FAQ
SSH manager questions people actually type
Straight answers for vault location, imports, seats, and cancel. No cloud signup story.
What is iLead?
iLead is a local SSH manager and encrypted SSH vault for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is an SSH client with inventory, SFTP, tunnels, notes, and fleet SSH. There is no cloud account.
Is iLead a PuTTY alternative or a MobaXterm alternative?
Yes. You can import PuTTY, MobaXterm, WinSCP, and ~/.ssh/config. iLead is built as a local alternative to those tools and to cloud SSH suites.
Where does the encrypted SSH vault live?
On your machine: ~/.ilead/vault.bin on macOS and Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.ilead\vault.bin on Windows. The license file is separate and is not the vault.
Does the SSH manager need the internet?
Unlock, browse, and export work offline. Activate a yearly seat against license.ileadapp.org. After that, connect and Ops use your hosts, not a hosted control plane.
What is the yearly SSH license?
Solo $14.99 for 1 device, Duo $25.99 for 2 devices, Squad $49.99 for up to 5 devices. After the 7-day trial, unlock and export still work. New connects, Ops, Studio, Snippets, Backup, and Arcana need an active seat.
What happens if I cancel?
The vault still opens. Encrypted export still works. We never stored your hosts. You are not locked out of your own SSH inventory.
Can I sync my hosts between two computers?
Yes. Point two devices at the same folder you already use, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or a NAS, and turn on Sync for that destination on both. They merge hosts, keys, snippets, tunnels, and notes automatically, roughly every 30 seconds. There is no separate account and no relay server, it rides on the sync you already have.
Does iLead log everything I type?
No. The command audit log only records deliberate actions, ops commands, log pulls, process kills, and container actions, not interactive keystrokes. If you want a full transcript of a session, turn on session recording for that session specifically; it stays off otherwise.
Can I access a session from my phone or another computer?
Yes, through the browser companion terminal. Share a live session with a link that expires after a duration you pick, from 15 minutes up to 24 hours, or never. It's local-network only by default; opting into wider access asks you to confirm first, and the browser can never pick a different host than the one you shared.
Does iLead support RDP or VNC?
Yes. iLead features an embedded graphical remote desktop viewer directly inside terminal tabs for Windows (RDP) and Linux/macOS (VNC) across all desktop platforms, complete with keyboard and mouse capture, live latency metrics, and responsive scaling.
Can I chain multiple bastion or jump hosts?
Yes. iLead includes a visual multi-hop bastion chain builder (Local → Bastion 1 → Bastion 2 → Target). You can reorder hops, visualize network topology, and inspect an auto-synthesized OpenSSH ProxyJump command with one click. Bastion chaining works across SSH terminals, SFTP, and port tunnels.
How does iLead protect private keys from being exposed on screen?
Saved private keys and passphrases in the host editor are masked on first paint (e.g. Ed25519 private key · 464 bytes). Clicking reveal requires entering the vault master password. Revealed secrets automatically re-mask after 30 seconds or immediately on window blur or vault lock.
Can I import and export large fleets using Ansible or CSV spreadsheets?
Yes. In addition to migrating from NeoServer, Termius, MobaXterm, PuTTY, and WinSCP, iLead supports batch importing and exporting server fleets via standard CSV spreadsheets, JSON schemas, or Ansible Inventory files (both YAML hosts.yaml and INI hosts.ini).
Does iLead support S3-compatible cloud object storage?
Yes. Alongside remote Linux SFTP, iLead's Files dock lets you connect to AWS S3, Wasabi, MinIO, or Cloudflare R2 buckets with folder prefix browsing, presigned downloads, and multipart uploads.
Can AI agents like Cursor or Claude Code use my SSH hosts?
Yes, through the built-in local MCP bridge (Settings → Agent Access). You enable MCP, allow specific hosts, paste a client config, and approve every run_command in a desktop dialog. SSH credentials never leave the vault, and the endpoint is loopback-only. See https://ileadapp.org/mcp.
Does the MCP bridge expose my passwords or private keys?
No. Agents only see host id, name, address, port, and user for hosts you allow. Credentials are resolved inside iLead. Command output returned to the agent may still contain secrets printed by the remote server, treat the local AI client as trusted on that machine.
Can I run the same command across many servers at once?
Yes. Select hosts in the Ops view and run a built-in or custom playbook, or an ad-hoc command, and see every host's result together. Save your own commands as playbooks alongside the built-in ones.
Can I record a terminal session and download it later?
Yes. Turn on Record for a session, and replay it afterward at up to 4x speed, or download it as a plain-text transcript to keep or share outside the app. Nothing is recorded unless you turn it on for that session.