tabby-docker-console

A Tabby plugin that adds a Docker management panel to SSH sessions, inspired by the Docker interface in Termix.

All commands are executed over the existing SSH session — no extra connections are opened.

Features

| Feature | Details | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Containers | Card grid with state badges (running / exited / paused), image, ID, ports, creation date | | Search & filter | Live search by name / image / ID; filter by state | | Actions | Start / Stop / Restart / Remove (with per-card busy state) | | Exec terminal | Opens a new SSH tab running docker exec -it <container> bash (falls back to sh) | | Logs | Scrollable log view with tail selector, timestamps toggle, live auto-refresh (configurable interval), inline filter, and one-click download | | Stats | CPU, memory (with progress bars), network I/O, block I/O, PIDs — auto-refreshed every 5 s without re-rendering the layout | | Images | Grid with ID, size, creation date; remove button | | Theme-aware UI | Uses Tabby's dynamic CSS variables (--theme-bg, --theme-fg, …) so the panel matches any terminal colour scheme |

Installation

From the plugin marketplace

Search for tabby-docker-console in Settings → Plugin manager.

Manual (development / testing)

git clone https://github.com/jeishod/tabby-docker-console
cd tabby-docker-console
npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run build

Copy the built artefacts to Tabby's plugin directory:

PLUGIN_DIR=~/Library/Application\ Support/tabby/plugins/node_modules/tabby-docker-console
mkdir -p "$PLUGIN_DIR/dist"
cp package.json "$PLUGIN_DIR/"
cp dist/index.js "$PLUGIN_DIR/dist/"

macOS path shown above. On Linux: ~/.config/tabby/plugins/node_modules/…

⚠️ Copy only dist/ and package.json. Do not symlink the whole project directory — Tabby would pick up the local node_modules/@angular/core and crash with a version mismatch.

Fully quit Tabby (Cmd+Q / Ctrl+Q) and reopen it. The plugin is loaded at startup.

Usage

1. Open an SSH connection to a server that has Docker installed.
2. Click the Docker button in the tab toolbar (next to Reconnect / SFTP / Ports), or right-click the SSH tab → Docker Console.
3. The Docker Console opens as a new Tabby tab.

Docker permissions — the remote user must be able to run docker commands without sudo. Add the user to the docker group if needed:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER   # then log out and back in

Project structure

src/
├── models.ts                          # DockerContainer / DockerImage / DockerStats interfaces
├── utils.ts                           # Shared SSH tab detection + host label helpers
├── index.ts                           # Angular module registration
├── tabContextMenu.ts                  # "Docker Console" right-click menu entry
├── dockerToolbar.decorator.ts         # "Docker" toolbar button injector
├── components/
│   └── dockerConsoleTab.component.ts  # Main UI component (template + styles inlined)
└── services/
    └── remoteDocker.service.ts        # SSH exec channel + Docker CLI wrappers

How it works internally

Commands are executed via SSH exec channels (RFC 4254 §6.5) using the russh library that ships inside Tabby. Each command opens a dedicated non-PTY channel, collects stdout/stderr, then explicitly closes the channel to release the slot.

The interactive exec terminal (Open terminal button) uses a different path: it temporarily monkey-patches sshSession.openShellChannel to open a PTY exec channel running docker exec -it <id> <shell> instead of a regular login shell. The patch self-restores after the first invocation so no other tab is affected.

Known limitations

• sudo — if Docker requires sudo on the remote host, commands will fail with a permission error. See the Docker permissions note above.
• Tabby version — developed and tested against Tabby 1.0.163+. The plugin uses internal russh APIs (channel.requestExec, channel.closed$) that may change in future Tabby releases.
• Docker availability — if Docker is not installed or the daemon is not running, the panel displays an error and all buttons are disabled.

Author

License

MIT — see LICENSE