drift

drift

A terminal TUI for browsing, diffing, and syncing files with remote hosts — think PHPStorm's "Browse Remote Host" and "Sync with Deployed To", but in your terminal.

Supports SFTP/SSH and FTP targets. Runs on Linux and macOS.

[!WARNING] Alpha: drift is in an early public stage. Expect rough edges, incomplete polish, and breaking changes between releases.

Features

• File browser with multi-select (Space) and recursive directory marking
• Side-by-side diff view for local vs. remote files
• Per-file sync direction control: upload ↑, download ↓, delete local ✗, delete remote ✗, or skip —
• Bulk sync direction toggle (A key cycles all files at once)
• Auto pre-selection of sync direction based on file modification time
• Sync current file (s) or all marked files (S) in one keystroke
• Per-host path mappings (like PHPStorm's Deployment Mappings tab)
• Host manager: create, edit, delete, and test connections
• Global config (~/.config/drift/config.toml) + project-level config (.drift/config.toml)
• Skips .git, node_modules, .idea, and other irrelevant directories automatically

Installation

From source (requires Go 1.25+)

git clone https://github.com/WariKoda/drift.git
cd drift
make install

This builds the binary and installs it to ~/.local/bin/drift.

Directly with Go

go install github.com/WariKoda/drift@latest

Update after code changes

make update

Usage

# Start in the current directory
drift

# Show version
drift version

Navigate to any file or directory, press Space to mark it, then s to open the sync target picker.

Typical workflow

1. Run drift in your project directory
2. Mark one or more files/directories with Space
3. Press s and choose a host
4. Review diffs and suggested sync directions
5. Sync the current file with s or all files with S

Key Bindings

File Browser

Diff View

Host Manager

Configuration

Global config: ~/.config/drift/config.toml

[defaults]
user = "deploy"

[[hosts]]
name       = "prod"
hostname   = "example.com"
port       = 22
user       = "deploy"
root_path  = "/var/www/html"
protocol   = "sftp"

  [hosts.auth]
  type     = "keyfile"
  key_file = "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"

Project config: .drift/config.toml

Place this file in your project root. drift walks up from the working directory to find it.

[[hosts]]
name      = "staging"
hostname  = "shopdev.example.com"
port      = 21
user      = "webuser"
root_path = "/var/www"
protocol  = "ftp"

  [hosts.auth]
  type     = "password"
  password = "$DEPLOY_PASSWORD"

  [[hosts.mappings]]
  local  = "plugins/plugin1"
  remote = "html/custom/plugins/plugin1"

  [[hosts.mappings]]
  local  = "plugins/plugin2"
  remote = "html/custom/plugins/plugin2"

Path Mappings

local paths are relative to the project root. remote paths are relative to the host's root_path.

When effective mappings are configured, only files that fall under a mapping rule can be synced. Files outside all mappings are excluded. Without mappings, all files sync relative to root_path.

Auth types

Project Structure

internal/
  config/       config types, loader, writer
  diff/         diff engine, result types, renderer
  ftp/          FTP client (jlaffaye/ftp)
  fs/           local file walker, directory reader
  pathmap/      local ↔ remote path resolution with mapping rules
  remote/       protocol-agnostic Client interface
  sftp/         SFTP/SSH client
  sync/         sync plan types
  tui/
    app.go      root Bubble Tea model, screen routing
    browser/    file browser screen
    diffview/   diff + sync screen
    hostform/   host create/edit form (incl. mapping manager)
    hostmanager/host list screen
    hostselector/sync target picker
    styles.go   shared lipgloss styles

Development

go test ./...
go vet ./...
go build ./...

Local install

make install

Versioned build

go build -ldflags "-X github.com/WariKoda/drift/cmd.Version=v0.1.0" -o drift .

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

For development notes and contribution workflow, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.