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wtf is puttyalt?

chillymasterio/puttyalt — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

59CAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TL;DR

A heavy fork of PuTTY 0.83 that adds tabs, SFTP, a session manager, themes, split views, macros, and a hundred-plus other modules, shipped as a portable Windows EXE with Linux and macOS builds.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((puttyalt))
    Inputs
      SSH hosts
      Telnet hosts
      Serial ports
      Saved sessions
    Outputs
      Tabbed terminals
      SFTP file transfers
      Session bookmarks
      Macros
    Use Cases
      Replace PuTTY for daily SSH
      Manage many servers in tabs
      Move files via SFTP panel
      Run command palette workflows
    Tech Stack
      C
      CMake
      Win32
      PuTTY core

Code map

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filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Drop in as a richer replacement for PuTTY with tabs and an SFTP panel

REASON 2

Manage a fleet of SSH hosts with bookmarks, groups, and saved sessions

REASON 3

Use port forwarding, jump hosts, and a network scanner from one terminal app

REASON 4

Build from source with cmake and make if you do not want to run the unsigned EXE

What's in the stack?

CCMakeWin32PuTTY

How it stacks up

chillymasterio/puttyaltliwuyuee/xiaozhi-esp32-localalphapixel/eric-graham-1987-juggler-raytracer-1.0
Stars596154
LanguageCCC
Setup difficultyeasyhardhard
Complexity2/54/52/5
Audienceops devopsdevelopergeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Windows SmartScreen blocks the unsigned EXE on first run, so you need to click More info and Run anyway or unblock the file.

MIT, use and modify freely as long as the copyright notice is kept.

Wtf does this do

PuttyAlt is a fork of PuTTY, the long-standing Windows SSH terminal program, based on PuTTY version 0.83. PuTTY itself lets you connect to remote computers from your machine over protocols like SSH, Telnet, and serial. This fork keeps that core and adds a large set of features on top: tabs so you can keep several sessions open in one window, an SFTP panel for moving files, a session manager with groups and bookmarks, themes, split views, macros, and over a hundred other modules. It ships as a portable EXE for Windows, and the README also lists Linux and macOS as supported platforms. The README leads with a SmartScreen notice because PuttyAlt is unsigned. Windows will warn you the first time you run it, the same way it warns about most new free software that has not paid for a code-signing certificate. The README walks through clicking More info and Run anyway, or unblocking the file in PowerShell, and explains that the source is open if you would rather build it yourself. You can install it by downloading the released EXE from GitHub, or by cloning the repo and building from source with cmake and make. The command line accepts the usual options for port, username, key file, saved session name, and switches for Telnet, serial, or portable mode. A long version history lists what each release added: tabs and SFTP in 0.2.0, split view and macros in 0.3.0, workspaces and plugins in 0.4.0, and a full GUI redesign with the warm blue theme in 1.0.0. Later 1.0.x releases added a hex viewer, fingerprint manager, port forwarding, tab completion, accessibility features, a network scanner, a command palette, and more. The current 1.1.0 line adds a cell-based terminal engine, scrollback search, jump hosts up to eight hops, session replay, and a setup wizard. A version 2.0 is announced as a complete UI rewrite with a GPU-accelerated rendering engine to replace the current Win32 GDI backend. The license is MIT.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to import my existing PuTTY saved sessions into PuttyAlt and group them by environment
Prompt 2
Build PuttyAlt from source on Windows with cmake and make and produce a portable EXE
Prompt 3
Configure a PuttyAlt jump host chain of three hops to reach a private SSH server behind a bastion
Prompt 4
Bypass the SmartScreen warning for PuttyAlt safely using the PowerShell Unblock-File flow
Prompt 5
Write a PuttyAlt macro that runs a fixed set of commands on login to each tab in a workspace

Frequently asked questions

wtf is puttyalt?

A heavy fork of PuTTY 0.83 that adds tabs, SFTP, a session manager, themes, split views, macros, and a hundred-plus other modules, shipped as a portable Windows EXE with Linux and macOS builds.

What language is puttyalt written in?

Mainly C. The stack also includes C, CMake, Win32.

What license does puttyalt use?

MIT, use and modify freely as long as the copyright notice is kept.

How hard is puttyalt to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is puttyalt for?

Mainly ops devops.

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