Browse Your Server’s Files. Your SSH Terminal Follows.

You have found the folder on your server. You can see the script you want to run and the directory where its output belongs. Then you switch to SSH and navigate to that same folder again.

Later, you want to read a report, bring a few files back to your Mac, and check what changed in your local project. Each step is straightforward. Keeping the file browser, terminal, and destination lined up is the tedious part.

This is a workflow I wanted Iruka to handle well. Save a server in the sidebar, browse its files over SFTP, and open an SSH terminal that follows you through its directories. Preview the files you find. Copy what you need to your Mac. Keep both sides visible when that helps.

I’m the developer of Iruka, a native macOS file manager. Here’s how that works in practice.

Save the server once

Add an SSH connection in the sidebar with your host, username, and authentication details. Give it a name you’ll recognise later.

Right-click that saved connection and choose Mount as SFTP. The server appears under Connected, and you can browse its folders in the file browser.

There’s a one-time setup for SFTP mounting: the official rclone build and a FUSE layer, with fuse-t recommended. Iruka checks for the requirements in the connection dialog; the SFTP setup guide walks through them. Once that’s done, your saved connection is the starting point for future sessions.

Browse a folder and run commands there

Enable the option to open SSH automatically when connecting over SFTP, and Iruka opens the remote terminal for you. You can also open it yourself with the network button in the terminal header while browsing the mount.

The connection between those two views is the useful part. Browse into a remote folder and the SSH terminal follows to the corresponding directory on the server.

For example, imagine a project at /home/demo/report-project. It contains a processing script, a data folder, and a results folder. Browse to the project, and you can run the script in the terminal underneath. Browse into results afterwards, and the shell follows you there.

Those commands execute on the server. The SFTP mount gives the file browser access to the files; the SSH session gives you a shell on the machine that holds them. You can use the server’s installed tools and compute resources while navigating visually on your Mac.

Sync pauses while the terminal is busy with a command, so browsing doesn’t send directory changes into a running program. This remote following works with the SSH session Iruka opens for the mount, where it knows how the browser’s paths map to the server.

If you already know where you’re going, type the path into the URL bar and use Tab autocomplete. You can move through the folder tree with the mouse or navigate by typing paths, depending on which is quicker for the task.

Read the results where you find them

Now suppose the script has produced a CSV and a Markdown report. Open the preview pane and select each file.

The CSV appears as a grid you can scan. The Markdown appears as a formatted document with headings, tables, and code blocks. Source files have syntax highlighting, and HTML can be rendered as a page. HTML previews don’t run scripts or fetch network resources, which makes a self-contained report a good fit.

You can inspect the output while you’re still browsing the remote folder, then return to the SSH terminal if you need to run the script with different arguments.

This is where a file manager earns its place: you’re looking through a collection of files, working out which ones matter, and deciding what to do with them.

Bring a few files back with the drop stack

For a handful of results, I like the drop stack in the sidebar. Drag the files onto it, navigate to a local destination, and choose Copy Here.

Putting files on the stack only remembers their locations. It doesn’t transfer them yet. You can collect files from different folders before choosing where the whole selection should go.

That’s useful when the outputs you want are scattered: a report from one directory, a CSV from another, perhaps a log alongside them. Keep the server connected, collect the files, then copy them into your local project in one step.

Keep local and remote side by side

For repeated transfers, switch to dual pane. Put your local project on one side and the server on the other, then drag files between them.

Each pane has its own terminal. Enable View → Show Both Terminals to see them together: a local shell under your Mac’s folder, and an SSH session under the remote folder. Each follows its own pane.

You can run something on the server, inspect its output, copy a result across, and run a local command against that copy without rearranging your windows. The lead screenshot shows this layout; it’s particularly comfortable when you have room for a wide window.

Review what changed before committing

If your local destination is a Git repository, the files you’ve copied become part of its working changes. Iruka shows the current branch, changed-file status, and how many commits it is ahead of or behind its tracked remote branch, based on the last fetch.

Open the Review pane to see the changed files and their diffs. A new report appears as an addition; an updated file shows the lines that changed against the committed version. Read through them, stage the files you want, and commit directly in Iruka. Fetch, pull, and push are available from the Git strip, with their commands shown in the terminal.

For this example, the workflow ends with the selected server outputs reviewed and committed in the local project. There’s a clear record of what you brought back.

When you need elevated file access

For server administration, a connection can also use Mount as root. With the required server-side sudo configuration, SFTP file operations can access locations your ordinary account can’t reach.

The mount is labelled (root). This elevates file operations through the mount; it doesn’t automatically make the SSH shell a root shell. Remote deletions have no Trash or undo, so this is an option to enable deliberately for the work that needs it. The root-mount guide covers the setup.

A file manager that stays with the work

KDE’s Dolphin inspired Iruka’s connected browser and terminal. I wanted that way of navigating on macOS, and extending it to remote work felt natural: the folder I’m looking at should also be the folder where I can run a command.

SFTP browsing, synced SSH, previews, the drop stack, and dual panes make that useful throughout a session—from finding a script on a server to bringing its results home.

If this sounds like your kind of workflow, visit iruka.sh and try Iruka with a server and a project you already use.

You can also install it with Homebrew:

brew install --cask dorienh/iruka/iruka