Add a server

A server is a remote machine you can reach with OpenSSH. Nearhost shells out to ssh, so it honours your whole ssh_config, including Include, Match, ProxyJump and IdentityAgent.

The local server always exists, needs no configuration, and cannot be removed or renamed.

Before you start

ssh <host> must work without prompting. Nearhost checks this with:

ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o ConnectTimeout=10 <host> true

Run the same command yourself first. If it exits 0, Nearhost can use the host.

From the TUI

Press n and choose server. The wizard replaces the main panel and keeps the sidebar visible.

1. Pick a host alias from ~/.ssh/config, or type user@host[:port]. Wildcard hosts are not listed.
2. Name the server. The name is free text.
3. Nearhost runs the check above and shows the result.

What Nearhost stores

Only the host string, as ssh_host in ~/.config/nearhost/config.yaml. No keys, passwords or sockets are stored.

servers:
  - name: mini
    ssh_host: mini

If the check fails

The TUI shows OpenSSH’s stderr verbatim, with the instruction to run ssh <host> in a terminal. That is where OpenSSH handles unknown host keys, ssh-add and similar. Fix it there, then retry the check.

Nothing is installed on the remote machine.