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Deep Linking

Deep Links could harm your device
  • Deep links are a way to open WebSSH within a browser. They are very useful to open a specific connection in WebSSH. However, they could also be used to do malicious things. Be careful when you click on a link you don't trust.
  • In order to prevent malicious links, WebSSH will ask you to confirm the connection before opening it. You can disable this confirmation in WebSSH > Settings > "Deep Linking Strategy"
  • Since version 21.4, WebSSH supports deep linking. This means that you can open a SSH connection directly from a link.
  • Since 21.6 you can also use deep linking feature to be able to launch a one time connection from the Search Bar (issue #833)

How to use it

To use deep linking, you need to create a link with the following format:

ssh://username@host:port

Username and host are mandatory, port is optional. If you don't specify a port, WebSSH will use the default port (22).

Advanced usage

You can also specify some options to customize the connection. Here is the list of available options:

Option Description Example
save If set to true, the connection will be saved in the connection list ssh://username@host:port?save=true
name The name of the connection ssh://username@host:port?name=My%20Connection
group The group of the connection ssh://username@host:port?group=My%20Group
tags The tags of the connection ssh://username@host:port?tags=tag1,tag2
key The Private Key name you would like to use to establish the connection. This parameter is case insensitive. Your Private Keys' name should be unique in order to be used with this parameter. ssh://username@host?key=MYPKEY

You can combine multiple options in the same link. Here is an example:

ssh://username@host:port?save=true&name=My%20Connection&group=My%20Group&tags=tag1,tag2

Disabling opening confirmation

If you want to disable the confirmation dialog when opening a deep link, you can do it in WebSSH settings :

  • Under iOS / iPadOS, go to "iOS Settings" > "WebSSH" > "Deep Linking Strategy" > "Always Allow"
  • Under macOS, go to "WebSSH Menu" > "Preferences" > "Deep Linking Strategy" > "Always Allow"

You just need to replace ssh by sftp in the link. Here is an example:

sftp://username@host:port

Another app is using the ssh:// scheme

If you have another app that uses the ssh:// scheme, you can use the webssh:// scheme instead. So you can use the deep linking feature with WebSSH without removing the other app.

Here is an example:

webssh://username@host:port
Last update: March 18, 2023