Stop SSH-ing into servers
like it's 2009.

HeadlessOS is a desktop for your Linux servers. Files, Docker, processes, logs, and firewall — all in one place, all over the SSH access you already have. No agent. No port to open. Nothing installed on the server.

Try it in 60 seconds View source on GitHub

MIT licensed
No agents installed
Works with any Linux VPS
Offline-capable desktop app

File Explorer

Finder-grade file management, over plain SFTP

The problem

Managing servers in a terminal is
a productivity tax.

Every admin task becomes a trivia quiz of flag syntax. Every fleet becomes 12 open terminals. And the one time you really need an answer fast — production is down at 2am — you're grep-ing through `journalctl`.

"Was it `df -h` or `df -Th`?"
"Which tab had my Grafana session?"
"Is nginx up on box-3 or box-5?"
"What port did I open last Tuesday?"

With HeadlessOS

One window, every server

Connect to your whole fleet in tabs. Each server gets its own color, its own desktop, its own terminal — no more tmux-as-a-workaround.

Click, don't memorize

A visual file explorer, a real Docker dashboard, a firewall editor with ports and rules. The muscle memory you've been building for years still works in the terminal tab.

Your server stays pristine

HeadlessOS never touches the server filesystem beyond the commands you'd run by hand. No daemon, no auto-start, no extra surface area.

Features

Everything you'd hope a Linux server came with. Nothing installed on it.

Eight first-class apps, one desktop-style workspace, and a parsing engine that turns `df`, `docker ps`, and `systemctl status` into something you can actually look at.

Zero server footprint

Connects over standard SSH using only the binaries your server already has. No agent, no daemon, no extra attack surface.

Files, without the `scp` dance

Drag, drop, preview, rename, chmod. A Finder-grade file explorer backed by pure SFTP — never a shell command.

Docker without Docker Desktop

Containers, images, volumes, networks — full lifecycle management in a UI that loads instantly and never phones home.

Glanceable metrics

CPU, memory, disk, network, uptime — polled in the background, cached, and rendered as the clean dashboard your VPS never had.

Server Admin, not man pages

Users, groups, firewall, services, packages, logs, network, cron — eight admin surfaces with point-and-click parity with the CLI.

A real terminal, still

When you want the shell, the shell is one click away. Full xterm.js, persistent PTY over WebSocket, zero quirks.

LLM-assisted, not LLM-dependent

Deterministic parsers handle everyday commands in under a millisecond. The LLM only kicks in for weird distro output — and caches aggressively.

Every server, one workspace

Open a dozen servers in a dozen tabs, each with its own identity color and independent window layout. Multi-server is a first-class citizen.

Quick Start

First server connected in
the time it takes to brew coffee.

Three commands to install, one form to add a server. Then you're done. Really.

Clone & install

Clone the repo and install dependencies. HeadlessOS runs locally on your machine.

git clone https://github.com/abhee235/headlessos.git
cd headlessos
npm install

Start the app

Run the dev server. The backend listens on :3001, the UI on :3000 — both on localhost only.

npm run dev

# server  → http://localhost:3001
# client  → http://localhost:3000

Add your server

Open the UI, click 'Add Server', and enter your SSH credentials. That's it — no agents, no installs.

Host:     your-vps.example.com
Port:     22
User:     root
Auth:     SSH key or password

→ Click Connect

Read the full guide

FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

Does HeadlessOS install anything on my server?

No. HeadlessOS is a client-only application. It connects to your server using standard SSH and only uses tools your server already has (ls, df, docker, systemctl, etc.). Your server stays exactly as it is.

Which Linux distros are supported?

Anything with a standard SSH server. We test against Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine, and Arch. Different distros may format command output differently — HeadlessOS uses both deterministic parsers and an LLM fallback to handle the variations.

Is it really open source?

Yes. MIT licensed, source on GitHub. You can self-host it, fork it, audit it — whatever you need.

What about security?

All connections go through SSH using your existing credentials (key or password). The backend listens on localhost only — never exposed to the internet. We use SFTP for all file operations and validate every command path against an allowlist before execution.

Can I manage multiple servers?

Yes. The Multi-Session Workspace lets you connect to many servers at once with per-server identity (accent colors, names) and independent app windows.

Do I need an OpenAI / LLM API key?

Optional. Most common commands have deterministic parsers and don't touch the LLM at all. The LLM is only used as a fallback for unknown command output. You can plug in OpenAI, Anthropic, or a local Ollama model.

How is this different from cockpit / webmin / portainer?

Those tools require installing an agent on every server. HeadlessOS doesn't — your server stays untouched. We're also building toward a desktop-class UX (windows, multi-server, keyboard shortcuts) rather than a single-page admin panel.

Will there be a hosted version at headlessos.com?

Possibly. The app is currently localhost-only and we ship an Electron desktop app. A secure hosted version is on the roadmap, but the localhost & Electron versions will always remain free and open source.

Free. Open source. Yours.

HeadlessOS is MIT licensed. Star the repo, file an issue, or send a pull request — we'd love your help.

Star on GitHub Contributing guide

Stop SSH-ing into servers like it's 2009.

Managing servers in a terminal is a productivity tax.