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Adding & editing hosts

The SSH editor lets you choose where a new host lives:

  • Muxus app data only keeps a self-contained SSH profile in the local database and does not change ~/.ssh/config.
  • OpenSSH config writes a standard Host block that also works with ssh, scp and rsync outside Muxus.

Presentation attributes such as folder, colour, highlighting and logging policy always live in the Muxus database.

Open the editor with + at the top of the sidebar, from a host's Edit host menu entry, or by pressing Enter on a search that matched nothing.

The host editor, General section The host editor, General section
The editor has seven sections, and the footer names the file it writes to.

What a save rewrites

This applies only to hosts stored in OpenSSH config. Saving rewrites only that block. Comments, ordering, Match blocks and every other host in the file are left untouched. The write is atomic, and the previous contents are kept next to it as <file>.muxus.bak.

General

Field Writes
Save host in Selects Muxus app data or an OpenSSH configuration file for a new SSH host.
Alias The Host line. Several aliases separated by spaces are accepted; the first one names the session.
HostName HostName. Empty means the alias is used as the hostname, as in OpenSSH.
Port Port, omitted when it is 22.
User User, omitted to use the local username.
Description A # comment above the block, shown in the sidebar's hover card.
Config file Which file the block lands in: the main config, an existing Included file, or a new group file that Muxus creates and includes.
Display name, folder, colour Muxus's own database, not the configuration file.

Authentication

Three modes, matching OpenSSH behaviour:

  • Agent & default keys uses the OpenSSH order: agent first, then ~/.ssh/id_*. Writes nothing, since this is the default.
  • Specific key file writes IdentityFile and IdentitiesOnly yes, so login uses only the selected files and never waits on the agent. The picker lists the keys found in ~/.ssh with their type and comment, badges the ones loaded in the agent, and marks the ones that are passphrase-protected.
  • Password / interactive writes PubkeyAuthentication no, so public keys are skipped and a prompt is issued on connect.

User certificates can be added separately as CertificateFile, for CA-signed keys.

Connection route

The route determines how the connection is dialled.

The jump-chain builder The jump-chain builder
Direct, through a chain of jump hosts, or through a command that provides the transport.
  • Direct writes nothing.
  • Jump hosts writes the chain, in order, as ProxyJump a,b,c. Each hop is either an alias from the configuration or a bare user@host:port. Muxus dials the hops in sequence and rejects a chain that loops back on itself.
  • ProxyCommand takes a command that provides the transport on stdin/stdout, such as cloudflared access ssh --hostname %h. The %h, %p and %r tokens are expanded at dial time.

More on how connections are made

Port forwarding

Forwards declared here are written into the block as LocalForward, RemoteForward or DynamicForward, and start with every session to this host.

Port forwarding with the live tunnel diagram Port forwarding with the live tunnel diagram
The diagram redraws as the fields change, showing the direction of the forward.

To start a forward on demand instead, without opening a terminal, save it as a tunnel.

Session logging & highlighting

Two per-host overrides of the global settings:

  • Session logging inherits the global policy, or forces retention on or off for this host, including whether keystrokes are recorded.
  • Highlighting adds keyword rules for this host's terminals, either in addition to or instead of the global rules.

Advanced

Muxus does not request SFTP unless its initial probe identifies a supported Unix shell. If a console server disconnects when it sees even that probe, Muxus reconnects once in plain-console mode and remembers the compatibility choice until the app restarts. No manual setting is required for the session to connect.

For known-sensitive SSH console servers and network appliances, Enable console compatibility mode skips the initial probe as well, and stops sending SendEnv/SetEnv values that these devices have no environment for. This persistent override avoids the first reconnect entirely. Terminal allocation follows the host's TTY setting either way: Muxus asks for a terminal and continues without one when the device rejects pty-req. The file-browser controls are unavailable for plain-console sessions.

For an otherwise normal SSH server that only lacks SFTP or cannot use Muxus shell integration, Disable SFTP and shell integration only keeps environment requests and normal terminal allocation intact. This remains separate from console compatibility so existing disabled-SFTP hosts keep their previous session behavior.

Any other keyword OpenSSH understands is entered here as free-form option/value pairs. The panel shows the exact block that will be written.

The exact ssh_config block preview The exact ssh_config block preview
Free-form keywords, with a preview of the resulting block.

Saving

The footer offers Save and Save & connect. The second persists the selected storage type and opens a session immediately.

Duplicating a host keeps its storage type. Deleting an OpenSSH host removes only its block; deleting a Muxus-only host removes only its database profile.