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Description
rootshell is a desktop-class terminal emulator built on libghostty — the GPU-accelerated engine behind the Ghostty desktop terminal. A local shell on every platform, native SSH, mosh-compatible roaming, tssh, system-wide VPN, native git, and Metal rendering in a single app.
METAL-ACCELERATED TERMINAL
Built on libghostty's Zig core with direct Metal rendering via CAMetalLayer. Smooth scrolling, zero-flicker synchronized output, and full mouse capture for tmux, vim, and zellij. Tabs, split panes, and persistent scrollback across app restarts.
THREE REMOTE PROTOCOLS, ONE APP
• SSH — Native Swift SSH client with Ed25519, ECDSA, RSA, and post-quantum ML-KEM + ML-DSA for harvest-now-decrypt-later protection. Jump hosts, port forwarding, agent forwarding with per-request approval, and Keychain password storage.
• Rootshell Roam — Mosh-compatible sessions survive network changes and app restarts. Multipath TCP bonds WiFi and cellular so you never drop a link. Predictive local echo keeps typing responsive on high latency. STUN-based NAT traversal punches through firewalls.
• tssh integration with QUIC (TLS 1.3) and KCP transport for lower latency, full native scrollback, and server-side session resumption.
SSH VPN
Turn any SSH or tssh session into a system-wide VPN. Route all device traffic through your remote server over standard SSH, QUIC, or KCP transport. No extra software on the server — if you can SSH to it, you can VPN through it.
NATIVE GIT
Clone, commit, diff, log, blame, branch, fetch, pull, push, cherry-pick, rebase, and worktree — all implemented in native Swift with SSH transport. Syntax-highlighted pager output, Helix integration for commit messages, and optional AI-generated commit messages from staged diffs.
VOICE AI AGENT
Talk to an always-on assistant over Gemini Live with sub-second latency. The agent reads scrollback, runs commands over SSH hands-free, searches the web, and asks permission before anything risky — debug a server by voice.
OPTIONAL TEXT AI
Chat with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or 400+ models via OpenRouter. Execute commands and analyze output. Optional — bring your own API key.
HARDWARE SECURITY KEYS
Private keys never leave hardware. FIDO2/WebAuthn authentication with touch-to-sign.
SANDBOXED LOCAL SHELL
A full local shell with vim 9.1, Helix, SFTP, SCP, curl, jq, mtr, and standard Unix utilities. The rf browser offers yazi-style miller columns with SFTP, image previews, and git indicators. croc for peer-to-peer file transfer. Flag-aware tab completion, prompt themes, and line editing with arrow keys.
CLOUD & KUBERNETES
Connect to AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, Akamai (Linode), and Tailscale. Browse instances, access serial consoles, and generate EKS kubeconfigs. Debug Kubernetes nodes with ephemeral pods, including immutable distributions like Talos and Flatcar.
450+ THEMES & VISUAL EFFECTS
Over 450 color themes with automatic day/night switching based on your location. Animated backgrounds including solar effects with astronomically accurate moon phases, ocean waves, starfields, and fireflies. Shadertoy-compatible custom shaders. Import your own TTF/OTF fonts.
CUSTOMIZABLE TOOLBAR
Drag, reorder, and hide 45+ built-in keys across the main row and expandable drawer. Create custom keys that send text, key combos, or multi-step sequences — perfect for shell snippets, tmux, and vim macros. Sticky modifiers with one-shot tap and double-tap lock. Separate layouts for iPhone and iPad.
CONNECTION MANAGEMENT
Save connection profiles with folders, tags, and iCloud sync. Quick Connect autocompletes from history, cloud instances, and host shorthand. Background SSH tunnels with auto-start and bandwidth monitoring. Siri Shortcuts integration.
KEYBOARD POWER FEATURES
QMK-style mod-tap keys — one action on tap, another on hold. Dictation and CJK input methods. Customizable keyboard shortcuts. Option key as Alt for international layouts.
