and switches the server to key authentication.

Server-side root access

The app runs its root commands as sudo -- sh -c '…' (or through su). Choose one of:

• sudo with a password (default): store the sudo password in the server settings; it is sent on sudo's standard input, never on a command line.
• sudo without a password: leave the sudo password empty and allow passwordless sudo for that user:

  # /etc/sudoers.d/vibe-ssh-monitoring  (edit with: sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/vibe-ssh-monitoring)
  youruser ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: ALL
  

  A rule limited to apt-get does not work: the commands go through sh -c, and allowing sh is equivalent to full root access anyway.
• su: store the root password; for servers where root cannot log in over SSH.

Security

Topic	What the app does
Password storage	Your choice: Windows (DPAPI) - encrypted and tied to your Windows session, nothing to type (default); master password - Argon2id + AES-256-GCM, asked at startup, optional auto-lock; plain text - with a warning. Secrets live in secrets.json, never in config.json.
Host keys	The SHA-256 fingerprint is approved on first connection, then checked on every connection: if it changes, the connection is refused and an alert is shown.
sudo	The password goes through standard input (sudo -S), never in a command line; the command itself runs with stdin redirected to /dev/null.
External terminals	ssh.exe cannot receive a password: it is copied to the clipboard (excluded from Win+V history and cloud sync) and cleared after 30 s. With an SSH key there is nothing to type.
Network	The app connects to your servers, and to GitHub to check for app updates (can be turned off). The built-in terminal page is local and offline (no CDN). No telemetry.

Data locations: %APPDATA%\VibeSSHMonitoring\config.json (servers, settings), %APPDATA%\VibeSSHMonitoring\secrets.json (vault). Found a vulnerability? See SECURITY.md.

Building from source

Prerequisites: .NET 10 SDK and Windows. Visual Studio 2022 (17.14+), Rider or VS Code are optional.

git clone https://github.com/Baba0bab/VibeSSHMonitoring.git
cd VibeSSHMonitoring
dotnet run                          # build and start (Debug), with your real servers
dotnet run --launch-profile Test    # test mode: separate data and a demo server
dotnet run --launch-profile Demo    # the sample servers of the screenshots
dotnet test Tests                   # unit tests

A copy started with dotnet run is not installed: automatic updates are disabled there (the settings page says so).

Tests cover the vault (master password, wrong password, mode changes), output parsing (apt list, /proc), settings resolution, SSH arguments, translations (same keys and placeholders in every language), and the syntax of every shell script sent to servers, checked with Git for Windows' sh when it is installed.

dotnet run always opens your real configuration, even in a terminal where test variables are still set; quit the installed copy first (notification area icon › Quit), otherwise only its window is shown.

Test mode: dotnet run --launch-profile Test uses a separate configuration and vault (%TEMP%\VibeSSHMonitoring.Demo) and adds a demo server that replays an upgrade in a loop. It runs beside the installed copy. To pick the folder, set VIBESSHMONITORING_HOME before this command, or before starting the built exe directly.

Demo: dotnet run --launch-profile Demo opens the four sample servers of the screenshots above (unreachable 192.0.2.x addresses, English interface) in %TEMP%\VibeSSHMonitoring.DemoServers, reset at each launch. It also runs beside the installed copy.

Building the installer

The installer and update packages are built with Velopack (vpk, pinned in dotnet-tools.json) by scripts/pack.ps1, the same script the release workflow runs:

./scripts/pack.ps1 -Version 1.0.1          # → Releases\VibeSSHMonitoring-win-Setup.exe, -Portable.zip, *.nupkg

The release notes embedded in the package (and shown in the app) come from the matching ## [x.y.z] section of CHANGELOG.md. If the previous version's packages are in Releases\, a delta package is generated too.

To test updates locally without GitHub, point an installed copy at a folder containing newer packages:

$env:VIBESSHMONITORING_UPDATE_SOURCE = "C:\path\to\Releases"
& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\VibeSSHMonitoring\current\VibeSSHMonitoring.exe"

Publishing a release

Releases are built by GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release.yml): add a ## [x.y.z] - date section to CHANGELOG.md, commit, then push a version tag. The workflow runs the tests, builds the installer and the full + delta update packages, and publishes them on GitHub Releases, installed copies pick the update up automatically. A tag with a suffix (v1.1.0-beta.1) creates a pre-release, offered only to users who opted in to pre-releases.

git tag -a v1.0.1 -m "Vibe SSH Monitoring 1.0.1"
git push origin v1.0.1

Project structure

├─ Program.cs            entry point (installer / updater hooks, then WPF)
├─ Core/                 SSH, remote commands, vault, configuration, updates (no UI)
│  ├─ Loc.cs            translations (Localization/*.json, English fallback)
│  ├─ SshConnection.cs   connection, host key check, plain / sudo / su execution
│  ├─ RemoteCommands.cs  status probe, apt commands, output parsing
│  ├─ SecretVault.cs     DPAPI, master password (Argon2id + AES-GCM) or plain text
│  ├─ TerminalSession.cs built-in terminal session (automatic root)
│  ├─ ExternalTerminal.cs Windows Terminal, PowerShell, cmd, PuTTY, custom
│  └─ AppUpdater.cs      app updates from GitHub Releases (Velopack)
├─ UI/                   view model, dialogs, tray icon, built-in terminal view
├─ Assets/terminal/      xterm.js page loaded offline by WebView2
├─ Localization/         interface texts: en.json (reference), fr.json, de.json, es.json
├─ Themes/Theme.xaml     colors and control styles
├─ ServerManager.cs      monitoring loop, actions, bulk actions, notifications
├─ AppController.cs      app lifecycle: config, vault, window, tray, auto-lock
├─ MainWindow.xaml       servers, server details, terminals, settings
├─ ServerEditWindow.xaml server editor, connection test, key deployment
├─ scripts/pack.ps1     installer and update packages (Velopack)
└─ Tests/                xUnit tests

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas, translations and pull requests are welcome, see CONTRIBUTING.md. To add a language, copy Localization/en.json to <code>.json, translate the values and add the language to Loc.Languages in Core/Loc.cs. Maintainers: release checklist in docs/RELEASING.md.

License

Copyright © 2026 Baba0bab. Released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later, see LICENSE. You may use, study, modify and redistribute this software; distributed modified versions must remain under the GPL and provide their source code.

Third-party components (SSH.NET, xterm.js, WebView2 SDK, Velopack, Argon2…) are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.