Surge is a blazing fast, open-source download manager built in Go. While it features a beautiful Terminal User Interface (TUI), it is architected to run equally well as a background Headless Server or a CLI tool for automation.
Designed for power users who prefer a keyboard-driven workflow and want full control over their downloads.
brew install surge-downloader/tap/surge
go install github.com/surge-downloader/surge@latest
git clone https://github.com/surge-downloader/surge.git
cd surge
go build -o surge .
Surge operates in three distinct modes depending on your workflow needs:
The default mode. Launches a full-screen, interactive dashboard to manage downloads, view real-time graphs, and manage the queue.
- Best for: Daily usage, visual monitoring.
Runs Surge in the background without a user interface. It listens on a specific port for incoming download requests from the CLI or Browser Extension.
- Best for: Raspberry Pis, VPS, always-on servers, or background tasks.
Allows you to send commands to a running instance (TUI or Headless) or perform quick, standalone downloads similar to wget or curl.
- Best for: Scripts, batch processing, single-file downloads.
Start the visual dashboard.
surge
Start the daemon in the background.
# Start server (default port)
surge --headless
# Start with specific settings
surge --headless --port 8090 -o ~/Downloads/Surge
Note: Set port to
0to have Surge automatically assign a free port.
Send downloads to a running Surge instance (TUI or Headless) or download directly.
# 1. Send to a running instance (Remote)
# Does not block your terminal; hands off the task to the server.
surge get <URL> --port 8090
# 2. Standalone Download (Direct)
# Blocks the terminal until finished (like wget). No server required.
surge get <URL>
# 3. Override Output Directory
surge get <URL> -o /tmp/downloads
# 4. Batch Download
# Reads a file with one URL per line
surge get --batch urls.txt
- High-speed Downloads with multi-connection support
- Beautiful TUI built with Bubble Tea & Lipgloss
- Pause/Resume downloads seamlessly
- Real-time Progress with speed graphs and ETA
- Auto-retry on connection failures
- Batch Downloads
- Browser Extension integration
- Clipboard Integration
A standard browser usually opens a single HTTP connection to the server. However, servers typically limit the bandwidth allocated to a single connection to ensure fairness for all users.
Download managers (like Surge) open multiple requests simultaneously (e.g., 32 in Surge). They use this method to split the file into many small parts and download those parts individually.
Not all connections are created equal; there are fast connections and slow connections due to factors like load balancers and CDNs. Download managers employ various methods to optimize these connections.
The top 3 optimizations we did in Surge are:
-
Split the Largest Chunk: Split the largest chunk whenever possible so that workers do not remain idle.
-
Work Stealing: Near the end, when fast workers are finished and slow workers are still processing, make the fast, idle workers "steal work" from the slow workers.
-
Restart Slow Workers: Calculate the mean speed of all workers. If a worker is performing at less than 0.3x of the mean, restart it in the hopes that it will secure a better pathway to the server, which will be faster.
| Tool | Time | Speed | vs Surge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surge | 28.93s | 35.40 MB/s | — |
| aria2c | 40.04s | 25.57 MB/s | 1.38× slower |
| curl | 57.57s | 17.79 MB/s | 1.99× slower |
| wget | 61.81s | 16.57 MB/s | 2.14× slower |
Test Environment
Results averaged over 5 runs
| File | 1GB.bin (link) |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Network | 360 Mbps / 45 MB/s |
Run your own: python benchmark.py -n 5
Intercept downloads from your browser and send them directly to Surge.
- Navigate to
chrome://extensions - Enable Developer mode
- Click Load unpacked and select the
extensionfolder - Ensure Surge is running before downloading
- Navigate to
about:debugging - Click This Firefox in the sidebar
- Click Load Temporary Add-on...
- Select
manifest.jsonfrom theextensionfolder
Note: Temporary add-ons are removed when Firefox closes. For permanent installation, the extension must be signed via addons.mozilla.org.
The extension will automatically intercept downloads and send them to a running instance of Surge.
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to fork, make changes, and submit a pull request.
If you find Surge useful, please consider giving it a ⭐ it helps others discover the project!
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.