SFTP Pilot

Disclaimer: this tool uploads, overwrites and deletes files on remote servers, including unattended through its scheduler. It is provided AS IS, without warranty of any kind, and you use it entirely at your own risk: the author is not liable for data loss, corruption, downtime or any other damage. You are responsible for checking every target, keeping tested backups and being authorised to change the servers you connect to. It is not certified for regulated or safety-critical use. See DISCLAIMER.md; the LICENSE is the governing text and prevails where the two differ.

A Python SFTP client with a tkinter GUI, a console menu, and a persistent task scheduler for one-off or recurring uploads, downloads and deletes.

It speaks SFTP directly through paramiko, so it runs anywhere Python does. It was called WinSCP Manager (winscp_tools) up to version 1.1.0; see CHANGE_LOG.md for what moved.

Version: 2.0.1 · Python: 3.11+ · License: MIT

Features

• Upload, download, delete and list over SFTP, with progress for large files
• Password or key authentication (RSA, ECDSA, Ed25519, encrypted keys included)
• Host key verification: new servers are remembered, a changed key is refused
• Remote folders are created on upload; downloads land under a temporary .part name, so a failed transfer never leaves a truncated file behind
• Scheduler with one-off and recurring tasks, saved to disk between sessions; each run opens its own connection, so a dropped interactive session does not stop scheduled work
• Secrets can come from environment variables instead of the config file

Quick start

pip install sftp-pilot
sftp-pilot --init-config     # writes config.ini here; then edit it
sftp-pilot                   # GUI
sftp-pilot --console         # console menu

PyPI · python -m sftp_pilot works too.

From a source checkout: pip install ., or without installing pip install -r requirements.txt then python main.py.

Options:

On Linux the GUI needs tkinter (sudo apt-get install python3-tk); the console interface works without it.

Configuration

config.ini is git-ignored because it holds credentials. Start from sftp-pilot --init-config (the template is sftp_pilot/example_config.ini):

[DEFAULT]
protocol = sftp
host = example.com
port = 22
username = your_username
password =
# private_key_path = ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
# private_key_passphrase =
host_key_policy = accept_new
known_hosts_file = known_hosts
timeout = 30

[PATHS]
remote_upload_dir = /remote/upload/path
local_download_dir = ./downloads

[SCHEDULING]
enabled = true
check_interval = 30

[LOGGING]
log_file = sftp_pilot.log
log_level = INFO

Keeping the password out of the file

$env:SFTP_PILOT_PASSWORD = "..."     # PowerShell

export SFTP_PILOT_PASSWORD='...'     # bash

Key authentication is the better option for anything unattended.

Host keys

The first connection to a server stores its key in known_hosts_file. If the server later presents a different key, the connection is refused with a warning, since that is what a man-in-the-middle attack looks like. If the key really did change (server rebuilt), delete that server's line from the file.

Using it

GUI

• Connection: host, port, user, password or key. Fields start from the config file; Reload Config reads it again.
• File Operations: upload (a remote path ending in / keeps the local file name), download, delete (asks first). One transfer runs at a time and the window stays responsive.
• Scheduler: add tasks, start or stop the scheduler, remove the selected tasks. The list refreshes every few seconds. A recurring task whose last run failed shows pending (last run failed) and keeps its schedule.
• Logs: everything that is written to the log.

Scheduled tasks connect with the settings saved in the config file, not with whatever is typed in the Connection tab.

Console

1. Connect to server        7. Schedule task
2. Disconnect from server   8. View scheduled tasks
3. Upload file              9. Remove scheduled task
4. Download file           10. Start scheduler
5. Delete file             11. Stop scheduler
6. List remote files       12. Exit

Remove a task by its full ID or an unambiguous prefix of at least four characters. Ctrl+C exits cleanly, stopping the scheduler and disconnecting.

Scheduling notes

• The scheduler only runs while the application is open. For jobs that must run with nobody logged in, use the operating system's scheduler (Task Scheduler, cron) instead.
• A task that was running when the application closed is run again at the next start, and is marked as interrupted.
• Scheduled deletes run unattended and every interval for recurring tasks. Check the path twice.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

The integration tests start a throwaway SFTP server (asyncssh) on localhost, so they need no external server. They cover transfers, key authentication, host key changes and a scheduled run end to end.

sftp_pilot/
  cli.py             command-line entry point (sftp-pilot)
  config_manager.py  config.ini reading, environment overrides
  sftp_handler.py  SFTP connection and file operations
  scheduler.py       task model, persistence, scheduler thread
  runner.py          runs a task on its own connection
  gui.py             tkinter interface
  console.py         console menu
tests/               pytest suite

Troubleshooting

License

MIT, see LICENSE. Change history is in CHANGE_LOG.md.