electerm

electerm combines a local terminal, remote connections and file-management tools in one cross-platform desktop application. It is intended for developers, system administrators and users who routinely connect to servers or move files between local and remote machines.

Features

• Open SSH, SFTP, FTP, Telnet, serial, RDP, VNC and Spice sessions where the relevant protocol is supported.
• Organize connection bookmarks and authenticate with passwords, keys, agents, certificates or configured multifactor methods.
• Transfer files, edit small remote files and use supported terminal transfer protocols.
• Configure tunnels, connection hopping, session proxies and repeatable commands.
• Customize themes and layouts, and synchronize configured bookmark data through selected services.
• Optionally use AI assistance and MCP widgets for command explanations, generated scripts and tool-connected workflows.

Installation and requirements

Download the appropriate macOS DMG and move the app into Applications, or use brew install --cask electerm. The current Homebrew cask requires macOS 12 or later. The project also distributes legacy builds and describes broader older-system support; do not treat that as permission to use the current cask on every older Mac. Official macOS releases offer x64 and arm64 choices. The catalog's current 5.5.76 asset is the Apple silicon DMG, 113,487,630 bytes, confirmed by HEAD against the matching official GitHub release asset. The publisher's mirror in the cask URL rejected HEAD, so the exact corresponding upstream asset was measured instead. Installed data, logs and downloaded files require more storage.

Remote desktop, serial and AI capabilities may require additional services, devices or configuration. Node.js and npm in the source-development guide are not prerequisites for the prebuilt DMG. No named Homebrew cask conflict is declared. The checked project README does not specify mandatory blanket Full Disk Access, Accessibility or Screen Recording for ordinary terminal sessions; particular device or global-shortcut workflows may trigger their own macOS authorization.

Accounts, network and license

electerm is free, open-source software under the MIT license. A local terminal does not require an electerm cloud account. Remote sessions require valid credentials and access to the target host. Optional cloud sync, external AI providers and configured MCP tools require their own accounts, credentials and network access, and may incur provider charges. The project's advertised free services do not establish unlimited free access to every model or third-party gateway. A prepared local terminal can be used offline, but remote connections and online integrations cannot.

Security and practical cautions

Use SSH/SFTP rather than unencrypted Telnet/FTP for sensitive traffic when your environment permits it. Protect saved credentials, private keys, session logs and synchronized bookmark exports. SSH agent forwarding delegates access to the forwarded agent and should be enabled only for trusted hosts. AI context may include selected terminal content, and agent mode can perform terminal operations; review commands before execution and restrict connected tools. Import only trusted bookmarks and connection links. Recent releases fix unsafe remote-transfer paths and dangerous connection options from untrusted deep links; update before relying on those workflows.

Sources: Official project and features, Official downloads, Official releases, MIT license.