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Server Organization

This content is for the 1.0.0 version. Switch to the latest version for up-to-date documentation.

PocketCmd has three ways to organize servers. Groups are nested folders whose connection settings the servers inside inherit. Tags are labels that filter the home screen. Archiving takes a server off the home screen without deleting it.

On Free, your oldest group stays editable. Other groups remain as labels and their servers keep the inherited settings, but they can’t be edited or take new servers. See PocketCmd Pro.

A group is a folder for servers, and groups can be nested to any depth. A group can also carry connection defaults that every server and subgroup inside it inherits.

The home screen lists servers without their groups. The group tree is a separate Groups page:

  • From Edit Server › Group › Select Group, tap Edit groups.
  • Or pick a group in Search (the command palette).

On desktop the Groups page opens inside the Servers area.

On the Groups page:

  • New Group in the app bar creates a top-level group.
  • Long-press a group (or right-click it) for Group Settings, Add Subgroup and Delete Group.
  • Long-press a server and drag it onto a group to move it there, or onto Ungrouped to take it out of its group.
  • Tap a server to open its server sheet.

To put a single server in a group, choose the group under Edit Server › Group.

Group Settings has a name, an icon and a color, plus these defaults:

Section Settings
Connection Hostname, username, port
Authentication Authentication method, a group-level password or an SSH key from your library
Jump Host A jump-host chain for the servers in the group
Forward SSH agent Agent forwarding, and which keys the agent offers

A server or subgroup uses the group’s value for any setting it leaves empty, and its own value where it sets one. The server editor names the group an inherited value comes from (Inherited from production), and a subgroup’s settings do the same for its parent.

For example, set the username to deploy on a group called production, and every server in production and its subgroups logs in as deploy unless it sets a username of its own.

Delete Group moves the group’s servers and subgroups up one level, into the deleted group’s parent. Nothing inside it is deleted.

Tags are colored labels. A server can carry any number of tags, and tags don’t carry settings.

  • Create a tag with the + chip at the end of the home screen’s chip row.
  • Assign tags to a server in Edit Server › Tags. Workspaces have their own tags, set from the workspace’s Tags option.

Tags filter the whole home screen: sessions, servers, workspaces and dashboards.

  • Tap tags to show items carrying any of them.
  • Long-press (or right-click) a tag to require it. An item must carry every required tag.

A dashboard matches a tag when any of its cards comes from a server carrying that tag. See Home Screen.

Archiving takes a server off the home screen and keeps everything about it: credentials, port forwards, bookmarks and settings.

  • Archive: server sheet › ⋮ › Archive. The confirmation offers Undo.
  • Find archived servers: turn on the Archived chip.
  • Restore: open the archived server’s sheet › ⋮ › Restore from archive.

An archived server’s workspaces and dashboards are archived with it. Archived servers are not probed for latency.

Each server has its own icon and color, shown on its home tile, in its sheet and on its quick links. Tap the icon in the server sheet’s header and choose Icon and colour: 16 icons, 10 colors or Reset to default.

Server sheet › ⋮ › Duplicate opens New Server filled in from the original. Change what differs and save. A duplicate counts as a new server toward the Free limit.

Use a group when Use a tag when
Servers share connection settings A property cuts across groups
You want a folder hierarchy A server needs several unrelated labels
The structure mirrors your infrastructure (team, environment, region) You want to filter the home screen

The two combine: a server sits in one group and can carry any number of tags.