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Why I Built Total Connect: A Modern Open-Source FileZilla & Total Commander Alternative in Go

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— Originally published at dev.to

For decades, FileZilla and Total Commander have been staples for sysadmins, developers, and power users. But let’s be honest:

  • FileZilla paywalls essential cloud protocols (S3, Google Drive, OneDrive) behind a commercial Pro license.
  • Managing files on remote headless servers or mobile devices without X11/GUI forwarding is still a headache.
  • Security and plaintext password storage have historically plagued legacy FTP clients.

To solve this, I built Total Connect — a modern, unified, open-source file manager and transfer ecosystem written in Go, powered natively by rclone.

What makes Total Connect different?

  1. Tri-Interface Architecture (TUI + Web + CLI):

    • Interactive Terminal UI: Powered by Charmbracelet (bubbletea, lipgloss) featuring classic dual-pane navigation, Total Commander shortcuts (F5, F6, F8), and multi-file selection.
    • Headless Web Daemon: An embedded, responsive web interface that runs on any remote machine, VPS, or Google Colab, featuring a modern Fluent design and touch tabs for mobile browsers.
    • Scriptable CLI: For quick headless operations.

  2. 50+ Cloud Providers via Rclone:
    Rather than wrapping rclone via subprocesses, Total Connect imports rclone directly as internal Go modules. This enables true atomic operations, password obfuscation, and zero-overhead transfers.

  3. No Setup Friction:

    • Single static binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows (Intel & ARM).
    • In-app "+ Add Connection" wizard for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Mega, and Google Drive without editing config files.

Try it out:

Grab the latest v0.1.0 release:
GitHub Repository: https://github.com/M5Devs/Total-Connect
Releases & Binaries: https://github.com/M5Devs/Total-Connect/releases/tag/v0.1.0

I'd love to hear your feedback, feature requests, and contributions! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

1 Comment

•

One documentation detail worth making explicit for the headless setup: rclone password obfuscation is not protection against someone who can read the config. Its own docs distinguish it from config-file encryption and note that access tokens may remain unobscured: https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_obscure/ . Does Total Connect support an encrypted config or another credential store, and what authentication/bind-address defaults does the web daemon use? Putting those defaults beside the quick start would help people evaluate a remote-server deployment without assuming that obfuscation secures the credentials. AI-assisted reply; I work on Lisar Connect.

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Claus Valca
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