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Connection fields

Every field the new-connection and edit-connection dialogs can show, per connection type. Which rows appear is decided by the type you pick at the top of the dialog, so a field vanishing is the form adapting rather than something going wrong.

Types, default ports and surfaces

Type Default port Opens as
SSH 22 In-app terminal
Telnet 23 In-app terminal
RSH 514, no port field In-app terminal
Mosh 22 External application
RDP 3389 In-app tab on Windows, external client on macOS and Linux
VNC 5900 External viewer for a direct host, embedded desktop tab for a hypervisor target
FTP 21 File browser
AWS S3 none File browser
Serial none In-app terminal
Local none In-app terminal

There is no SFTP connection type. SFTP is reached through the file explorer of an SSH session, not as a connection of its own. FTP and AWS S3 are the two file-transfer connection types.

For what each surface looks like in use, see Remote desktop, Hypervisor consoles and Network requirements.

Field matrix

Type Host Port Username Authentication
SSH Yes Yes Yes Password or SSH key (toggle)
Telnet Yes Yes No None — prompts on the device
RSH Yes No Yes None
Mosh Yes Yes Yes Password or SSH key (toggle)
RDP Yes Yes Yes Password only
VNC Yes Yes No Password only
FTP Yes Yes Yes Password only
AWS S3 No No No Own credential panel
Serial No No No None
Local No No No None

A few properties of the rows themselves:

  • Host. RSH gets a host field and no port field, even though its default port is 514.
  • Port. Where the field is shown, the default port is the field's placeholder rather than a pre-filled value, so any of them can be overridden per connection.
  • Authentication. Choosing ssh key on the password / ssh key toggle swaps the password field for private key file (with a browse button) and passphrase (if any).
  • No credentials. Telnet and RSH still authenticate — on the device, interactively, after the session opens.

AWS S3 collects no host, port, username or password. Its credentials live in their own panel instead, because S3-shaped credentials have nothing in common with a host / port / username login.

Fields common to every connection

Field Control Notes
connection name Text, required The label used in the sidebar and tabs
environment Select Colour-coded tag. Hidden for AWS S3, Serial and Local
group Select Defaults to — no group —. Carries policy
command safety profile Select — inherit from group — by default. SSH only
data handling profile Select — inherit from group — by default. SSH only
Enable AI Toggle Sub-caption "AI panel for this host". Shown for SSH and Serial
Save connection Toggle Captioned "Credentials encrypted, never plaintext"
Let AI Assistant open this session Toggle Off by default. Also needs the master switch

Only two environments seed on first run, production and staging, and those are the two options the dialog offers. Add your own on Settings → Environments.

The dialog has no Save button. Save connection is a toggle, and the dialog is committed with the connect button.

The two profile selects appear for SSH only, which is the same set of types that can invoke AI at all; assigning a profile to a type that can never invoke AI would mean nothing.

Enable AI is offered for SSH and Serial connections. External launchers, file browsers, Telnet, RSH and Local do not show it: those sessions cannot reach the AI panel, so the toggle would have been a setting that silently did nothing.

Let AI Assistant open this session is a second, stricter permission than Enable AI. It is off for every new connection, and it only takes effect when Allow opening/reconnecting sessions is also on in Settings → AI Assistants → Session access. See MCP tools.

Type-specific panels

RDP

Field Control Notes
domain (optional) Text Windows domain, e.g. CORP
Force fresh session before connecting Checkbox, off by default Windows only. Logs off any existing disconnected session for this user on the host first, over WinRM

Force fresh session destroys unsaved work

The dialog says so itself: it destroys any unsaved work left open in that session. It also requires WinRM to be enabled and reachable on the target.

VNC — target and hypervisor panels

VNC adds a target select directly under the connection name, because it changes what the host, port, username and auth fields above it mean:

Target What the shared fields mean Panel below
Direct VNC host The VNC endpoint itself None
Hypervisor VM — KVM The KVM host's own SSH login List VMs, then a searchable VM list
Hypervisor VM — OpenStack Not used A separate Keystone auth panel

The KVM panel says this in the form itself: host, port, username and auth above are the KVM host's own SSH login, used to list and reach its VMs, not entered separately.

The OpenStack panel is a fully separate field set:

Field Control
auth URL (keystone) Text, e.g. https://cloud.example.com:5000/v3
Auth toggle password or app credential
username, user domain (name or ID) Text — password auth
password Password — password auth
project, project domain (name or ID) Text — password auth
application credential ID / secret Text / password — app credential auth
region (optional) Text, e.g. RegionOne
Skip TLS certificate verification Checkbox, off by default
List VMs Button, then a searchable VM list

See Hypervisor consoles.

FTP

Field Control Notes
initial path Text, defaults to / Where the browser opens
Secure (FTPS — explicit TLS) Checkbox, off by default
Skip TLS certificate verification Checkbox Only shown once Secure is checked

Plain FTP is unencrypted

Without Secure, credentials and file contents travel in clear text. Prefer SFTP over an SSH connection.

S3

Field Control Notes
region Text, e.g. us-east-1
bucket Text
access key ID Text
secret access key Password
custom endpoint (optional) Text, e.g. https://s3.example.com For MinIO, Wasabi, Backblaze and other S3-compatible stores

The secret access key takes the same encrypted credential path as any other saved password. There is no initial-path field for S3 — an S3 connection always opens at the bucket root.

Serial

Field Control Notes
serial port Select, with a refresh button Populated from the ports on this machine
baud rate Select 9600 to 921600. Defaults to 115200

Local

Field Control Notes
shell Select Defaults to use default (Settings → Terminal). The other options are filled in per platform

See also