Home Screen
The home screen is a single scrolling list. From top to bottom it shows Active Sessions and your Servers, then, on phones and portrait tablets, two sideways strips for Workspaces and Dashboards. There are no tabs, no bottom bar and no floating add button: each section ends in its own dashed New row.
The app bar holds Search (the command palette), Teams, Vault, Command Library and Settings.
Sections
Section titled “Sections”| Section | What it lists | Tap | Long-press |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active Sessions | Sessions open in the app, as small previews of their pane layout | Opens the session | Open, Rename, Close Session |
| Servers | One tile per saved server, ending in New server | Opens a new terminal | Opens the server sheet |
| Workspaces | Six workspaces, then an All N card, ending in New workspace | Opens the workspace | Workspace options |
| Dashboards | Six dashboards with two headline values each, then All N, ending in New dashboard | Opens the dashboard | Dashboard options |
On desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) the sidebar has separate Servers, Workspaces and Dashboards areas instead of strips, and open sessions are tabs in the content pane.
Adding a server
Section titled “Adding a server”Tap New server at the end of the server list, or Add your first server when the list is empty. Both open Add Server, where you choose between Import from Computer and Manual Setup. See Quick Start.
On Free, PocketCmd keeps one server active. When you’re at the limit, New server opens the upgrade sheet instead. See PocketCmd Pro.
Server tiles
Section titled “Server tiles”Each tile shows the server’s icon and color, its name, the protocol it opens with (for example Mosh + tmux), its latency, and how many sessions it has when there are any.
- Tap the tile to open a new terminal over the server’s saved protocol, with its saved tmux choice.
- Tap ›, long-press or right-click to open the server sheet.
Latency
Section titled “Latency”The latency figure (42 ms with signal bars, or No answer) is the TCP handshake round trip to the server’s address and port, as measured by the operating system. PocketCmd never logs in to measure it.
- Each host is probed at most once every 5 minutes. A
No answerresult is re-checked after 1 minute. - Probes run only for tiles on screen, and never while the device is offline.
- Servers on screen are re-checked when the network changes and when the app returns to the foreground.
- Servers reached through a jump host are not probed, because their address isn’t routable from the device. Archived servers show
Not checked.
sshd logs every probe as a pre-authentication disconnect. The 5-minute spacing keeps the probes well below what fail2ban’s aggressive mode counts toward a ban.
Session count
Section titled “Session count”5 sessions is the same number the server sheet lists: Mosh and Eternal Terminal sessions saved on this device, plus the tmux sessions found on the server the last time you opened its sheet or refreshed its sessions.
The home never opens an SSH connection
Section titled “The home never opens an SSH connection”Nothing on the home screen logs in to a server. Latency comes from a bare TCP handshake. Session counts change only when you open a server’s sheet. SSH-based dashboard cards on the home show their last stored value; only metrics from a paired PocketCmd Server are polled there. Pull to refresh re-probes latency and nothing else.
Filters
Section titled “Filters”The chip row under the app bar filters the whole home screen at once: sessions, servers, workspaces and dashboards. On a phone in landscape the chips move into the app bar next to the logo.
- Tag chips. Tap a tag to show items carrying any of the tapped tags. Long-press (or right-click) a tag to require it; an item must carry every required tag. The + chip creates a new tag.
- Archived lists archived servers only.
- Locked · N appears when items are locked by the Free limits. It lists only those items, under a banner that says how many are waiting.
Workspaces and dashboards follow their server: one on an archived server is archived, one on a locked server is locked. A dashboard matches a tag when any of its cards comes from a server carrying that tag.
Sorting
Section titled “Sorting”Each section sorts on its own from the button in its header. Servers and workspaces sort by Last used, Date added, Name or Latency; dashboards by Last used, Date added or Name. Every section starts sorted by last used. Items with no value for the chosen key (never used, no answer) go to the end.
The server sheet
Section titled “The server sheet”The server sheet holds everything about one server. On phones and portrait tablets it opens as a sheet below the app bar. On desktop it opens as a drawer from the right; drag its left border to resize it, or double-click the border to reset the width.
From top to bottom:
- Header. The server’s icon (tap it to change Icon and colour), its name, the edit button for Edit Server, the ⋮ menu, and a status line:
Online, 42 ms,No answer since 06:02,Through <jump host>,ArchivedorUnencryptedfor Telnet. - New terminal and Files. Under them, a tmux pill and one pill per protocol choose how New terminal connects. PocketCmd asks the server which of Mosh, Eternal Terminal, Telnet and tmux it supports and offers only those, with one line naming the rest and why (for example
No Mosh: mosh-server is not installed.). Your pick becomes what a tap on the tile uses next time. It never changes the protocol or tmux setting saved in Edit Server. - Sessions. The server’s tmux sessions and the Mosh and ET sessions this device saved for it. Tap to switch, attach or resume; long-press for options. The refresh control asks the server again, re-checks which protocols it offers and clears saved Mosh or ET sessions whose server process is gone.
- Port forwards. The server’s forwarding rules. The header counts them and, when some are off, says how many are on (
2 of 3 on). See Port Forwarding. - Workspaces on this server, with New workspace.
- Dashboards. The dashboards that show this server, counted in the header, with Add a metric.
When a server with a fixed LAN IPv4 address stops answering, the sheet offers Scan network for its new IP, which finds the server by its pinned host key. The scan requires Pro.
The ⋮ menu
Section titled “The ⋮ menu”| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Copy address | Copies the server’s address |
| Add to split view | Adds a pane to an open session (Pro) |
| Add to Home Screen / Add Quick Action | Creates a quick link (Android and iOS) |
| Import SSH configs | Reads ~/.ssh/config on the server and imports the hosts you select, with their keys. See SSH Config Import |
| Duplicate | Opens New Server filled in from this server |
| Archive / Restore from archive | Hides the server from the home or brings it back |
| Delete | Deletes the server |
Server icon and color
Section titled “Server icon and color”Every server has its own icon and color, shown on its tile, in its sheet and as the default look of its quick links. Tap the icon in the server sheet’s header to choose from 16 icons and 10 colors, or Reset to default. Both are saved with the server, so they travel with sync and exports.
Groups
Section titled “Groups”The grouped view is a separate page. Open it from Edit Server › Group › Edit groups, or pick a group in Search. See Server Organization.