Menu bar & window
A status-bar item with quick toggles, plus a full management window. Close the window — it stays running up top.
SSH port forwards · for macOS
A dead-simple, native SSH port-forward manager. Flip one on to bring a forward up; if it drops — sleep, network blip, server hiccup — it quietly reconnects. Lives in your menu bar and a proper window.
Free & open source · macOS 26+ · Apple Silicon · v0.1.2
One window. Every forward is a row with a status dot, an address mapping, and a switch.
Open source · MIT Auto-updates No telemetry Drives your system ssh
What it does
Everything you reach for, nothing you don’t.
It drives the system ssh binary, so it reuses your existing config, keys and agent. Nothing to set up twice.
Auto-reconnect
Per-forward supervision with exponential backoff. Tunnels survive sleeps and blips; real failures surface the actual reason.
1s → 30s backoffLocal, remote & dynamic
Every forward type you actually use — pull a remote port home, expose a local one, or run a SOCKS proxy.
-L · -R · -DKeychain-backed auth
SSH agent, a private key with passphrase, or a password — secrets live at rest in your Keychain, never on the command line.
Uses your SSH setup
Inherits ~/.ssh/config, keys and agent. Host aliases populate the editor’s picker automatically.
Native throughout
SwiftUI switches, grouped forms, SF Symbols, automatic light/dark, launch-at-login, and notifications on drops & reconnects.
How a forward works
A remote port, mirrored to your Mac.
Your Mac
localhost:3000
your browser hits this
Studio Server
elysia:3000
runs over there
01
Add a forward
Pick a host alias, choose local / remote / dynamic, set the ports. The editor knows every option you reach for.
02
Flip the switch
Mirrorball spawns a supervised ssh -N and watches it. Green means it’s up.
03
Forget about it
It reconnects through sleeps and blips, and tears every child down cleanly on quit. No leaked tunnels.
Always one click away
Right from the menu bar.
The status-bar glyph reflects the aggregate state at a glance. Toggle any forward without leaving what you’re doing.
- ✓ Quick toggles for every forward
- ✓ Open the window, Settings, or check for updates
- ✓ Stays running here when the window is closed
Built carefully
Your secret never touches the command line.
Anyone running ps can read a process’s arguments. So Mirrorball never puts a password or passphrase there. Secrets stay in the Keychain and reach ssh through SSH_ASKPASS on the child’s environment alone.
# never — visible in `ps`
ssh -L 3000:… host -p 'hunter2'
# Mirrorball — via the environment
SSH_ASKPASS=… ssh -N -L 3000:… host
✓ secret stays in the Keychain
Get Mirrorball.
Download the disk image and drag Mirrorball into Applications. It keeps itself up to date from there.
macOS 26+ · Apple Silicon · v0.1.2