# Tessera — SSH Terminal

A fast, keyboard-first SSH, mosh, and tmux terminal for iPhone and iPad, by
bambouville. Free on the App Store with every feature included; one $9.99
purchase unlocks unlimited saved hosts. Open source (GPL-3.0). No account,
no tracking.

- [User guide](https://bambouville.com/docs/)
- [Articles and comparisons](https://bambouville.com/articles/)
- [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tessera-ssh-terminal/id6779869388)
- [Source code](https://github.com/bambouville/tessera)

## 01 · Hosts — your hosts, at a glance

Save the machines you live on; quick-connect to the ones you don't. Local
port forwarding reaches the services hiding behind them, and session restore
brings your hosts and layout back after a relaunch.

## 02 · Terminal — a real terminal, not a text box

Open a session over SSH. Toggle a host to use mosh and it survives the cafe
wifi, the lift, the train tunnel — a per-host setting. Unlike any other mosh
client on iOS, scrollback survives too: real history you can scroll, search,
and select. Tessera auto-attaches to a tmux session on connect, so a dropped
connection never loses your work — native window and pane support when you
want it, raw passthrough when you don't.

## 03 · Keys — keys that never leave the device

Generate Ed25519 keys in the iOS Keychain, or device-bound P-256 keys inside
the Secure Enclave — those never leave it, and can require Face ID to use.
App lock guards launch, return, and idle with Face ID or a passcode.

## 04 · Known hosts — trust you can read

Verified, stale, or changed — at a glance. When a host key rotates, Tessera
shows the old and new fingerprint side by side, so you can accept or remove
on purpose.

## 05 · Files — without leaving the terminal

Move files and images into and out of your hosts with native iOS sharing.
The files panel follows your shell's working directory, even over mosh.
Paste a path straight into the active terminal — or select one in the
terminal and right-click to quick-view the file behind it.

## 06 · Agent center — your agents, one view

A centralized view of your Claude Code and Codex sessions across hosts, tmux
windows, and panes — see what every agent is up to without cycling through
terminals. Experimental, and off until you switch it on.

## 07 · Continuity — your session, on whichever device you pick up (new in 3.0)

Hand off a live session between iPhone and iPad from the App Switcher or
Dock. A tmux-backed session continues on the very same screen — only a
pointer moves between devices, never a password or a private key. The device
that lost the grid says so, plainly, with take-back one tap away.

## 08 · Nearby setup — a new device, set up over the LAN (new in 3.0)

Point a new iPhone or iPad at your old one and Tessera copies your setup
directly over the local network — no account, no cloud, no relay. The
sending device lists every host, field, and key grant before anything moves;
both screens compare a fresh six-digit code, then Face ID approves the
batch. Passwords and private keys never move: the new device generates its
own key, and the old one installs it over the access it already has.

## 09 · iPhone — the same terminal, in your pocket (new in 3.0)

3.0 makes Tessera universal — one app, one purchase, iPhone and iPad. The
phone is the companion surface: glance at a build, answer an agent, fire off
a quick command. Attaching from the phone never reflows the layout your
bigger screen built — you get one pane at a time, full-screen. Sticky
modifiers on the keyboard bar and a corner swipe pad keep shell keys under
your thumb; a hardware keyboard gets the full shortcut set.

## 10 · Keyboard-native

Hardware keyboard first — shortcuts, a hold-⌘ key legend, modifiers that
behave. A configurable swipe pad puts arrows, Esc, and Ctrl on glass. Mouse
and trackpad with scrolling that works.

## 11 · The details

Find-in-terminal, themes, dictation on device, natural editing, smooth
scrolling — small comforts that make a terminal somewhere you want to live.

## 12 · Questions

**Is Tessera free, and does it need a subscription?** Tessera is free on the
App Store with every feature included — there is no subscription and no trial
timer. The free app limits you to one saved host; a single $9.99 in-app
purchase lifts that limit permanently. Nothing else is paywalled: tmux, mosh,
port forwarding, keys, the agent center and Handoff all work in the free app.

**Is Tessera open source?** Yes. Tessera is licensed under GPL-3.0 and the
source is published at https://github.com/bambouville/tessera. The build on
the App Store is the same program, so you can read exactly what runs on your
device.

**Does Tessera require an account?** No. There is no account, no sign-in and
no server run by bambouville anywhere in the path. Tessera connects straight
from your device to hosts you own or control. It collects no analytics, no
tracking and no telemetry.

**Does Tessera support tmux?** Yes, through native tmux control mode. Tessera
speaks tmux's control protocol rather than drawing its output as text, so tmux
windows become real tabs and tmux panes become real split views. It can
auto-attach to a session when you connect, so a dropped connection never loses
your work.

**Does Tessera support mosh?** Yes. Mosh keeps a session alive across Wi-Fi to
cellular roaming and across sleep and wake, and Tessera gives mosh sessions
real, searchable scrollback — which plain mosh does not have.

**How does Tessera keep a session alive when iOS suspends the app?** Use mosh
for the transport and tmux for process lifetime. Mosh survives the network
changing underneath you and the device sleeping; tmux keeps the work running
on the server even when the app is suspended or killed. Tessera can auto-attach
to your tmux session on connect, so reopening the app puts you back where you
were.

**Where does Tessera store my SSH keys?** In the iOS Keychain. Keys can be
generated on device or imported, and can be protected with Face ID or Touch
ID. Private keys are never uploaded anywhere, because there is nowhere to
upload them to — Tessera has no backend.

**Can I use Tessera to watch Claude Code or Codex sessions?** Yes. The agent
center gathers Claude Code and Codex sessions from across every connection —
tmux windows, panes and raw sessions — into one page, groups them by whether
they need input, and lets you answer a waiting prompt without hunting for the
right pane. It is experimental and off by default; enable it in settings →
experimental → agent center.

**Does Tessera run on iPhone as well as iPad?** Yes, it is a universal app.
You can hand a live session off between iPad and iPhone: the session keeps
running either way, and your focused session appears in the App Switcher and
Dock on your other devices.

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Tessera requires servers you provide — it is a client, not a hosting
service. Mosh and tmux features require mosh-server / tmux installed on the
server. © 2026 bambouville inc.