Add a host and connect

dotMux is a native SSH client for iPhone and iPad that turns remote tmux and herdr sessions into real iOS tabs and panes. It connects straight from your device to your own servers — there’s no dotMux account, no relay, and no backend in the middle. The developer never receives your keys, passwords, or traffic.

Add your first host

1. On the connections list, tap Add Host.
2. Enter a display name, the hostname or IP, and the port (22 unless you’ve changed it).
3. Enter the username you log in as.
4. Under Credential, pick a stored credential, or tap Manage credentials… to add one — paste an ed25519 key, generate a Secure Enclave key on the device, or save a password. You can also leave it as None and dotMux will ask for a password when you connect.
5. Save the host, then tap it to connect.

While a host connects, a card shows each step — connecting, starting the shell, attaching tmux or herdr — with a timer after a few seconds and a Cancel button. If it fails, the card stays with the reason and Back and Retry, and says to check your network or VPN when the host was never reached.

If a host has no usable stored credential — either none is set, or the one it pointed at was deleted — dotMux prompts for a password at connect time. Tick Save password in that prompt to remember it for next time. It’s only saved after the login actually succeeds, so a wrong password is never stored. Which keys and passwords work →

Hosts are just saved entries: swipe to edit one any time, and renaming or re-pointing a host you already have never costs anything.

Folders

Once you have more than a handful, put them in folders — Homelab, Production, one per client. A host belongs to at most one folder, folders collapse, and each folder header carries a count of how many of its hosts are currently connected, so a glance at the collapsed list still tells you what’s live.

Next

• Switch between hosts — connections stay open when you leave them.
• tmux control mode — what turns tmux windows and panes into native tabs and views.
• herdr — the multiplexer built for coding agents, chosen per host instead of tmux.