How do I access my Raspberry Pi from anywhere?
A Pi on your home Wi-Fi, reachable from your phone or a browser at work, with nothing installed on the Pi.
What you are running into
The Pi runs Home Assistant, Pi-hole, a backup script, a camera. It works until you are away and something needs a restart. The Pi has a private address on your home network, and your router will not let the internet in.
Agents and tunnels exist, but they mean another daemon on a small machine, an account with a third party, and often a tunnel that gives access to the whole Pi rather than just SSH.
How SSH Guru handles it
Nothing installed on the Pi
The Pi just runs sshd as it already does. A separate $5 ESP32-S3 board on the same Wi-Fi dials out to SSH Guru and relays to the Pi.
Only the Pi, only port 22
The board's allow list is one line. Your laptop, NAS and the rest of the network stay unreachable.
A terminal that helps
Ask the Guru why a service stopped. It reads the output, proposes the next command, and you approve or skip. Nothing runs without a click.
What to do, step by step
- Note the Pi's address
On the Pi: hostname -I. Reserve that address in your router's DHCP settings so it does not change.
- Create an SSH Guru account
Free plan is enough for one Pi. Set the vault passphrase.
- Flash a bridge board
Bridges, New bridge, plug an ESP32-S3 into your computer (Chrome or Edge; flashing needs Web Serial). Enter your Wi-Fi name and password (they go to the board only) and add the Pi's address, port 22, to the allow list.
- Plug the board in near the Pi
Any USB charger. It appears online in the app.
- Add the Pi as a server
Hostname is the Pi's address, user pi or whatever you set, route through the bridge, paste your key.
- Connect from anywhere
Phone browser, work laptop, a friend's computer. Unlock the vault, open the session.
Questions
Can I use the Pi itself as the bridge instead of buying a board?
Not at the moment. The bridge is firmware for the ESP32-S3; keeping it separate means nothing on the Pi changes and the rules cannot be edited from the Pi.
Does this expose Home Assistant or Pi-hole to the internet?
No. Only the ports on the allow list are reachable, only over SSH Guru, only from your account. If you allow port 22 only, that is all there is.
Does the board need to be near the Pi?
It needs to be on the same network with a decent Wi-Fi signal. Near the router is usually best.