SSH Connect by elCamilet

SSH Connect is a Visual Studio Code extension that lets you manage and connect to SSH servers directly from the editor. It provides a hierarchical view of groups and hosts, quick connections in an editor terminal, and optional password storage using VS Code's SecretStorage.

Features

• Hierarchical SSH hosts view grouped by category.
• Quick connections from the tree, using the system OpenSSH client.
• Configuration file stored in VS Code global storage.
• Saved passwords in VS Code SecretStorage (no native keychain module).
• Password fallback per group for hosts that do not have their own password.
• Configurable terminal labels with placeholders.
• SSH agent forwarding per host/group.
• Keep-alive and optional reconnection with configurable retries.
• Refresh on save when the configuration file changes.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.96.0 or newer.
• An OpenSSH client (ssh) available in PATH.
• sshpass is optional and only used for saved passwords on Linux/macOS. If it is missing, SSH Connect opens a normal ssh session and asks for the password in the terminal.
• Windows and macOS support is best-effort in 0.2.0.
• Linux and WSL x86-64 and ARM64 are the officially supported platforms.

sshpass is not used on Windows. Windows connections use an SSH key/agent or the interactive OpenSSH password prompt.

Installation

Search for SSH Connect in the VS Code Marketplace, or install it with the full extension ID:

code --install-extension elcamilet.ssh-connect

Usage

1. Open the SSH Connect view in the activity bar.
2. Click a host to open an SSH connection in an editor-area terminal.
3. Use Edit configuration file from the view title or the command palette to edit ssh-config.json.
4. Use Save password for group or host from the view title, the command palette, or the context menu of a host/group.
5. Use Delete saved password for group or host from the same locations.

Commands

Configuration File

The configuration file is located at:

<global_storage_folder>/ssh-config.json

On stable VS Code for Linux, this is usually:

~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/elcamilet.ssh-connect/ssh-config.json

The file is created automatically with a small example if it does not exist.

Example

{
  "groups": [
    {
      "name": "Development",
      "defaultUser": "root",
      "defaultPort": 22,
      "defaultIdentityFile": "",
      "forwardAgent": "no",
      "connectTimeout": 10,
      "serverAliveInterval": 30,
      "serverAliveCountMax": 3,
      "retry": {
        "enabled": false,
        "maxAttempts": 3,
        "delaySeconds": 5
      },
      "hosts": [
        {
          "host": "dev1.example.com",
          "name": "Development Server 1",
          "user": "devuser",
          "port": 2222,
          "identityFile": "~/.ssh/dev-cert.pem"
        },
        {
          "host": "10.10.0.1",
          "name": "Development Server 2"
        },
        {
          "host": "10.10.0.2",
          "name": "Development Server 3",
          "user": "devuser2",
          "port": 222,
          "identityFile": "/tmp/cert.pem",
          "useGroupPassword": "no",
          "useIdentityFile": "yes",
          "terminalName": "{name} ({user}@{host}:{port})",
          "forwardAgent": "no"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Group fields

Host fields

useGroupPassword and useIdentityFile also accept booleans.

Retry configuration

{
  "enabled": false,
  "maxAttempts": 3,
  "delaySeconds": 5
}

Retries are opt-in. SSH Connect only retries exit code 255 (connection failure), up to maxAttempts total attempts, with a delay between attempts. Closing the terminal manually does not trigger a retry. Attempts and exit codes are logged in the SSH Connect output channel.

The terminal scrollback of a closed terminal is not preserved.

Passwords

Passwords are stored in VS Code SecretStorage, never in ssh-config.json.

• Host password key: user@host:port.
• Group password key: group name.
• The host password is tried first, then the group password when useGroupPassword is not "no".
• Passwords saved by version 0.1.x using keytar are not migrated. Re-enter them once after upgrading.

On Windows, saved passwords are not injected into the SSH command. Use an SSH key/agent or type the password at the OpenSSH prompt.

sshpass passes the password through the SSHPASS environment variable instead of the command line. Prefer SSH keys or an agent when possible.

Shortcuts and context menu

• Host context menu: save/delete the host password.
• Group context menu: save/delete the group password.
• View title and command palette: choose a host/group from a quick pick.

Troubleshooting

The view is empty after upgrading

Check the SSH Connect output channel and the error notification. If ssh-config.json is invalid, the extension keeps the last valid tree and offers Open configuration.

Custom shell settings no longer work

Custom shells were removed in 0.2.0. defaultShell, host.shell and group.shell are ignored with a one-time warning. SSH Connect runs ssh/sshpass directly.

Saved passwords are not used on Linux/WSL

Install sshpass:

sudo apt install sshpass

If it is not installed, SSH Connect still opens the connection and lets OpenSSH ask for the password.

WSL: extension does not activate

0.2.0 no longer uses keytar or libsecret. If you still see an activation error, open the SSH Connect output channel and the Extension Host log, and report the error with the VS Code version.

Windows: ssh was not found

Install the OpenSSH Client optional feature or ensure ssh.exe is in PATH. SSH Connect checks %SystemRoot%\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe first.

Limitations in 0.2.0

• Unit tests only; no CI and no real SSH connection tests were run for this release.
• Password authentication via sshpass is best-effort and has not been validated live.
• Windows and macOS are best-effort.
• Reconnection creates a new terminal; scrollback from the previous terminal is lost.
• SSH config files (~/.ssh/config) are not read; only ssh-config.json is used.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.