Native mobile SSH

Leave your desk.
Keep the shell.

AFK is a direct-SSH terminal for iOS and Android. Connect to your servers, run real work, and carry active sessions with you—without routing SSH through AFK.

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Get AFK See how direct SSH works

Two connected terminals in AFK for iOS — Two live terminals

AFK for iOS streaming build, test, and deployment output — Active shell

Direct from your device
to your server

Strict host-key
verification

One terminal engine
across both platforms

01 / THE TERMINAL

A full terminal,
built for mobile.

AFK uses Ghostty’s terminal engine underneath a native mobile interface, with GPU-accelerated rendering for responsive input and dense terminal output.

Fast rendering.
Native on mobile.

AFK renders with Metal on iOS and OpenGL ES on Android, giving both platforms a GPU-accelerated terminal backed by the same Ghostty engine.

AFK for iOS rendering a dense terminal stream with Ghostty and Metal

AFK for Android rendering a dense terminal stream with Ghostty and OpenGL ES

Production terminal · iOSAndroid capture

Keyboard-first

Special keys, a configurable command grid, and hardware-keyboard workflows built for a small screen.

Yours to tune

Terminal themes, fonts, sizing, feedback, and per-host behavior without turning the app into a toy.

More than one shell

Open multiple named terminals and move between active work without losing your place.

02 / DIRECT BY DESIGN

Your SSH traffic
doesn’t take a detour.

Ordinary SSH goes straight from your phone to your server. AFK infrastructure never receives your SSH credentials, terminal input, or terminal output.

Known-host verification

Confirm new fingerprints. Block changed keys instead of quietly connecting.

Secrets stay local

Credentials use Keychain on iOS and secure platform storage on Android.

No account in the way

Ordinary SSH remains independent of optional AFK-hosted features.

FIRST CONNECTION

See the key before you trust the host.

AFK shows the server fingerprint and asks for an explicit decision. A changed key is a warning—not something the app quietly accepts.

AFK asking the user to verify an SSH host fingerprint — Host-key verification · iOS shown

LOCAL SECRETS

Your credentials stay with your device.

Passwords and private keys remain in platform-protected storage. AFK shows which local credential each host uses without exposing the secret itself.

AFK for iOS showing locally stored credential metadata — Credentials · stored on device

AFK for iOS connection activity confirming post-quantum SSH encryption — Post-quantum SSH · enabled

MODERN KEY EXCHANGE

Post-quantum when the server supports it.

AFK prefers hybrid ML-KEM-768 and X25519 key exchange, while retaining secure classical compatibility for older SSH servers.

ADVANCED SSH

Direct doesn’t mean
basic.

Route through infrastructure you control, reach hosts behind an HTTP proxy, and forward a selected SSH key—all configured on the host, never through an AFK relay.

KEY FORWARDING

Onward SSH, without copying keys to the remote host.

Enable SSH agent forwarding per host and keep the selected private key under your control. AFK makes the trust boundary explicit before you turn it on.

AFK Advanced Host screen with SSH Agent Forwarding enabled — SSH agent forwarding · iOS shown

JUMP HOSTS

Build the path to the destination.

Select saved hosts in connection order before AFK opens the destination SSH session.

HTTP CONNECT

Use the proxy your network requires.

Configure an HTTP CONNECT proxy per host, with optional credentials stored in the device keychain.

AFK HTTP CONNECT proxy configuration with sensitive connection details removed — HTTP proxy · iOS shown

03 / MOBILE WORK

Walk away from
the desk, not the work.

Keep an eye on an active shell, switch between terminals, and return when something needs your attention. AFK is designed around what mobile operating systems actually allow.

AFK for iOS showing two connected named terminal sessions — Connected and recoverable sessions

OPTIONAL SERVER COMPANION

Keep the process—not another terminal UI.

AFK-CLI does one narrow job: it keeps a remote PTY and process alive after SSH drops. Put one standalone binary in your user path; AFK reconnects through ordinary, host-key-verified SSH and attaches to the same process.

Explore AFK-CLI on GitHub ↗

AFK-CLI Process continuity, only.

One user-owned runner per session. No panes, shared daemon, separate listener, or second network protocol. Reattachment includes a bounded tail of recent output.

TMUX / GNU SCREEN A complete remote workspace.

Windows, panes, keybindings, and their own terminal screen and scrollback model. Use them when you want a full multiplexer—not just one process to survive SSH loss.

CMUX A local macOS workspace.

Ghostty-based tabs, splits, notifications, and SSH conveniences on the client. It organizes work well, but does not by itself preserve a remote process when SSH disappears.

SHPOOL The closest alternative.

Persistent named shells without taking over native scrollback or copy-paste. It uses a shared remote daemon or autodaemonization; AFK-CLI uses an independent runner for each session.

04 / AVAILABILITY

AFK supports
iOS and Android.

Direct SSH and a GPU-accelerated Ghostty terminal on both platforms.

APPLEiOS

GPU-accelerated terminal rendering with Metal.

In development

ANDROIDAndroid

GPU-accelerated terminal rendering with OpenGL ES.