SSH and SFTP client library for React Native

SSH and SFTP client library for React Native on iOS and Android.

Full documentation

A full set of documentation is available on Mintlify, which includes:

1. Installation
2. Quick start guide
3. API reference
4. Core concepts
5. Guides

Below is a quick installation and usage guide to get up and running. The full documentation is recommended in addition to the below.

[!WARNING] Host key verification is not performed. This library does not verify or pin the remote server's host key (on Android StrictHostKeyChecking is disabled, and on iOS the host key is not checked), so connections are susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. Until this is addressed, only connect over networks you trust. See the security guide for details.

Installation

npm install @dylankenneally/react-native-ssh-sftp

iOS

Update your Podfile to use the aanah0's fork of NMSSH. Note that we use the forked version to give us a required later version of libssh. Your Podfile is located in your React Native project at ./ios/Podfile.

target '[your project's name]' do
  pod 'NMSSH', :git => 'https://github.com/aanah0/NMSSH.git' # <-- add this line
  # ... rest of your target details ...
end

And then run pod install in your ./ios directory.

cd ios
pod install
cd -

[!TIP] Adding a postinstall script to your package.json file to run pod install after npm install is a good idea. The pod-install package is a good way to do this.

{
  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "npx pod-install",
  }
}

Having OpenSSL issues on iOS?

If you are using Flipper to debug your app, it will already have a copy of OpenSSL included. This can cause issues with the version of OpenSSL that NMSSH uses. You can disable flipper by removing/commenting out the flipper_configuration => flipper_config, line in your Podfile.

Android

No additional steps are needed for Android.

Linking

This project has been updated to use React Native v84 (the latest at the time of writing, Feb 2026) - which means that manual linking is not required.

Usage

All functions that run asynchronously where we have to wait for a result returns Promises that can reject if an error occurred.

[!NOTE] On iOS, this package currently doesn't support the simulator, you will need to have your app running on a physical device. If you would like to know more about this, see this issue. I'd welcome a PR to resolve this.

Create a client using password authentication

import SSHClient from '@dylankenneally/react-native-ssh-sftp';

SSHClient.connectWithPassword(
  "10.0.0.10",
  22,
  "user",
  "password"
).then(client => {/*...*/});

Create a client using public key authentication

import SSHClient from 'react-native-ssh-sftp';

SSHClient.connectWithKey(
  "10.0.0.10",
  22,
  "user",
  privateKey="-----BEGIN RSA...",
  passphrase
).then(client => {/*...*/});

Public key authentication is also supported

{privateKey: '-----BEGIN RSA......'}
{privateKey: '-----BEGIN RSA......', publicKey: 'ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EA......'}
{privateKey: '-----BEGIN RSA......', publicKey: 'ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EA......', passphrase: 'Password'}

Close client

client.disconnect();

Execute SSH command

const command = 'ls -l';
client.execute(command)
  .then(output => console.warn(output));

Shell

Start shell

• Supported ptyType: vanilla, vt100, vt102, vt220, ansi, xterm

const ptyType = 'vanilla';
client.startShell(ptyType)
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Read from shell

client.on('Shell', (event) => {
  if (event)
    console.warn(event);
});

Write to shell

const str = 'ls -l\n';
client.writeToShell(str)
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Close shell

client.closeShell();

SFTP

Connect SFTP

client.connectSFTP()
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

List directory

const path = '.';
client.sftpLs(path)
  .then(response => console.warn(response));

Create directory

client.sftpMkdir('dirName')
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Rename file or directory

client.sftpRename('oldName', 'newName')
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Remove directory

client.sftpRmdir('dirName')
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Remove file

client.sftpRm('fileName')
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

Download file

client.sftpDownload('[path-to-remote-file]', '[path-to-local-directory]')
  .then(downloadedFilePath => {
    console.warn(downloadedFilePath);
  });

// Download progress (setup before call)
client.on('DownloadProgress', (event) => {
  console.warn(event);
});

// Cancel download
client.sftpCancelDownload();

Upload file

client.sftpUpload('[path-to-local-file]', '[path-to-remote-directory]')
  .then(() => {/*...*/});

// Upload progress (setup before call)
client.on('UploadProgress', (event) => {
  console.warn(event);
});

// Cancel upload
client.sftpCancelUpload();

Close SFTP

client.disconnectSFTP();

Example app

You can find a very simple example app for the usage of this library here.

Credits

This package wraps the following libraries, which provide the actual SSH/SFTP functionality:

• NMSSH for iOS
• JSch for Android (from Matthias Wiedemann fork)

This package is a fork of Emmanuel Natividad's react-native-ssh-sftp package. The fork chain from there is as follows:

1. Gabriel Paul "Cley Faye" Risterucci
2. Bishoy Mikhael
3. Qian Sha