What's New in Version 1.04
Appearance
- Twenty new app icon variants in Settings -> Appearance -> App Icon: an original set of eight, plus a "Radical of the Unknown" collection of twelve themed after popular terminal color schemes (Solarized, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Bases, Mono, Monokai, Rose Pine). Picking a variant updates the home-screen icon, the animated About icon, and the Live Activity widget at the same time.
- A new "Change App Icon" Shortcuts action switches the icon from a shortcut, automation, or Focus mode trigger.
- The Classic app icon has been re-mastered.
Connections
- SSH, mosh, and tssh sessions now implement OpenSSH's "~" escape sequences. At the start of a line: ~. disconnect, ~? help, ~# list active forwards, ~I connection info, ~~ send a literal tilde. Suppressed inside bracketed paste.
- A yellow OpenSSH 9.9-style banner now warns when an SSH session negotiates a non-post-quantum key exchange. The Connection Info "Post-Quantum Secure" badge was split into separate key-exchange and host-key signals.
- A new SSH Transport settings subpage collects health monitoring, probe interval, and post-quantum warning.
- A new SSH Server Compatibility toggle switches public-key auth to a probe-first flow, for routers and embedded servers that reject pre-signed offers.
- The local-shell ssh command accepts -AA as a shortcut for agent forwarding with auto-approval, and a new --path flag opts into a Homebrew/Linuxbrew/Go-friendly PATH prepend (otherwise your remote command goes over the wire verbatim).
- Tailscale resource lists and Quick Connect suggestions hide devices offline for more than 30 minutes.
- tssh resume retries with exponential backoff for up to 24 hours, instead of giving up after a single 30-second attempt.
AI Agent
- New AWS Bedrock provider routes Claude requests through Amazon Bedrock in your own AWS account, reusing the existing Cloud account flow (Access Keys or SSO/STS).
Local Shell
- Command substitution and arithmetic expansion: $(...), $((...)), and backticks now expand at the prompt instead of being passed through literally.
- Plain parameter expansion ($VAR, ${VAR}, $0-$9, $@ $* $# $? $$ $! $-) now expands at the prompt.
Terminal
- Per-font cell-width and cell-height sliders (±25%) in Font settings, scoped per font family.
Live Activity
- A new "Info Only" filter keeps the activity alive on WiFi or Network info alone, without requiring an open terminal or active VPN.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a long-standing bracketed-paste hang where a large paste could leave the terminal silently buffering until the next tab focus change.
- Fixed an iPhone wedge after returning from background where the UI advanced one frame per touch.
- Fixed a terminal size desync after returning from background.
- Fixed Backspace in the bundled iOS Vim's INSERT mode.
- The watchOS Smart Stack mirror of the Live Activity widget no longer shows a placeholder where the app icon should be.
- The AI Agent now re-anchors when the underlying shell context changes; opening it on a tab where you'd SSHed and exited used to keep targeting the previous context.
- The AI Agent toolbar menu no longer pulses during streaming.
- SSH sessions opened from the local shell now wire up to the agent-approval prompt, so a forwarded-agent identity request no longer silently stalls.
- Profile editor validation messages render inline under the offending field.
- The reconnect roam banner no longer flickers through several "last seen" timestamps before settling.
- Opening Connection Info on iPhone with the keyboard up no longer leaves the keyboard covering the sheet.
- Lock-screen Live Activity session totals now aggregate across multiple windows.
- Live Activities orphaned by force-quit, OS kill, or crash are adopted in place at launch.
- Touch selection handles reappear after backgrounding or dismissing a sheet over a live selection.
- Tightened gesture recognizers around vertical scroll vs. the horizontal split-switch swipe.
Seller
Name
Rootshell LLC
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
1.04
Size
323.7 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 18.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 17e, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (10th generation), iPad (10th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi, iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi, iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi, iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi, iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air11M4, iPad Air11M4Cellular, iPad Air13M4, iPad Air13M4Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
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