What is Paron?

Paron is a self-hosted SSH gateway in one binary. You add a machine, and you open a terminal on it from the browser. Paron keeps the credentials, and it controls who has access.

The list of machines in the web UI: four direct machines with their host, and four tunneled machines with the state of their tunnel.

“Paron” is Venetian for “boss”.

How it works

You run one Paron server and open its web UI in a browser. The server connects to each machine over SSH.

How the server reaches a machine depends on where the machine is.

Where the machine is	Connection	Requirement
On an address that the server can reach, for example in the cloud	Direct	The server can reach the SSH port of the machine.
Behind NAT or a firewall	Tunneled	The machine can reach the server. It runs `paron tunnel`.
In a private network that you reach through a VPN today	Tunneled	The machine can reach the server. It runs `paron tunnel`.

With a tunnel, the machine opens the connection to the server. The machine needs no open inbound port, and you need no VPN to reach it. See How a tunnel works.

Components

Paron is a single program, paron, with two commands:

paron server is the control plane. It serves the web UI, stores the machines and the users, and connects to the machines.
paron tunnel runs on a machine that the server cannot reach. It connects out to the server.

The server stores its data in one directory. It needs no database server and no other service.