Tabby — Modern Cross-Platform Terminal Emulator

Introduction

Tabby is an open-source, cross-platform terminal emulator built with Electron and modern web technologies. It aims to replace legacy terminals like PuTTY, MobaXterm, and iTerm with a single configurable application that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What Tabby Does

• Provides a GPU-accelerated terminal with split panes, tabs, and customizable hotkeys
• Integrates SSH, SFTP, and serial port connections with a built-in connection manager
• Supports plugins for extending functionality including themes, shells, and integrations
• Offers profile-based configuration with per-host settings and automatic reconnection
• Includes a portable mode for running from USB drives without installation

Architecture Overview

Tabby is built on Electron with an Angular frontend. The terminal rendering layer uses xterm.js with WebGL acceleration. The plugin system allows third-party extensions via npm packages. SSH connectivity is handled through a native Node.js addon wrapping libssh, providing key-based and agent-forwarded authentication without external dependencies.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Download prebuilt binaries from GitHub releases for all major platforms
• Configuration is stored in a YAML file at ~/.config/tabby/config.yaml
• Plugins can be installed from the built-in plugin manager or manually via npm
• SSH connections support agent forwarding, jump hosts, and SOCKS proxies
• Profiles allow per-connection shell, environment, and appearance settings

Key Features

• GPU-accelerated rendering for smooth scrolling and large output
• Integrated SSH client with SFTP file transfer and tunneling
• Serial port support for embedded development and hardware debugging
• Fully themeable with CSS and community theme plugins
• Encrypted vault for storing SSH credentials and passphrases locally

Comparison with Similar Tools

• iTerm2 — macOS-only; Tabby runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Windows Terminal — Windows-only and lacks built-in SSH management
• Hyper — Similar Electron base but fewer built-in integrations
• Alacritty — Faster rendering but no GUI settings, SSH, or plugins
• Ghostty — Native performance but newer with a smaller plugin ecosystem

FAQ

Q: Does Tabby work with WSL on Windows? A: Yes, Tabby auto-detects WSL distributions and offers them as shell profiles alongside PowerShell and cmd.

Q: Can I sync settings across machines? A: Tabby supports config sync via its optional cloud service or by manually syncing the YAML config file through Git or a file sync tool.

Q: Is Tabby slower than native terminals due to Electron? A: GPU-accelerated rendering and optimized xterm.js keep Tabby competitive for most workloads. Extremely high-throughput output may be faster in native terminals.

Q: Does Tabby support tmux or screen integration? A: Tabby provides its own tab and split pane management. It works alongside tmux but does not embed tmux sessions natively.

Sources

• https://github.com/Eugeny/tabby
• https://tabby.sh/