13 KiB
About
XPipe is a new type of shell connection hub and remote file manager that allows you to access your entire server infrastructure from your local machine. It works on top of your installed command-line programs and does not require any setup on your remote systems. So if you normally use CLI tools like ssh, docker, kubectl, etc. to connect to your servers, you can just use XPipe on top of that.
XPipe fully integrates with your tools such as your favourite text/code editors, terminals, shells, command-line tools and more. The platform is designed to be extensible, allowing anyone to add easily support for more tools or to implement custom functionality through a modular extension system.
It currently supports:
- SSH connections, config files, and tunnels
- Docker, Podman, and LXD container instances located on any host
- Proxmox PVE virtual machines and containers
- Hyper-V, KVM/QEMU, VMware Player/Workstation/Fusion virtual machines
- Kubernetes clusters, pods, and containers
- Windows Subsystem for Linux, Cygwin, and MSYS2 instances
- Powershell Remote Sessions
- VNC connections
- Any other custom remote connection methods that work through the command-line
Connection hub
- Easily connect to and access all kinds of remote connections in one place
- Organize all your connections in hierarchical categories so you can keep an overview hundreds of connections
- Create specific login environments on any system to instantly jump into a properly set up environment for every use case
- Quickly perform various commonly used actions like starting/stopping containers, establishing tunnels, and more
- Create desktop shortcuts that automatically open remote connections in your terminal without having to open any GUI
Powerful file management
- Interact with the file system of any remote system using a workflow optimized for professionals
- Quickly open a terminal session into any directory in your favourite terminal emulator
- Utilize your entire arsenal of locally installed programs to open and edit remote files
- Dynamically elevate sessions with sudo when required without having to restart the session
- Seamlessly transfer files from and to your system desktop environment
- Work and perform transfers on multiple systems at the same time with the built-in tabbed multitasking
Terminal launcher
- Boots you into a shell session in your favourite terminal with one click. Automatically fills password prompts and more
- Comes with support for all commonly used terminal emulators across all operating systems
- Supports opening custom terminal emulators as well via a custom command-line spec
- Works with all command shells such as bash, zsh, cmd, PowerShell, and more, locally and remote
- Connects to a system while the terminal is still starting up, allowing for faster connections than otherwise possible
Versatile scripting system
- Create reusable simple shell scripts, templates, and groups to run on connected remote systems
- Automatically make your scripts available in the PATH on any remote system without any setup
- Setup shell init environments for connections to fully customize your work environment for every purpose
- Open custom shells and custom remote connections by providing your own commands
Secure vault
- All data is stored exclusively on your local system in a cryptographically secure vault. You can also choose to increase security by using a custom master passphrase for further encryption
- XPipe is able to retrieve secrets automatically from your password manager via it's command-line interface.
- There are no servers involved, all your information stays on your systems. The XPipe application does not send any personal or sensitive information to outside services.
- Vault changes can be pushed and pulled from your own remote git repository by multiple team members across many systems
Programmatic connection control via the API
- The XPipe API provides programmatic access to XPipe’s features via an HTTP interface
- Manage all your remote systems and access their file systems in your own favorite programming language
- Either call the API directly or with the help of the python library
- Full documentation can be either found in the application itself under the API tab or in the OpenAPI spec file
Downloads
Note that this is a desktop application that should be run on your local desktop workstation, not on any server or containers. It will be able to connect to your server infrastructure from there.
Windows
Installers are the easiest way to get started and come with an optional automatic update functionality:
You can also install XPipe by pasting the installation command into your terminal. This will perform the .msi setup automatically:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command iwr "https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe/raw/master/get-xpipe.ps1" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\get-xpipe.ps1" ";" "&" "$env:TEMP\get-xpipe.ps1"
If you don't like installers, you can also use a portable version that is packaged as an archive:
Alternatively, you can also use the following package managers:
- choco to install it with
choco install xpipe. - winget to install it with
winget install xpipe-io.xpipe --source winget.
Linux
You can install XPipe the fastest by pasting the installation command into your terminal. This will perform the setup automatically.
The script supports installation via apt, dnf, yum, zypper, rpm, and pacman on Linux:
bash <(curl -sL https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe/raw/master/get-xpipe.sh)
Of course, there are also other installation methods available.
Debian-based distros
The following debian installers are available:
Note that you should use apt to install the package with sudo apt install <file> as other package managers, for example dpkg,
are not able to resolve and install any dependency packages.
RHEL-based distros
The following rpm installers are available:
The same applies here, you should use a package manager that supports resolving and installing required dependencies if needed.
Arch
There is an official AUR package available that you can either install manually or via an AUR helper such as with yay -S xpipe.
NixOS
There's an official xpipe nixpkg available that you can install with nix-env -iA nixos.xpipe. This one is however not always up to date.
There is also a custom repository that contains the latest up-to-date releases: https://github.com/xpipe-io/nixpkg. You can install XPipe by following the instructions in the linked repository.
Portable
In case you prefer to use an archive version that you can extract anywhere, you can use these:
Alternatively, there are also AppImages available:
Note that the portable version assumes that you have some basic packages for graphical systems already installed as it is not a perfect standalone version. It should however run on most systems.
macOS
Installers are the easiest way to get started and come with an optional automatic update functionality:
You also can install XPipe by pasting the installation command into your terminal. This will perform the .pkg installation automatically:
bash <(curl -sL https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe/raw/master/get-xpipe.sh)
If you don't like installers, you can also use a portable version that is packaged as an archive:
Alternatively, you can also use Homebrew to install XPipe with brew install --cask xpipe-io/tap/xpipe.
Early access releases
Prior to major releases, there will be several Public Test Build (PTB) releases published at https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe-ptb to see whether everything is production ready and contain the latest new features.
In case you're interested in trying out the PTB versions, you can easily do so without any limitations. The regular releases and PTB releases are designed to not interfere with each other and can therefore be installed and used side by side.
XPipe Webtop
XPipe is a desktop application first and foremost. It requires a full desktop environment to function with various installed applications such as terminals, editors, shells, CLI tools, and more. So there is no true web-based interface for XPipe. Since it might make sense however to access your XPipe environment from the web, there is also a so-called webtop docker container image for XPipe. XPipe Webtop is a web-based desktop environment that can be run in a container and accessed from a browser via KasmVNC. The desktop environment comes with XPipe and various terminals and editors preinstalled and configured.
Further information
Open source model
XPipe follows an open core model, which essentially means that the main application is open source while certain other components are not. This mainly concerns the features only available in the homelab/professional plan and the shell handling library implementation. Furthermore, some CI pipelines and tests that run on private servers are also not included in the open repository.
The distributed XPipe application consists out of two parts:
- The open-source core that you can find this repository. It is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
- The closed-source extensions, mostly for homelab/professional plan features, which are not included in this repository
Additional features are available in the homelab/professional plan . For more details see https://xpipe.io/pricing. If your enterprise puts great emphasis on having access to the full source code, there are also full source-available enterprise options available.
More links
You have more questions? Then check out the FAQ.
For information about the security model of XPipe, see the security page.
For information about the privacy policy of XPipe, see the privacy policy.
In case you're interested in development, check out the contributing page.
