orbithub/README.md

OrbitHub

OrbitHub is a cross-platform native desktop app for managing and launching remote sessions from one place.

It is implemented in C++17 with Qt6 Widgets and built with CMake.

Supported target platforms:

• Windows
• Linux
• macOS

Current Status

OrbitHub is in active development.

• Milestones completed: M0-M9
• Current milestone: Milestone 10 (v1.0 Stabilization)
• Latest published release: v2026.9.16; a v2026.9.16.6 release is drafted with several post-.16 fixes and is pending a macOS installer before publishing
• VNC (M6) is fully built out: Raw/CopyRect/Hextile/ZRLE/Tight encodings, bidirectional clipboard sync, remote cursor shape sync, and both scale-to-fit and actual-size display modes. Standard VNC Authentication and no-auth servers (TigerVNC, x11vnc, TightVNC, etc.) work end to end. macOS's built-in Screen Sharing uses two undocumented, reverse-engineered authentication schemes that are implemented but not yet confirmed working against a real macOS server — see docs/PROGRESS.md for details.

Progress and milestone details:

• docs/PROGRESS.md

Latest published release (installers for Windows, Linux, and macOS):

• v2026.9.16

User Guide:

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md (also available as a PDF attached to each release, and in-app via Help -> User Guide)

Screenshots

Profiles organized into folders, with protocol, host, and tags shown at a glance. (Sample data shown; not real hosts.)

An interactive SSH terminal session in a tab, with the event log below.

An embedded RDP session in a tab.

Implemented Features

Profile Management

• SQLite-backed profile storage
• Create, edit, delete profiles
• Protocol-aware profile validation (SSH/RDP/VNC)
• Username is optional on any protocol's profile — if left blank, OrbitHub asks for one inline at connect time instead of requiring it up front
• Profile search and sorting
• Tags support
• Folder/subfolder support
• List and Folders profile views
• Right-click profile tree actions:
  • New Folder
  • New Connection
• Drag-and-drop profile moves between folders with persistence
• Import/Export of the whole profile list as JSON, and one-way import from mRemoteNG connection XML files (passwords are never imported)

Session Experience

• Multi-tab session window
• Auto-connect on tab open
• Disconnect on tab close
• Session state indicators on tabs, colored distinctly per state (connecting/connected/disconnected/failed)
• A tab awaiting a username/password prompt is clearly marked — its title gets a "(Needs input)" suffix and its tab color changes — even when it isn't the tab currently in view, and the inline prompt itself uses a solid highlighted banner rather than blending into the rest of the tab
• Timestamped event log with filtering and export

SSH

• Embedded interactive terminal (in-app typing)
• Theme support (Dark, Light, Solarized Dark)
• Password and private-key auth flows
• Known-hosts policy support

RDP

• Embedded in-window RDP rendering surface (no external launcher)
• Keyboard/mouse input forwarding
• Resize handling and resolution renegotiation
• Domain-aware authentication support
• RDP security/performance profile options

VNC

• Embedded in-window VNC rendering surface (no external launcher)
• Raw, CopyRect, Hextile, ZRLE, and Tight rectangle encodings
• Bidirectional clipboard sync
• Remote cursor shape sync
• Scale-to-fit and actual-size (scrollable) display modes, toggled per-tab and remembered across sessions
• Standard VNC Authentication and no-auth servers (TigerVNC, x11vnc, TightVNC, etc.)
• No dynamic remote-desktop resizing (VNC has no real equivalent of RDP's MS-RDPEDISP)
• macOS Screen Sharing's two undocumented Apple auth schemes are implemented but not yet confirmed working against a real macOS server — see docs/PROGRESS.md

App UX

• App icon and themed About dialog
• In-app User Guide (Help -> User Guide), matching docs/USER_GUIDE.md
• File menu:
  • New Profile
  • New Folder
  • Import Profiles...
  • Export Profiles...
  • Import from mRemoteNG...
  • Quit
• Help menu:
  • User Guide
  • About OrbitHub

Build and Run

Detailed platform instructions:

• docs/BUILDING.md

Quick start (Linux/macOS with Ninja):

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build
./build/orbithub

Packaging

Detailed packaging instructions for all platforms:

• docs/BUILDING.md

Linux (.deb):

./packaging/linux/build-deb.sh

Linux (Flatpak):

./packaging/flatpak/build-flatpak.sh

Windows (Inno Setup installer):

.\packaging\windows\build-installer.ps1

macOS (.dmg):

./packaging/macos/build-dmg.sh

Dependencies

Core dependencies:

• Qt 6 (Widgets, SQL)
• CMake 3.21+
• C++17 toolchain
• OpenSSL (RDP/VNC transport security and Apple VNC auth)
• zlib (VNC's ZRLE and Tight encodings)
• libjpeg-turbo (VNC's Tight encoding's JPEG sub-mode)

Protocol/runtime dependencies:

• SSH client (ssh) available on PATH for SSH sessions

Bundled/vendored third-party components:

• KodoTerm
• libvterm
• FreeRDP/WinPR

Licensing

Project license:

• MIT (see LICENSE)

License links:

• MIT License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
• GNU LGPLv3: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html
• Apache License 2.0: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Important third-party license notes:

• Qt6 is dynamically linked in this project build setup.
• Qt6 is used under LGPLv3 terms in this project build setup.
• KodoTerm and libvterm are MIT-licensed.
• FreeRDP/WinPR is Apache-2.0 licensed.

Repository license files:

• Project: LICENSE
• KodoTerm: third_party/KodoTerm/LICENSE
• FreeRDP: third_party/FreeRDP/LICENSE

See in-app Help -> About OrbitHub for license links and third-party inventory.

Repository Structure

• src/ - application source code
• docs/ - build guide, spec, and progress tracking
• packaging/ - per-platform installer/package build scripts
• tests/ - CTest unit/integration tests and fixtures
• tools/ - standalone build-time tools (e.g. the User Guide PDF generator)
• third_party/ - vendored third-party dependencies
• build/ - local build output (generated)
• dist/ - packaged installer/deb/flatpak/dmg output (generated)

Notes

• Passwords are requested at connect time and are not stored in the profile database.
• A profile's username is optional for every protocol; if left blank, OrbitHub asks for one inline the first time you connect that profile.
• VNC support covers standard VNC Authentication and no-auth servers (e.g. TigerVNC, x11vnc, TightVNC). macOS's built-in Screen Sharing server uses two undocumented, reverse-engineered authentication schemes that are implemented but not yet confirmed working against a real macOS server (see docs/PROGRESS.md, Milestone 6).