Documentation
This content is for the 1.0.0 version. Switch to the latest version for up-to-date documentation.
PocketCmd is a terminal and server console for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux. It keeps many terminal sessions open at once over SSH, Mosh, Eternal Terminal and Telnet, browses and edits remote files over SFTP, opens a remote folder as a project, shows live server dashboards, and keeps credentials in an encrypted vault. An optional PocketCmd Server, which you host yourself, adds end-to-end encrypted sync, server metrics, push alerts and teams.
The app needs no account. The free version has no time limit; PocketCmd Pro removes its limits and adds the server features.
Start here
Section titled “Start here”What’s in the app
Section titled “What’s in the app”Connections
Section titled “Connections”Four protocols, each a native implementation: SSH on libssh2 and OpenSSL, a Mosh client that talks to the standard mosh-server, an Eternal Terminal client and Telnet for network gear and older systems. All of them render through the same libvterm-based terminal, with 24-bit color. Keyboard-interactive and two-factor logins, key generation and import, jump hosts, port forwarding, agent forwarding and tmux with live session state are built in. See Compare Protocols.
Home screen
Section titled “Home screen”The home screen is one scrolling page: your active sessions, then a tile per server showing its latency and session count, then your workspaces and dashboards. Tapping a server opens a terminal with its saved protocol and tmux setting; its server sheet holds everything else. Quick links put a server, workspace or dashboard on the phone’s home screen.
Files and workspaces
Section titled “Files and workspaces”The SFTP browser has an editor with syntax highlighting, a transfer queue that resumes after interruptions, and bookmarks. With system file manager integration, a server’s files appear in the iOS Files app, Finder, File Explorer and the Android file picker. A workspace opens a server folder as a project, with a file tree, tabbed editor, search and a terminal in the current folder.
Sessions
Section titled “Sessions”Sessions stay open while you move around the app. Switch between them with the session switcher or by swiping, and with Pro view up to four at once in split screen. See Session Management.
Monitoring
Section titled “Monitoring”Dashboards lay out metric cards on a 16-column grid that looks the same on every screen. A card’s value comes from a shell command run over SSH or from a metric collected by a paired PocketCmd Server, which can also send push alerts when a value crosses a threshold.
Security
Section titled “Security”The app password is mandatory and is stretched with Argon2id. Credentials are encrypted with a vault key held in the device’s security hardware where it has some. The secrets vault stores logins, keys, notes and API keys, personally or shared with a team. See App Password & Vault.
Automation
Section titled “Automation”Snippets store commands with variables, and runbooks run a sequence of commands as steps.
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”39 terminal color themes and a color scheme editor, 11 app themes, 18 animated backgrounds and custom terminal fonts. Light or dark mode follows the system unless you pick one. Free includes the app’s own PocketCmd looks; the rest need Pro. See Themes & Backgrounds.
Frequently asked questions
Section titled “Frequently asked questions”Is PocketCmd free?
Section titled “Is PocketCmd free?”Yes. The free version has no time limit and includes all four protocols, SFTP, tmux, port forwarding, the secrets vault and snippets, with one saved server, one group, one dashboard and one workspace. PocketCmd Pro removes those limits and adds split screen, protocol switching, every theme and the features that use a PocketCmd Server: sync, server metrics, push alerts and teams. See Free and Pro.
Do I need an account to use PocketCmd?
Section titled “Do I need an account to use PocketCmd?”No. PocketCmd has no account or sign-up, on Free or on Pro. Servers, keys and secrets are stored on the device in an encrypted database, and secrets are sealed with a vault key that is bound to the device.
Which platforms does PocketCmd run on?
Section titled “Which platforms does PocketCmd run on?”iOS and iPadOS 15.0 or later, Android 7.0 (API level 24) or later, macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon and Intel, Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, and Linux on x86_64. See Installation.
Which connection protocols does PocketCmd support?
Section titled “Which connection protocols does PocketCmd support?”SSH, Mosh, Eternal Terminal and Telnet, plus SFTP for files. Each saved server has its own protocol, and with Pro a running session can switch to another one. See Compare Protocols.
Do I need the PocketCmd Server?
Section titled “Do I need the PocketCmd Server?”No. Terminals, SFTP, tmux and dashboards built from SSH commands work with any SSH server. The PocketCmd Server is an optional, MIT-licensed program you run on your own machine. It adds end-to-end encrypted sync between your devices, server-side metrics, push alerts and teams. Pairing the app with it requires Pro. See PocketCmd Server.
Is PocketCmd’s sync end-to-end encrypted?
Section titled “Is PocketCmd’s sync end-to-end encrypted?”Yes. Sync goes through a PocketCmd Server you host, not a PocketCmd cloud. Records are encrypted on the device with AES-256-GCM before upload, and the server stores ciphertext it cannot decrypt. It does see sync metadata such as record types, IDs and timestamps, and it reads the monitoring configuration it runs in plaintext. See Self-Hosted Sync.
Can PocketCmd keep sessions alive in the background?
Section titled “Can PocketCmd keep sessions alive in the background?”On Android, the Keep Alive Service holds a persistent notification so SSH, Telnet, Mosh and Eternal Terminal sessions, SFTP connections and port forwards stay connected while the app is in the background. iOS suspends apps shortly after they leave the screen: Mosh and Eternal Terminal sessions are saved and restored when you return, and an SSH or Telnet session that lost its connection reconnects with a new shell. To keep a shell’s state through that, run tmux on the server or use Mosh or Eternal Terminal. See Session Management.