A typed, ESM-native SSH client and server library for Node.js 20.19 or newer.
The project implements SSH from its standards and includes typed client, server, channel,
forwarding, agent, key-management, and SFTP APIs. Public asynchronous operations return Promises;
awaited application policy is handled through Hooker. Normal installs use no native dependency;
automatic Pageant discovery on Windows is the only optional FFI integration.
Install the package from the public npm registry:
pnpm add @bunkerch/modernsshThis example verifies the server against the user's known-hosts file, authenticates, runs a command, and waits for the channel to close:
import{once}from"node:events"import{homedir}from"node:os"import{join}from"node:path"import{Client,KnownHosts}from"@bunkerch/modernssh"consthostname="ssh.example.com"constknownHosts=awaitKnownHosts.load(join(homedir(),".ssh","known_hosts"))constclient=newClient({
hostname,username: "deploy",password: process.env.SSH_PASSWORD,})client.hooker.hook("hostKey",knownHosts.hostKeyHook(hostname))client.on("error",(error)=>console.error("SSH connection error",error))try{awaitclient.connect()constcommand=awaitclient.exec("uname -a")command.pipe(process.stdout)command.stderr.pipe(process.stderr)awaitonce(command,"close")}finally{client.end()}EventEmitter listeners are observation-only and should remain synchronous. Authorization and other
asynchronous policy decisions belong in awaited Hooker handlers.
Browse the hosted documentation at modernssh.bunkerx.dev.
| Goal | Guide |
|---|---|
| Connect a client or create a server | Getting started |
| Copy practical recipes | Examples |
| Look up every package export and its exact TypeScript declaration | API reference |
| Configure authentication and multi-factor flows | Authentication |
| Run commands, shells, and subsystems | Channels |
| Transfer and manage files | SFTP |
| Create direct, remote, HTTP, and tunnel forwarding | Forwarding and packet tunnels |
| Verify and rotate host keys | Known hosts |
| Publish or verify DNS host-key fingerprints | SSHFP DNS records |
| Use or expose an authentication agent | Agent protocol |
| Check implemented standards and tested peers | Standards coverage and interoperability |
Protocol-level and specialist guides cover transport behavior, connection-wide requests, public-key management, key revocation lists, and detached signatures.
pnpm install
pnpm test
pnpm lint
pnpm format:check
pnpm docs:api
pnpm docs:dev
pnpm docs:buildpnpm test builds the distributable entry point before running unit and integration tests.
CI installs putty-tools and SoftHSM alongside the system OpenSSH and Docker tools used by the
interoperability suite. The SoftHSM token fixture is skipped locally when its provider is absent.
pnpm docs:api rebuilds the package and regenerates the complete declaration reference under
docs/api/. pnpm docs:dev starts the local Fumadocs site, and pnpm docs:build verifies the
production documentation build. The documentation toolchain requires Node.js 22 or newer; the
published library supports Node.js 20.19 and newer.