Getting Started

Everything you need to get the most out of Attach

01

Security & Access

Security matters when accessing servers remotely. SSH exposes a port — and every exposed port is an attack surface. Our advice: don't expose SSH to the open internet. Use a private network instead.

Install Tailscale

Tailscale creates an encrypted WireGuard mesh network between your devices. No exposed ports, no port forwarding, no firewall rules. Your servers become invisible to the public internet.

Free for personal use. tailscale.com →

Custom DNS names

Every machine on your tailnet gets a stable DNS name. Connect to john@mac instead of memorizing IPs.

No port forwarding. Works from anywhere — home, office, cellular.

Tailscale + Attach is a match made in heaven — private networking meets mobile tmux.

02

Keyboard & Input

Hold-and-drag arrow keys

Press and hold anywhere in the terminal, then drag to send arrow keys. A d-pad appears, and the farther you drag the faster they repeat — with a flick at the end for an extra burst. Perfect for vim, nano, and shell line editing without hunting for tiny buttons.

Spacebar & volume keys

Two more ways to move the cursor: with the keyboard up, hold the spacebar and swipe in any direction, or tap the volume keys for up and down arrows.

Select mode

Tap the select-text button to switch on Select mode, then highlight terminal output with native iOS gestures and copy it. Switch it off to return to hold-and-drag arrows.

Image paste

Copy a screenshot or image on your phone, paste it into the terminal — Attach uploads it via SFTP and inserts the file path. Works with AI coding tools like Claude Code, Pi, Cursor, and Codex running in your tmux session.

Custom function keys

Add, reorder, and pin your most-used keys to the accessory bar. Modifier keys like CTRL and ALT are sticky — tap once to activate, and they release automatically after your next keypress.

03

tmux Navigation

Breadcrumb switching

Tap any part of the breadcrumb bar to switch between sessions, windows, or panes instantly.

Pane mini-map

See all your panes at a glance. Tap any pane in the mini-map to jump to it.

Split panes

Split panes directly from the pane selector sheet — horizontal or vertical, right from your phone.

Context menus

Long-press on sessions and windows to rename, kill, or manage them without typing tmux commands.

04

Markdown Preview

Tap markdown paths

When terminal output shows a .md path, tap it to open a native preview instead of copying the path by hand or leaving the session context you are already in.

Read agent output cleanly

Open READMEs, notes, and Claude or agent-generated docs directly from the terminal — especially useful when tools print relative file paths back into the pane.

Built for real markdown

Tables, links, code blocks, and long-form docs stay readable on the phone, so markdown-heavy workflows do not collapse into wrapped terminal text.

05

Experimental Voice Input

Speak into the terminal

Tap the mic button above the keyboard and dictate commands or edits without leaving the pane you are working in.

On-device models

Speech transcription runs on-device, and optional AI refinement can clean up terminal phrasing locally when you enable it.

Private and still experimental

Voice input is designed to stay privacy-friendly and local-first. It is powerful already, but still marked experimental while the app keeps tuning memory use and model behavior.