Remote hosts#
PacketBench can open terminals and agent sessions against a Unix-like host over SSH. A saved server record is the authority for hostname, user, port, project paths and host-key identity.
Before you start#
- SSH access works outside PacketBench.
- The remote project path is absolute and exists.
- The remote host has the selected shell or agent runtime installed.
- API-agent sessions need Node.js and the PacketBench sidecar on the remote host.
Add a server#
- Open Settings → Workspaces & Terminal → Remote Hosts and add the hostname, port and user.
- Select SSH agent, private key or password authentication.
- Verify and save the host fingerprint.
- Test the connection before creating a workspace.
- Add the remote project using its absolute path.
Passwords may be stored in the OS credential store or held only for the active connection. Private keys remain owned by your SSH configuration.
Verify#
Open a remote Terminal pane and run:
hostname
pwd
git rev-parse --show-toplevelAll three results must match the saved server and workspace. If the host key changes, stop and verify the change independently before accepting a new key.
For remote API conversations, confirm the sidecar preflight succeeds and that the remote project supplies its own MCP configuration. Remote MCP processes run on the remote host, not on the PacketBench desktop.
If it does not work#
| Symptom | Check | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| The connection is refused | Reachability before authentication | See SSH fails |
| The host key is not recognised | Whether the host key genuinely changed | Do not accept a changed host key to make the error stop — verify it out of band first |
| Connected, but the sidecar is missing | The sidecar version on the remote host | See The sidecar is missing or incompatible |
| Terminals open locally but not remotely | The remote shell | The remote host needs a usable shell of its own |