One library of machines, not one app per protocol.

This page explains how Glass Power Tools is put together, and why. It also says what the app is not. It is written so you can weigh it for yourself.

The usual arrangement

A machine you work on often has several ways in: a shell, a database, a desktop, files to edit. Each of those has its own protocol, and each protocol grew its own kind of app.

So a common setup is one app per protocol. Each keeps its own list of the same machines, its own settings, and its own idea of where you are. When a machine's address changes, you change it in each app.

Nobody planned it that way. The protocols came at different times, from different people, and the tools followed them. It works, and many people are well served by it.

What a host is here

Glass Power Tools starts from the machine instead of the protocol.

The address lives on the host

You enter it once. Its Terminal, Database and Desktop services all use it. Change it, and every service follows.

Services list the ways in

A host shows each service it has. With one service, Connect opens it. With several, a split button opens all of them, or the one you choose.

Trust is set up once

When you trust a machine's SSH host key, anything else that reaches it over SSH uses that trust. A database tunnel does not ask again.

One place for sessions

Active lists every open terminal, database, desktop and editor window, grouped by host. The ⚡ button reaches it from any session.

The same library holds favorites, collections, other names for a machine, and search. It syncs to your other devices through iCloud. Add a machine and its services shows how it works in practice.

Why Vision Pro leads

The project began as an SSH client for Apple Vision Pro. On the headset, a session is a window you place in the room, not a tab in one window. That makes the host model worth having. You can open a server's terminal, its database and its desktop, and put them side by side.

These are normal visionOS windows. You can resize them and see through them. A remote desktop can drop its background, so a remote window can float over your space. Remote desktops on Apple Vision Pro describes the controls.

The Mac, iPad and iPhone apps are the same app, adapted to each device. Some things exist in one place only. The local shell is Mac only. The iPhone gives each session the full screen.

What it is not

Not released. There is no download or TestFlight build today. You can build it from source.
Not a service. No server of ours sits between you and your machines. The app talks to your servers, to iCloud for sync, to Tailscale only if you connect it, and to a web address only when you choose to open a 3D model's link from a terminal.
Not on every platform. Apple Vision Pro, Mac, iPad and iPhone only. There is no Windows, Linux or Android version.
Not certified. The RDP engine is an independent implementation. Microsoft has not certified it. It has been tested against Windows 11, signing in with Network Level Authentication (most recently 2026-10-13), and against two Linux RDP servers, GNOME Remote Desktop and xrdp 0.9.24. Other versions of Windows and Windows Server have not been tried.
Not every protocol. SSH and SFTP, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite, RDP and VNC. Each product page lists what it does not do yet.
Not needed by everyone. If you reach one machine one way, a single-purpose app may serve you just as well. The case for one library grows with the number of machines and ways in.

You decide

The claims on this site were checked against the app's code and its test records on 2026-09-27, and again on 2026-10-17. They are written so you can check them too. The help describes what the app actually does, on each device. Security describes what it protects and what it does not.

Whether one library of machines is better for you than one app per protocol is a question only your own work can answer.