Step-by-step guides

Each guide takes one feature from start to finish in the same five parts: In plain words (what it is and when you want it), Set it up (numbered steps with the app’s exact labels in bold, on a computer and on a phone where they differ), How it works (the engineer detail, with links to the reference pages and the whitepaper), If something goes wrong, and Related guides.

The same guides are in the app, under Help, Guides, where a search finds them by the words you would use (“network” finds Networks and jump hosts). A picture there opens full size, with zoom and the guide’s next and previous pictures. Every page is also served as raw Markdown beside it (add .md to its address), and llms.txt lists them all, so an assistant can read them and walk you through a setup.

Connecting

• Hosts and connecting: Save a server once, connect to it with a click or a tap, and check its host key the first time.
• Keys: Make or import an SSH key, put it on your servers, and keep passwords and agent keys in one place.
• SFTP: Browse a server’s files, upload and download them, and edit them in place, over the SSH connection you already have.
• Port forwarding: Open a server’s web page, database or service on your own device through an SSH tunnel, or share one of yours with the server.
• Networks and jump hosts: Reach the same host by its home address at home and through a jump host everywhere else, without saving it twice.
• Certificates: Sign in with OpenSSH certificates instead of copying keys to every server.

Working faster

• Snippets and workflows: Save a command once, run it from any session or on several hosts at once, and chain steps into a workflow.
• Automation and API keys: Run commands, snippets and workflows from links, Tasker, MacroDroid, iOS Shortcuts and schedules.
• Alerts: Get a notice, a sound or a highlight when a terminal prints something you care about.
• History and suggestions: Find and run again the commands you ran, and let ZestSSH offer the rest of a command as you type.
• Server monitor: See CPU, memory, disk, load and latency for your servers at a glance.

Your data

• Sync and backups: Keep your hosts, keys and snippets the same on every device, encrypted on the device first, and keep a backup you can restore yourself.
• Import from other apps: Bring your servers over from an SSH config file, PuTTY, Termius, JuiceSSH, a spreadsheet or a cloud account.

Teams

• Create a team and invite people: Make a team, buy its seats, and invite people by email or with a one-time code or QR code.
• Joining a team: Join a team by accepting an email invitation or with a one-time code or QR code.
• Roles and vaults: Decide who opens which shared vault and what they may do there.
• Team rules: Set what members need to join a team and keep syncing it.
• Session sharing: Share a live terminal session with people in the same team vault.

The app

• Themes: Change how the app and the terminal look.
• Phones and tablets: Find your way around ZestSSH on an iPhone, iPad or Android device.