ShellDrop FAQ

Mostly because it's not clunky and it's optimized for iOS 26.

My design thesis starts with a mental model. Every session you open is a droplet, and every session is open inside tmux and focused on a singular task.

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ShellDrop is currently free.

Yes. Universal app for iOS and iPadOS, iOS 17 and later, including the 13-inch iPad Pro with centred toolbar controls and Magic Keyboard trackpad scrolling. A visionOS version is coming soon.

Yes. SSH into the Mac Mini from your iPhone or iPad, attach to the tmux session running Claude Code, Codex, Cursor background agents, Aider, or Cline, and interact with the agent from the terminal.

Yes. Single-finger scroll through tmux scrollback without entering copy mode. Esc, arrow keys, Shift-Tab, a sticky Ctrl key (tap Ctrl then B for the tmux prefix), and a dedicated tmux detach button sit on the keyboard toolbar, which you can rearrange.

Tmux scrolling needs mouse mode enabled on the server. Add this line to your ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g mouse on

Then reload it with tmux source ~/.tmux.conf, or restart tmux. Single-finger scroll through your scrollback will work after that. (This is a tmux setting, not an app setting, so it has to live in your server's config.)

In the iOS Keychain on-device only, protected by the Secure Enclave. Passwords do not sync via iCloud. Connection metadata (hostnames, usernames, ports) syncs via CloudKit; credentials do not.

TOFU (Trust On First Use). The first time you connect to a host, ShellDrop pins its public key fingerprint. If the key changes on a later connection, ShellDrop blocks the session and surfaces the mismatch.

An opt-in toolbar button added in v3.1.4 that sends a user-configured command string over the current SSH session with a single tap. Useful for firing strings like update memory at a running coding agent (for example, MemPalace on Claude Code) without typing on a phone keyboard. Off by default.

Yes, as of v4.1.0. Generate Ed25519 or Secure Enclave-backed P-256 keys in-app, or paste-import existing OpenSSH-format private keys (Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521). The Secure Enclave option keeps the private key inside the iPhone's secure hardware. Every signing operation happens there and ShellDrop never holds the bytes. Pick Password or Key per saved connection.

Quick Drop pins one saved connection to the Home screen for one-tap launch. Long-press the Quick Drop card to swap which connection it points to. Added in v4.1.0.

A 3D view of your live SSH sessions. Each running session is a droplet on a slowly rotating galaxy; tap one to focus it, then tap Switch to jump straight into that session. Open it by tapping and holding any terminal screen, from the Galaxy button on the keyboard toolbar, or from the Visualize Droplets card on the Launchpad. Added in v4.1.3.

Tap the Ctrl key on the keyboard toolbar, then press the next key. Ctrl then C sends Ctrl-C, Ctrl then B sends Ctrl-B (the default tmux prefix), and so on. The modifier applies to a single keypress and then clears. The dedicated Ctrl-C and Ctrl-O buttons were removed in v4.1.3 because the sticky Ctrl key covers every combination.

Yes. Tap and hold anywhere on the keyboard toolbar to enter edit mode, drag any button to a new position, then tap Done. Your layout is saved and persists across sessions. The keyboard-dismiss button stays pinned at the far left. Added in v4.1.3.

v4.1.3 added the Droplet Visualizer, which shows your live SSH sessions as a rotating 3D galaxy you can tap to switch between; a sticky Ctrl key on the keyboard toolbar for any control combination; a reorderable keyboard toolbar you rearrange by tapping and holding it; double-tap the terminal to show or hide the keyboard; and tap and hold a session to rename its tab. Earlier, v4.1.0 added SSH key authentication with Secure Enclave support and Quick Drop. Full per-version history at the release notes page.

Yes. Saved connections sync via iCloud CloudKit. Passwords and private SSH key material stay on-device. Public-key text and key metadata sync so a key shows up on every device by name; the private bytes have to be re-added per device. No third-party cloud involved.

Yes. Opt-in background persistence uses iOS location services to keep the SSH connection alive when you switch apps or lock the phone. Off by default. Toggle in Settings > Session Persistence.

ShellDrop is a standard SSH client. MoshDrop was a separate Mosh protocol client for session persistence across network changes; it was discontinued in April 2026. ShellDrop covers the core SSH workflow and uses its own background keep-alive instead of Mosh.

Yes. Long-press and drag to select. Tappable URL detection surfaces links from terminal output automatically.

Yes. Hardware keyboard input is supported. On iPad, the Magic Keyboard trackpad scrolls the terminal (including tmux scrollback) with standard two-finger gestures.

No analytics, no telemetry, no third-party SDKs. Connection data stays between your device and your server. See the privacy policy for details.

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