How to Set Up a Web Terminal with ttyd

ASD includes a built-in web terminal powered by ttyd. It gives you a full shell session in any browser — desktop, tablet, or phone. No SSH client needed. Combined with ASD tunnels, you can access your development machine from anywhere.

What you get

• Full shell session in any browser
• Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• No SSH client installation needed
• Remote access via ASD tunnels
• Password-protected by default

Prerequisites

• ASD CLI installed (asd init to set up your workspace)
• The ttyd binary (auto-downloaded during asd init)

Step 1: Set credentials

ttyd requires authentication. Add credentials to your .env file:

TTYD_USERNAME=admin
TTYD_PASSWORD=your-secure-password

If you ran asd init, these are already set with auto-generated values via the macro system.

Step 2: Start the terminal

asd terminal start

ttyd starts on an automatically allocated port. To see the status and access URLs, run the interactive menu:

asd terminal

Step 3: Access it

After starting, you get three access methods:

Method	URL Format	Use Case
Local	http://localhost:<port>/	Same machine
Caddy	http://asd.localhost/asde/ttyd/	Local network
Tunnel	https://hub-xxx.cicd.eu1.asd.engineer/asde/ttyd/	Anywhere

The asd terminal menu shows all URLs with the correct port and credentials for your setup.

Remote access via tunnel

To access your terminal from anywhere in the world:

# Start the terminal
asd terminal start

# Enable tunnels (if not already active)
asd net apply --tunnel

# Get the remote URL
asd terminal
# Look for the "Tunnel:" URL in the menu

Share the tunnel URL and credentials with anyone who needs access to your machine.

Configuration options

All settings are configured via environment variables in .env:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TTYD_USERNAME	Yes	—	Login username
TTYD_PASSWORD	Yes	—	Login password
TTYD_PORT	No	(auto)	Port number
TTYD_SHELL_CMD	No	bash	Shell to run
TTYD_CWD	No	workspace	Starting directory
TTYD_PATH	No	/	URL path prefix

Example custom configuration:

TTYD_USERNAME=developer
TTYD_PASSWORD=dev-secret-123
TTYD_SHELL_CMD=zsh
TTYD_PORT=7681

Security considerations

ttyd provides full shell access — treat credentials seriously:

• Use strong passwords (12+ characters)
• Don't share credentials publicly
• Stop the service when not needed: asd terminal stop
• Monitor who has access

When project-level basic auth is enabled in asd.yaml, ttyd routes through Caddy get an additional layer of protection.

Stopping the terminal

asd terminal stop

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
"Missing username/password"	Set TTYD_USERNAME and TTYD_PASSWORD in .env
"Port in use"	asd terminal stop or kill the process on that port
"Binary not found"	Run asd init to reinstall binaries
"Can't connect via tunnel"	Check asd net — ensure the hub service has a tunnel URL
"Connection drops"	Check network stability; tunnels auto-reconnect

What's next

• VS Code Server in the browser — full IDE alongside your terminal
• Add Basic Authentication — extra security layer for remote access
• Live Terminal in CI — use ttyd inside GitHub Actions runners