SSH Tunnel Watchdog

Auto-reconnects and monitors all your local SSH tunnels, alerting the moment one drops

Problem

A V2EX developer described needing to reach 4–5 production databases simultaneously: if even one SSH tunnel is forgotten or drops, the whole service errors out and they have to debug hop by hop, only to find the tunnel again. SSH tunnels work, but managing them is painful, and network blips require manual restarts.

Solution

A desktop or menu-barresident SSH tunnel manager: centrally configure all port forwards, auto-reconnect with exponential backoff on disconnect, show every tunnel's health on one screen, and fire a system notification or webhook when one drops. Optional local port-conflict detection and latency charting.

Users

Backend developers and ops engineers who frequently reach remote databases, Redis, and internal services.

MVP

GUI management of SSH port-forward configs; automatic reconnect on drop; tunnel health dashboard; disconnect notifications; import from ~/.ssh/config.

Revenue

Free tier capped at 3 tunnels; Pro one-time purchase of $15–25 unlocks unlimited tunnels, webhook alerts, and team-shared configs.

Why now

Remote work and distributed databases are the norm, and SSH tunnel debugging is a high-frequency, low-value pain point; existing tools are either CLI-only or bloated, leaving room for a lightweight GUI watchdog.