diff --git a/app/Models/Server.php b/app/Models/Server.php
index cae9d8c18a..1ed2e15eaa 100644
--- a/app/Models/Server.php
+++ b/app/Models/Server.php
@@ -552,6 +552,13 @@ public function getSftpUrl(?string $username = null, ?string $directory = null):
             $directory = explode('/', trim($directory, '/'));
             $directory = array_map(fn (string $part) => rawurlencode($part), $directory);
             $directory = '/' . implode('/', $directory);
+
+            // SFTP clients only treat a URL path as a directory when it ends with a
+            // slash, otherwise they prompt to download the path as a file instead of
+            // opening it. See #2577.
+            if ($directory !== '/') {
+                $directory .= '/';
+            }
         }
 
         if ($directory === '/') {
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Models/ServerTest.php b/tests/Unit/Models/ServerTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b7c272293e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Models/ServerTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace App\Tests\Unit\Models;
+
+use App\Models\Node;
+use App\Models\Server;
+use App\Tests\TestCase;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\DataProvider;
+
+class ServerTest extends TestCase
+{
+    #[DataProvider('sftpUrlDataProvider')]
+    public function test_sftp_url_points_at_the_given_directory(?string $directory, string $expectedPath): void
+    {
+        $server = $this->serverWithNode();
+
+        $this->assertSame("sftp://user.abcdefgh@node.example.com:2022{$expectedPath}", $server->getSftpUrl('user', $directory));
+    }
+
+    public static function sftpUrlDataProvider(): array
+    {
+        return [
+            'no directory' => [null, ''],
+            'root' => ['/', ''],
+            'single directory' => ['/data', '/data/'],
+            'directory without a leading slash' => ['data', '/data/'],
+            'directory with a trailing slash' => ['data/', '/data/'],
+            'nested directory' => ['/data/world', '/data/world/'],
+            'directory with encoded parts' => ['/data/my world', '/data/my%20world/'],
+        ];
+    }
+
+    public function test_sftp_url_uses_the_node_sftp_alias_when_set(): void
+    {
+        $server = $this->serverWithNode(sftpAlias: 'sftp.example.com');
+
+        $this->assertSame('sftp://user.abcdefgh@sftp.example.com:2022/data/', $server->getSftpUrl('user', '/data'));
+    }
+
+    public function test_sftp_url_encodes_the_username(): void
+    {
+        $server = $this->serverWithNode();
+
+        $this->assertSame('sftp://user%20name.abcdefgh@node.example.com:2022/data/', $server->getSftpUrl('user name', '/data'));
+    }
+
+    private function serverWithNode(string $fqdn = 'node.example.com', ?string $sftpAlias = null): Server
+    {
+        $node = new Node();
+        $node->fqdn = $fqdn;
+        $node->daemon_sftp_alias = $sftpAlias;
+        $node->daemon_sftp = 2022;
+
+        $server = new Server();
+        $server->uuid_short = 'abcdefgh';
+        $server->setRelation('node', $node);
+
+        return $server;
+    }
+}