The Deployer documentation
After you're live: the Dashboard

Connecting to your servers (SSH)

Sometimes you want to look under the hood — to open a command line directly on the machine running your app. The Deployer lets you do that right from your browser, no extra software needed. This page explains what a server is, what SSH is, and how to connect safely.

A couple of quick definitions

  • A server (also called a VM, short for virtual machine) is a computer running in your cloud that hosts your app. Your project may have one or several.
  • SSH (Secure Shell) is the standard, secure way to open a text-based command line on a remote computer like that server.

You don't need to know either in depth to use the button below — but that's what's happening when you connect.

Finding your servers

Open your project's Dashboard and scroll to the Servers card. Each server is shown as a tile with:

  • Its name and a status badge (for example, running).
  • Its size, IP address (its number on the network), and region (which part of the world it lives in).
  • Live CPU, RAM, and Disk meters — a quick read on how busy the processor, memory, and storage are. Green is comfortable; amber and red mean it's working hard.

Opening a terminal (Connect via SSH)

For an eligible server, the tile has a Connect via SSH button:

  1. Click Connect via SSH on the server you want.
  2. A full-screen terminal opens right inside your browser — no keys to set up, no separate app to install.
  3. Type your commands at the prompt. You can open several servers at once in tabs, and minimizing keeps each session alive in the background.
  4. Close the terminal when you're done.

When the button is available

The in-browser terminal is available for running servers — the real machines that host your app. If the button isn't there, the tile tells you why:

  • "Managed — no shell" — that piece is a managed part of your setup that doesn't offer a command line.
  • "Not reachable for SSH" — the server isn't in a state that can accept a connection right now.

How SSH to your servers is protected

Every command line opened on your servers starts from The Deployer: a deployment, the terminal button above, the assistant and the live meters all connect through it. You never need to connect from your own computer, because the key is kept safely for you. So the servers are set up to accept very little:

  • Only your project's key opens a session. Passwords are switched off, and so is signing in as the administrator account (root). Each connection gets three tries.
  • Addresses that keep guessing are banned for an hour. The Deployer's own address is never banned, so a deployment can't lock itself out.
  • Security updates install by themselves. The server never restarts on its own because of them.
  • The server has to be the one we met. The first time The Deployer connects to a server it remembers that server's identity (its fingerprint), and checks it on every connection after that. A connection to anything else is stopped before a single command or file is sent. A server that is stopped and started with a new address, or resized, is recognised again without you doing anything.

These settings are applied to every server The Deployer creates, and to older ones at their next deployment. A server you connected yourself keeps the SSH settings you gave it.

If the server's tile on the Servers card shows that it is not the server The Deployer saw before, connections to it are stopped. That is expected after you rebuild or reinstall the machine on purpose: choose Trust this server again on the tile (only the owner of the workspace can), then deploy again. If you did not rebuild it, do not trust it, because something else may be answering at that address.

A gentle safety note

A terminal gives you real, direct control of the machine running your app — which is powerful, and worth a little care:

  • Commands run here take effect immediately and some can't be undone. Only run things you understand.
  • Avoid deleting files, stopping services, or changing system settings unless you're sure what they do.
  • You rarely need the terminal for everyday tasks — updating code is better done with Pull & Restart, and app settings with the environment variables manager, both of which are safer and leave a record in your Activity feed.

Think of SSH as the expert's back door: great to have when you need it, best left closed for routine work.