5.4 KiB
BunSCP
A cross-platform, dual-panel SFTP/local file manager — a small WinSCP-style commander built on Bun, Electrobun, and Angular.
Each of the two panels independently shows either the local filesystem or a remote server over SSH/SFTP, so you can move files local↔remote, remote↔remote, or local↔local through one symmetric engine.
Name & icon are placeholders. See Rebranding — it's a one-file change.
Features
- Dual-panel commander UI; either panel can be Local or any saved connection.
- Session tabs: each tab is an independent left/right workspace; remote sessions stay connected and transfers keep running in background tabs.
- Per-panel action toolbar with a direction-explicit copy button, plus a VSCode-style status bar showing live transfer progress (click to expand the transfer queue).
- Browse, sort (name/size/modified, folders first), keyboard navigation.
- Create folder / file, rename, delete (recursive), change permissions (chmod).
- Upload, download, and remote→remote copy — files and whole folders — with a transfer queue, per-job progress, and cancel.
- Connection manager: saved connections organised into folders, password or private-key auth (with passphrase).
Stack
| Layer | Choice |
|---|---|
| Runtime | Bun (main process, all SSH/SFTP + file IO) |
| Desktop | Electrobun 1.18 (native webview, typed RPC bridge) |
| Frontend | Angular 22 (standalone, signals, zoneless) in ui/ |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn-style tokens (no component library) |
| Icons | @ng-icons/mynaui |
| SSH/SFTP | ssh2 (pure-JS under Bun) |
The repo is a Bun workspace: the Electrobun app at the root, the Angular app in
ui/. Shared types and the RPC contract live in src/shared/ and are imported
by both sides.
src/shared/ types.ts, rpc.ts (wire contract), branding.ts
src/bun/ Electrobun main process
fs/ FileSystemProvider + LocalProvider + SftpProvider + registry
transfers/ engine.ts (queue/stream copy) + walk.ts (recursive helpers)
store/ connections.json persistence
ui/src/app/ Angular components + signal services
Prerequisites
- Bun ≥ 1.3 (
bun --version). - macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (for the app build).
- No Node install required — a preload shim (
scripts/node-version-shim.ts) satisfies the Angular CLI's Node version check while running under Bun.
Setup
bun install # installs root + ui workspace deps
Develop
bun run dev
This starts the Angular dev server (hot reload for UI code) and launches the
Electrobun app pointed at it. Edits under ui/ reload instantly; edits to the
Bun main process (src/bun/**, RPC schema) trigger an app relaunch.
Build a packaged app
bun run build # ng build (ui/dist) + electrobun build -> build/*/BunSCP*.app
The Angular bundle is copied into the app under views://app. The macOS icon is
compiled from assets/icon.iconset into AppIcon.icns automatically.
For a distributable (optimized, with auto-update channel) build, use
bunx electrobun build --env=stable (see the
Electrobun docs for signing,
notarization, and release hosting).
Rebranding
Everything user-facing reads from src/shared/branding.ts:
export const BRANDING = {
appName: "BunSCP", // window title, bundle name, app-data folder
identifier: "es.teknes.bunscp",
version: "0.1.0",
icon: "assets/icon.iconset",
} as const;
To change the icon: replace assets/icon.png (1024×1024) and run
./scripts/gen-iconset.sh (regenerates the .iconset with sips), or point
icon at your own .iconset. scripts/make-icon.py regenerates the current
placeholder.
Renaming
appNamechanges the app-data directory, so existing saved connections won't be found under the new name — copyconnections.jsonacross if you need them.
Where connections are stored
Saved connections live in a plain JSON file in the OS app-data directory
(macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/BunSCP/connections.json), written with
0600 permissions.
⚠️ Passwords are stored in plaintext in this file (a deliberate v1 simplicity choice). Anyone who can read the file can read the passwords. If that isn't acceptable for your use, use key-based auth or don't save the password (connect ad-hoc). OS-keychain storage is a natural future addition.
Keyboard shortcuts
Tab switch panel · ↑/↓/PgUp/PgDn/Home/End move cursor ·
Space select · Enter open folder · Backspace parent ·
Ctrl/Cmd+A select all · F5 copy to other panel · F2 rename ·
F7 new folder · F8/Delete delete · Cmd/Ctrl+T new tab ·
Cmd/Ctrl+W close tab · Ctrl+Tab next tab.
(On Macs, function keys may need fn — every action also has a toolbar button.)
Not in v1
Drag-and-drop, file preview/edit, transfer resume, symlink following (symlinks are listed but skipped by transfers), OS keychain, tab persistence across restarts, Windows/Linux packaging (the code is portable; only macOS packaging is wired up).