Vault Management

Organize and manage your SSH hosts with flexible vault views and powerful search capabilities

The Vault is Netcatty’s central hub for managing your SSH hosts. It offers multiple view modes, powerful organization features, and fast search to help you efficiently manage dozens or hundreds of servers.

View Modes

Netcatty provides three distinct view modes to match your workflow:

Grid View

Grid view displays your hosts as visual cards with distro icons, making it easy to quickly identify and access servers at a glance.

Best for:

• Visual browsing of hosts
• Quick identification by OS/distro icons
• Overview of your infrastructure

Each card shows:

• Host label and hostname
• Operating system icon (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc.)
• Group membership
• Quick action buttons

List View

List view provides a dense, scannable table format with all host details visible in columns.

Best for:

• Scanning large numbers of hosts
• Comparing host configurations
• Quick filtering and sorting

Columns include:

• Label
• Hostname/IP
• Username
• Port
• Protocol
• Group
• Tags

Tree View

Tree view organizes hosts hierarchically by groups, perfect for managing complex infrastructure with nested organizational structures.

Best for:

• Hierarchical organization (Production → Web Servers → App01)
• Large fleet management
• Department/project-based organization

Features:

• Collapsible group nodes
• Drag-and-drop to reorganize
• Group-level operations
• Nested group support with / separators

Host Organization

Groups

Organize hosts into groups using the group field. Groups support hierarchical organization with / separators:

{
  "group": "Production/Web Servers",
  "label": "app-01",
  "hostname": "10.0.1.10"
}

Group hierarchy examples:

• Production/Database
• Staging/App Servers/Node 01
• Development
• Clients/Acme Corp/Prod

In tree view, groups are automatically organized into collapsible nodes. You can drag hosts between groups or create new nested groups on the fly.

Tags

Use tags for cross-cutting categorization that doesn’t fit hierarchical groups:

{
  "tags": ["docker", "monitoring", "high-priority"],
  "label": "metrics-01"
}

Tags are useful for:

• Technology stack (docker, kubernetes, postgres)
• Roles (web, database, cache)
• Environments (production, staging, dev)
• Maintenance windows (reboot-window-1, patching-group-a)

Search and Filtering

The vault includes powerful search capabilities to quickly find hosts:

1. Open Quick Search

   Press Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘+K (macOS) to open the quick switcher.

2. Enter Search Query

   Type any part of:

   • Host label
   • Hostname or IP address
   • Username
   • Group name
   • Tags

   Results filter in real-time as you type.

3. Navigate and Connect

   Use arrow keys to navigate results, then press Enter to connect to the selected host.

Search Syntax

The search supports multiple fields:

Query	Matches
web	Any host with “web” in label, hostname, or group
10.0.1	Any host with IP starting with 10.0.1
production	Hosts in production group or with production tag
ubuntu	Hosts with detected Ubuntu distro or “ubuntu” in name

Host Actions

Right-click any host in the vault to access quick actions:

Connect

Open a new terminal session to the host in the current workspace.

SFTP

Open the SFTP browser to manage files on the remote host.

Edit

Open the host configuration dialog to modify connection settings, authentication, environment variables, and more.

Duplicate

Create a copy of the host with all settings pre-filled, useful for creating similar hosts quickly.

Delete

Remove the host from your vault. This only deletes the connection profile, not the actual server.

Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. The host configuration will be removed from your vault.

Distro Detection

Netcatty automatically detects the operating system and distribution of connected hosts by analyzing system files like /etc/os-release. Detected distros are displayed with distinctive icons:

Ubuntu

Detected from Ubuntu systems

Debian

Detected from Debian systems

CentOS/RHEL

Detected from Red Hat-based systems

Fedora

Detected from Fedora systems

Arch Linux

Detected from Arch-based systems

Alpine

Detected from Alpine Linux

Supported distros include: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, Amazon Linux, Red Hat, Rocky Linux, openSUSE, Oracle Linux, and Kali.

Import and Export

Import Hosts

Import hosts from various sources:

SSH Config

Import hosts from your ~/.ssh/config file:

1. Click Import in the vault toolbar
2. Select Import from SSH Config
3. Choose between:
   • One-time import: Copies hosts into Netcatty
   • Managed source: Two-way sync with SSH config

See SSH Config Integration for details.

JSON

Import hosts from a JSON file:

[
  {
    "label": "Production Web",
    "hostname": "web.example.com",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "deploy",
    "group": "Production",
    "tags": ["web", "nginx"]
  }
]

1. Click Import → Import from JSON
2. Select your JSON file
3. Review and confirm the import

Export Hosts

Export your vault for backup or sharing:

1. Click Export in the vault toolbar
2. Choose format:
   • JSON: Full host configuration
   • SSH Config: Compatible with OpenSSH config format
3. Select destination and save

Exported files do not include passwords or SSH key passphrases. These are stored separately in the system keychain for security.

Best Practices

Use Consistent Naming

Adopt a naming convention for labels like env-role-id (e.g., prod-web-01) to make search and sorting more effective.

Leverage Groups

Organize hosts hierarchically by environment, project, or client for easy navigation in tree view.

Add Meaningful Tags

Tag hosts with technology stack, roles, and maintenance windows for flexible filtering.

Regular Backups

Export your vault periodically and store backups securely, or enable Cloud Sync for automatic backups.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows/Linux
Quick search	⌘+K	Ctrl+K
New host	⌘+N	Ctrl+N
Refresh vault	⌘+R	Ctrl+R
Focus search	⌘+F	Ctrl+F
Switch view mode	⌘+1/2/3	Ctrl+1/2/3

Related Topics

Host Configuration

Learn about advanced host configuration options

Authentication

Set up SSH keys and authentication methods

SSH Config Integration

Sync with your existing SSH config file

Cloud Sync

Back up your vault across devices