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A host is a saved SSH target stored in your encrypted vault. Each host record carries everything Rumus needs to reach a server: hostname, port, user, auth, optional jump chain, and a handful of per-connection options. You manage hosts from Settings → Vaults → Hosts, or from the Remote Connection dialog (the chevron next to the + in the tab bar).

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What’s stored in a host

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Authentication methods

Rumus supports four auth types. The first two store credentials directly on the host record; the last two reference items already saved in the vault, which is the recommended approach. Saving the credential once in the vault and referencing it from many hosts has real benefits:
  • Rotate the key in one place; every host that references it picks up the change.
  • Fewer copies of the secret floating around in different host records.
  • Easier audit — one canonical credential per identity.
Manage saved keys at Settings → Vaults → Keychains, and saved username / password pairs at Settings → Vaults → Accounts.

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Add a host

1

Open the host editor

Go to Settings → Vaults → Hosts and click New host, or open Remote Connection from the tab-bar chevron and click New host there.
2

Fill in the basics

Name, hostname, port, username. These are the only required fields.
3

Pick an authentication method

Choose one of the four methods above. For password / private key, paste the value here; for keychain / account references, pick from the dropdown of saved entries.
4

(Optional) Tweak Advanced settings

Per-host environment, encoding, keepalive interval, ready timeout, reuse-session toggle, tab color, shell type and integration, startup command — all live under the Advanced section.
5

(Optional) Set a jump chain or proxy

See Jump hosts and Proxy settings for details.
6

Save and connect

Save the host. Double-click it from the host list (or pick it from the chevron menu) to open a session in a new tab.

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Connect to a host

Three places you can open a saved host:
  • Tab bar chevron → host name — opens a new tab with the session.
  • Remote Connection dialog — full grid of saved hosts, double-click to connect.
  • Host group in Settings → Vaults → Hosts — see Host groups.
If the host’s key isn’t in your known_hosts yet, Rumus shows a Trust new host key? dialog with the fingerprint before completing the connection.

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Edit, duplicate, delete

From the host list:
  • Click a host to edit every field above.
  • Use the row menu to duplicate — useful when several hosts share most settings.
  • Delete from the row menu. Deleting a host does not delete saved keychains or accounts it referenced — those stay in the vault for other hosts to reuse.

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Per-host options worth knowing about

A few of the less-obvious knobs:
  • Reuse session — if on, the second and third tabs to the same host don’t open new SSH connections; they share the first. Faster to start, easier on bastion limits, but a Ctrl+C storm in one tab affects the connection state of others.
  • Tab color — purely visual, but the most effective single way to avoid running prod commands in a staging tab.
  • Encoding — leave UTF-8 unless you’re connecting to a server that genuinely outputs in another encoding (legacy Chinese / Japanese systems sometimes need GBK or Shift-JIS).
  • Startup command — a great place for a cd /var/log/myapp && tail -f that you always do on first connect.

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Where credentials are stored

Every secret on a host record (passwords, key files, passphrases) is encrypted on your device with your vault’s secret key. The Rumus server only ever sees ciphertext when you sync — see Vault sync & recovery.
Connection or auth issue we didn’t cover? Ask in the Rumus community.

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Next steps

Jump hosts

Reach internal targets through one or more bastions.

Proxy settings

Connect through HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS5 proxies.

Host groups & known_hosts

Group hosts hierarchically, manage trusted host keys.

SFTP file browser

Browse and transfer files on any saved host.