sshfs
SSH Filesystem -- Async SSH/SFTP backend for fsspec
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Active maintenance, permissive license, low install friction, no known vulnerabilities, and a clean async design make this a solid choice for Python-based SFTP access. Use it if you need to treat remote SSH filesystems as fsspec-compatible storage or prefer async I/O over blocking SFTP libraries.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9 or later; remote SSH server must be accessible and credentials (password or client_keys) must be provided.
- Low friction install with only two runtime dependencies (fsspec and asyncssh).
- Active maintenance with a release 7 days ago and last commit on 2026-08-07.
License · maintenance · safety
Apache-2.0 (permissive) — Apache-2.0 permissive license allows unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and proprietary projects.
last release 2026-08-07 (7 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-07 · 89 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 3,026,665 downloads/mo, #2,783 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install sshfs
from sshfs import SSHFileSystem
fs = SSHFileSystem('example.com', username='user', password='pass')
with fs.open('/path/to/file', 'r') as f:
content = f.read()- Performance characteristics compared to other SFTP libraries beyond the description's claim of being 'quite fast'.
- Whether server-side copy via SSH command execution is available for all SSH server types or only specific implementations.
What it is and what it does
sshfs is an fsspec filesystem backend that lets you interact with remote files over SFTP/SSH as if they were local files. It wraps asyncssh to provide async, non-blocking I/O and integrates with fsspec's standardized filesystem API, so you can use familiar operations like open(), read(), write(), mkdir(), and find() against remote servers.
You can authenticate with passwords or private keys, and the package handles channel management internally. It supports both the high-level fsspec.open() interface for simple file access and the SSHFileSystem class directly for more complex operations. The implementation covers the full fsspec protocol and adds SSH-specific features like server-side copy through command execution.
Use it for
- Transfer files between local and remote servers within Python scripts without spawning subprocess calls to scp or sftp.
- Stream large remote files for processing without downloading them entirely to disk first.
- Automate remote file management tasks (create directories, list contents, delete files) from Python code.
- Integrate remote file access into data pipelines that already use fsspec for other storage backends.
- Build tools that need to work with files on multiple SSH servers with a unified, async-friendly interface.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Active maintenance, permissive license, low install friction, no known vulnerabilities, and a clean async design make this a solid choice for Python-based SFTP access. Use it if you need to treat remote SSH filesystems as fsspec-compatible storage or prefer async I/O over blocking SFTP libraries.
Install
sshfs on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction install with only two runtime dependencies (fsspec and asyncssh). Active maintenance with a release 7 days ago and last commit on 2026-08-07.
Requires Python 3.9 or later; remote SSH server must be accessible and credentials (password or client_keys) must be provided.
License in practice
Apache-2.0 permissive license allows unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and proprietary projects.
Quickstart
pip install sshfs
from sshfs import SSHFileSystem
fs = SSHFileSystem('example.com', username='user', password='pass')
with fs.open('/path/to/file', 'r') as f:
content = f.read()Verify before relying
- Performance characteristics compared to other SFTP libraries beyond the description's claim of being 'quite fast'.
- Whether server-side copy via SSH command execution is available for all SSH server types or only specific implementations.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 2 packagesfsspecasyncssh |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 7 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 3,026,665 / month, #2,783 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: sshfs-2026.8.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also asyncssh · fs.sshfs · ocifs · scmrepo · gdrive-fsspec · webdav4 · fsspec · dvc-ssh · sftpretty · ossfs