Modern SSH client family for Android, Linux, macOS, Windows, and BSD. Open-source and privacy-focused.

Your First Connection

Two ways to connect: a one-off Quick Connect, or a saved profile you'll re-use.

🚀 Quick Connect (no save)

Best for one-off SSH sessions you don't want to keep around.

  1. Open the toolbar menu and tap Quick Connect
  2. Type user@host (e.g. root@10.0.0.5 or alice@example.com:2222)
  3. Tap Connect

Quick Connect creates a temporary connection profile that's discarded when you close the tab. If the host fingerprint is unknown you'll see the host-key prompt described below — same as a saved-profile connect.

💾 Save a Connection Profile

The way you'll connect 99% of the time. Saves to TabSSH's encrypted local database.

  1. From the home screen, tap the + floating button
  2. Fill in the basics:
    • Name: a friendly label (shown in the connections list and tab strip)
    • Host: hostname or IP
    • Port: defaults to 22
    • Username: defaults to root
    • Auth type: Password, SSH key, or Keyboard-interactive (2FA prompts)
  3. Optional but useful:
    • Save password — encrypted with the hardware-backed Android Keystore
    • SSH key — pick one you've already imported, or generate a new one inline
    • Color tag (Wave 3.1) — mark prod / staging / lab so it's obvious in the tab strip
    • Group — drop the host into a folder
    • Identity — link a reusable credential profile (one set of credentials, many hosts)
    • Jump host — chain through a bastion (ProxyJump cascading)
    • Env vars (Wave 1.2) — multi-line KEY=value pairs
    • Post-connect script — runs once the shell is ready
    • Terminal type — defaults to xterm-256color
    • Compression / Keep-alive — useful on flaky networks
    • Mosh / X11 / Agent forwarding — toggle as needed
  4. Tap Save. The profile appears in your connections list — tap it to connect.

🔐 First-Time Host Key Prompt

When you connect to a host TabSSH has never seen, it shows the server's host-key fingerprint and asks how to handle it.

  • SHA-256 fingerprint — the cryptographic identity of the server. Match it against what your admin gave you, or against what a desktop SSH client you trust shows.
  • Visual fingerprint (emoji) — a deterministic emoji rendering of the same fingerprint, easier for the eye to spot-check on a phone.
  • Three options:
    • Accept Once — connect this time only; you'll be prompted again next time
    • Accept Always — store the key in TabSSH's known-hosts and trust it on future connects
    • Reject — abort the connection
"Host key changed" on a host you've already accepted is the MITM warning. Treat it as a possible attack until proven otherwise (a server reinstall is the usual benign explanation). Verify with the admin before clicking Accept.

👀 What You See After Connecting

  • A new tab appears in the strip with your connection's name (or color tag)
  • The terminal renders with your selected theme (defaults to system)
  • A foreground-service notification keeps the connection alive when TabSSH is in the background — tap to disconnect
  • Volume keys adjust font size on the fly (toggleable in Settings → Terminal)
  • Long-press a URL in the output to Open / Copy it
  • Long-press text to copy to clipboard
  • If the connection drops, the tab shows a Reconnect button — no need to re-launch from the connection list
Back to Documentation Basic Usage →