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Quickstart

From a fresh install to a split-pane session on a host you already have, in about five minutes. Muxus reads the ~/.ssh/config you already use, so if ssh myhost works in a terminal, it works here.

1. Launch Muxus

Open the desktop app, or start it from source:

pnpm start

The window opens on an empty pane with your hosts in the sidebar on the left.

2. Find your hosts

Every concrete Host block in ~/.ssh/config is already there, grouped by the file it came from, including the files pulled in with Include. Nothing is imported or copied; the sidebar reads the file directly.

The hosts sidebar The hosts sidebar
Folders, colours and live-connection dots are Muxus's; the connection details are OpenSSH's.

Click a host to connect. The first connection to an unknown host asks you to verify its key, the same way ssh does. Accepting appends it to your real ~/.ssh/known_hosts.

Nothing saved yet?

The search box doubles as quick connect. Type user@host (a :port suffix works too) and press Enter. Muxus dials it straight away, and offers to save it as a Host block afterwards. See Your hosts.

3. Split the window

With a session open, press Ctrl+Shift+Right. The pane splits, and the new pane continues the same session. The SSH connection is reused, so there is no second login and no second password prompt.

Three panes in one window Three panes in one window
Split in any direction; every pane keeps its own tab strip.

Move around with Alt+Left / Alt+Right / Alt+Up / Alt+Down, zoom a pane to the whole window with Ctrl+Shift+Z, and close one with Ctrl+Shift+X. Nothing is taken from the shell: Ctrl+W still deletes a word, so closing a tab is Ctrl+Shift+W.

More on tabs & panes

4. Open the files next to the session

Click the folder icon in the top bar to open the file browser on the current SSH tab. It rides the session's existing SSH transport, so there is no new connection and no new authentication.

The SFTP file browser beside a terminal The SFTP file browser beside a terminal
Drag files in to upload; double-click one to open it in the remote editor.

More on the file browser

5. Drive it from the keyboard

Press Ctrl+K to open the quick launcher. One box searches saved hosts, open tabs, editor files, workspaces, commands, tunnels and retained session history, and acts on what you pick: connect, switch, reconnect, open, run, toggle.

The quick launcher The quick launcher
++ctrl+k++ reaches anything Muxus knows about.

Every command lives in one keymap. Press Ctrl+Shift+/ to see it, search it, and rebind anything; conflicts are flagged and defaults restore in one click.

6. Keep the layout

Once the window looks the way you work, open the workspace menu in the top bar and save it. A workspace remembers panes, tabs, colours and multi-exec groups. Reopen it tomorrow and your local shells start fresh while remote sessions wait for an explicit Reconnect.

More on workspaces

Where to next

  • User guide


    A feature-by-feature tour: hosts, panes, the terminal, tunnels, SFTP, history.

    Read the guide

  • Keyboard shortcuts


    Every default chord, and the rules behind which keys Muxus is allowed to take.

    Shortcuts

  • Security model


    What binds where, what is stored, what is never stored.

    Security