Tessera
Files
The files panel slides out beside the terminal and shows the remote directory your shell is sitting in. Open it with ⌘⇧E or the folder glyph in the session’s top bar.
File operations always run over a dedicated, lazily-opened SSH+SFTP bridge per host — never the terminal transport — so the panel works identically for ssh and mosh sessions. The bridge closes itself when idle.
Following your shell
The panel follows the shell’s current directory. The precise signal is OSC 7 escape sequences; underneath sits a no-setup fallback that finds your newest shell on the host and reads its working directory.
If your shell doesn’t emit OSC 7, the panel can offer Enable follow —
install shell integration, which installs ~/.config/tessera/osc7.sh on the
server and hooks it into .zshrc / .bashrc (marked with # TESSERA-OSC7).
It takes effect on the next shell login — run exec $SHELL or reconnect.
Over mosh, a stock mosh-server strips OSC 7 entirely, so following there
always relies on the fallback — Tessera doesn’t offer the shell-integration
install where it wouldn’t change anything.
You can also turn following off per panel and browse freely.
Browsing
The panel’s breadcrumb bar shows the current path with a follow toggle. Actions:
- upload here, new folder,
- hidden-file toggle, sort, refresh,
- filter this directory,
- open by path with tab-completion suggestions,
- a recents list.
Each file’s context menu offers Quick Look (downloads to preview), Download, Share… (the iOS share sheet), and Send Path to Terminal. Transfers show up in a progress strip, and errors are explicit — for example: “This host’s key isn’t trusted yet. Open a terminal session to it first to review the key, then retry.” (see host key verification).
Uploading
Three ways in:
- Upload here in the panel.
- Drag and drop a file onto the terminal — it’s uploaded and its remote path is typed for you.
- Share into Tessera from other apps — images through the iOS share
sheet, other file types through “open in Tessera”. The Upload to host
sheet picks the host and a
destination — session cwd or temp folder (
~/.cache/tessera) — with a Paste path into active session toggle. Hosts that aren’t connected are marked “connect on upload…” — the Connect & upload button connects first, then uploads.
The paste-path flow is built for agent workflows: paste or share a screenshot and Claude Code / Codex pick the file up from the typed path.
Tessera also appears under “On My iPad” in the Files app, so downloads are easy to reach from other apps.
Housekeeping
Under settings → files:
- temp file cleanup — a reaper deletes
paste-*files in the temp folder on connect: off, 1 day, 7 days (default), or 30 days. - default upload destination — session cwd or temp folder, remembered per host.