Hosts

In Termius, hosts are essentially saved and named connection strings that you can double-click or tap to execute. They save you from having to provide connection parameters every time you want to start a session – you need to provide them only once when adding a host entry. Besides those parameters, hosts store other info, e.g. a preferred color scheme or startup snippet.

Add a host

If you're going to authenticate using an SSH key, it needs to be imported to Termius. You can do it on the Keychain screen or when adding a host. If you're using the mobile Termius app, please, import the key from Keychain before following the instructions below.

When adding a host, you'll notice that some additional parameters can be specified, such as a group, tag and more. The section below describes what those parameters mean.

Groups

Hosts can be added to groups – for categorization or if you want the hosts to inherit a group's properties, which can be almost anything, e.g. username, password, port. All of a host's non-explicitly specified parameters will inherit their values from the group where the host is placed. Click to read more about groups.

Tags

Tags are intended to help you navigate the Hosts section of Termius. You can mark hosts with tags and search / filter by those tags later, when need be. Click to see more about tags.

Backspace as CTRL + H

Enable this option for shells not recognizing the Backspace key.

Identities

An identity consists of a user name, password, and key and is handy when you have multiple hosts with the same credentials. Click to learn more about identities.

Startup snippet

A startup snippet is a snippet that is configured to auto-run upon connection. Snippets are saved blocks of commands that you can run with a click or tap, send to multiple servers and link with hosts, i.e. use them as startup snippets. Continue reading about snippets.

SSH Agent forwarding

This option adds the host's private key to the SSH agent of Termius and forwards the agent to the remote server when you connect to it. This allows you to use the ssh -A command and the host's private key, or any other key in the agent, for authenticating on a more distant server.

Host chaining

With host chaining you can connect to SSH hosts that require you first to connect to another, intermediary, SSH server, such as bastion server or jump box. Host chaining is similar to the -J argument or ProxyJump option, which are available in OpenSSH. Continue reading.

Proxy

This setting lets you access SSH servers through an HTTP or SOCKS4 / SOCKS5 proxy.

Color themes

You can set a theme for the current host and set a theme for all new hosts. A theme for all new hosts can be selected via Preferences > Terminal in the desktop app and Settings in the mobile Termius apps.

Environment variables

You can add or replace variables in the environment you're connecting to. Before you pass a variable, allow the server to receive it by, in the case of an OpenSSH server, enabling the 'AcceptEnv' option in sshd_config and entering the name of the variable or a pattern, e.g. LC_*

Connect to a host

To connect to the server represented by a host, double-click or tap it.

You can also connect to a group (all the hosts in it) or to multiple selected hosts or/and groups.

Local host discovery (mobile)

Local host discovery is available from the Terminals screen on iOS and Android.

Tap the search field, then tap Discover Local Hosts at the bottom of the screen to be presented with a list of local hosts that have an active SSH or Telnet service.

Once you connect to a host you've discovered, you can add it as a host entry.

Next steps

Once you add a few hosts, you'll probably want to add some groups, which can help you to organize the data.

If you're wondering how to import data (sessions, servers) from another tool instead of adding the hosts manually, follow this link to learn about the available options.