a-Shell
Nicolas Holzschuch Developer Tools iPhoneiPadiPod touch
a-Shell is a free Developer Tools app for iPhone and iPad by Nicolas Holzschuch. Rated 4.6/5 from 565 ratings. Requires iOS 14.0. Updated October 24, 2026.
- Rating
- 4.6
- 565 ratings
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 2.1 GB
- Age 17+
- Updated
- Oct 24
- 2026 · v2.3.0
Screenshots
About a-Shell
a-Shell is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on your iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. You can work with git repositories using lg2. Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with the BSD Unix that powers iOS/iPadOS. a-Shell includes Python, Lua, Perl, JavaScript, C, C++ for programming and TeX (texlive 2025, with Tikz and LuaTeX) for text processing. There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands. a-Shell can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps... a-shell uses iOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python. Compile your C or C++ programs to webAssembly using clang or clang++, and execute the resulting binary. A complete webAssembly SDK is included (WASI-libc). a-Shell is the complete version. If you need a smaller app, and you don't need a C compiler, a TeX engine, or numpy and matplotlib, there is a-Shell mini.
Ratings & reviews
4.6
565 ratings
What’s new
Version 2.3.0 · Updated October 24, 2026
- updated certificate files for the main app and for Python to fix for the eMudhra CA Key Compromise issue. - support for user fonts - support for color themes - new commands: node, npm, npx, helix, fzf, rg, fd, ruff, gix, ein, navi - bug fixes: the terminal remains above the keyboard, the terminal gets the focus back on its own after you dismiss a "view" or a "play" window, matching the toolbar color with the terminal color, fixed several places where the app would crash...
App privacy
The developer, Nicolas Holzschuch, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Alternatives to a-Shell
Looking for apps like a-Shell? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is xTerminal - SSH Terminal Shell (4.7/5), and all 6 are free to download.
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| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a-Shell | 4.6 / 5 (565 ratings) | Free | October 24, 2026 | |
| xTerminal - SSH Terminal Shell | 4.7 / 5 (1,962) | Free | Mar 23, 2026 | Compare |
| Pyto IDE | 3.7 / 5 (1,001) | Free | Jun 9, 2024 | Compare |
| Kodex | 4.2 / 5 (208) | Free | Apr 1, 2024 | Compare |
| Web Inspector | 3.9 / 5 (160) | Free | Aug 29, 2026 | Compare |
| Runestone Text Editor | 4.7 / 5 (2,101) | Free | Sep 10, 2026 | Compare |
| Terminal# | 4.5 / 5 (162) | Free | Jun 28, 2024 | Compare |
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