Connecting to Hosts

Learn how to create, configure, and manage SSH connections in JumpTerm.

Creating a Connection

To create a new connection, click the "+" button in the sidebar or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+N / Ctrl+N. You will need to provide the hostname or IP address, port (defaults to 22), and username.

For authentication, JumpTerm supports password authentication, private key files (PEM, OpenSSH, and PPK formats), SSH agent forwarding, and certificate-based authentication. You can store your credentials in the vault or choose to be prompted each time.

Importing from SSH Config

If you have an existing ~/.ssh/config file, go to Settings > Import > SSH Config to import all your hosts at once. JumpTerm parses standard SSH config directives including Host, HostName, User, Port, IdentityFile, ProxyJump, and Match blocks. Imported connections are added to your vault and synced to all your devices.

Organizing Connections

Use tags to categorize connections by environment (production, staging, dev), team, or project. Create folders in the sidebar to group related connections visually. The search bar at the top of the sidebar supports full-text search across hostnames, tags, usernames, and notes.

You can color-code connections for quick visual identification. Right-click any connection and select "Set Color" to assign a color label.

Connection Options

Each connection supports advanced options including custom environment variables, startup commands (executed after connecting), keepalive intervals, and compression settings. You can configure port forwarding rules that activate automatically when you connect -- see the Port Forward Profiles documentation for details.