ssh.place: r/place over SSH

Overview

ssh.place provides a shared 200×60 color canvas that anyone can edit over SSH without creating an account or installing software.

How to Use

To draw on ssh.place, connect with ssh ssh.place, move the cursor using arrow keys, WASD, or HJKL, select a color with 0‑9 or Tab, and place a block with Space, then wait 15 seconds before the next action.

Technical Mechanics

The server enforces a per‑SSH‑key 15‑second cooldown, stores the canvas state, and accepts only color changes, discarding any input that contains printable characters.

Security & Privacy Considerations

Connecting to ssh.place exposes the usual SSH risks, including potential man‑in‑the‑middle attacks during trust‑on‑first‑use, agent forwarding leaks, and the possibility that the server could log keys or be used as a honeypot.

Limitations & Known Issues

Users report several usability problems: the cursor can disappear when over a colored cell, the limited 16‑color palette lacks orange and may appear duplicated in some terminals, the canvas exceeds typical terminal width requiring scrolling, and certain terminals (e.g., Kitty) may disconnect unexpectedly.

Community Reaction & Social Dynamics

Early visitors have attempted to organize collaborative designs, expressed concerns about bots and multiboxing for advertising, and shared both enthusiasm and frustration with the experience.

"Are we coordinating factions here, like the original r/place? The social aspect was such a big part of the original. I'll start: # PURPLE FRAME # Our mission is to draw a purple frame around the canvas. 2 rows of blank space between the frame and the top/bottom of the canvas. 4 cols of blank space between the frame and the left/right of the canvas." — @cbarrick "I can't see my cursor if it is placed on top of a cell that has already been colored." — @cbarrick "Your cooldown is tied to your SSH key This sounds like a recipe for bots that bypass the cooldown..." — @Retr0id "Make sure to not be forwarding ssh agents! :)" — @quietsegfault "I love ssh apps! See also late.sh, and my own https://shellbox.dev" — @messh "Hey, is it not just a simple honeypot reverse hack ssh server? People understand that reverse hacking can happen when connecting to random ssh server, right?" — @3dedb728-3f77 "Takes all the fun out of it when people are multiboxing for the sake of posting an advertisement. Oh well." — @mplewis "Time for your regular reminder that ssh has no PKI and is trivial to mitm during tofu." — @raggi "aw it didn't work with kitty. i get logged out." — @cdelsolar "Wish we had a WebSSH like WebSockets / IRC v3." — @koolala "Nice, I first saw this on Hack Club ;) Check your terminal to see if it supports certain colours, on mine the darker and lighter colours (eg. maroon/red, purple/magenta) look identical." — @Heliodex "Hah nice! I made something a bit like this too: ssh paint.dn.ht It's using kitty/iTerm2/Ghostty image placement + pixel mouse reporting support for drawing. ..and for more fun: ssh ski.dn.ht :-)" — @dhotson "Why is there no orange? The entire colour palette is a bit depressing. Also my terminal (Ubuntu in WSL2) had an ugly colour palette defined by default with several identical colours. I'm glad I found out! Use this to check yours: for i in {0..15}; do printf "\e[48;5;%dm %2d \e[0m " "$i" "$i); (( (i + 1) % 8 == 0 )) && echo; done and then press ctrl + , to change it." — @Tepix "it's already littered with bots, so it's not fun for a human to go there." — @basdp "reminds me of the DOS program TheDraw" — @t1234s "I love the idea. I couldn't get it to work; I navigated to (0,0) but didn't see a cursor; kept changing colors and trying to place blocks but saw nothing. Eventually my Ghostty crashed." — @jxmorris12 "brilliant :)" — @ohgree

Related Projects & Alternatives

Several commenters pointed out other SSH‑based creative tools and similar projects that implement drawing or games over SSH.

Closing Thoughts

ssh.place demonstrates how a simple SSH server can host a real‑time collaborative canvas, but its openness also brings moderation and security challenges that any similar service must address.