Typical Scenarios

Managing Production Servers Through a Jump Host

Production environments are typically reachable only through a bastion (jump) host, and internal services such as databases do not expose their ports. This scenario turns "log into the bastion, hop to the target, forward ports by hand" into a single reusable bookmark.

• Create an SSH bookmark for the target server and configure the bastion's address and credentials under "Jump host" — AuraTerm performs both hops automatically when connecting.
• Save the password or private key with the bookmark. Credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key derived from your master password via Argon2id — nothing is stored in plaintext.
• Add a local forwarding tunnel (-L) to the bookmark, mapping a local port to the internal database, and enable "auto-start with connection". Once connected, your local database client simply talks to localhost.
• Pick tmux or screen as the reconnect mode: after a network hiccup, one click restores the original session, and remote forwards are rebuilt automatically.

See the manual: Making Connections, Port Forwarding & Tunnels, Bookmarks.

Debugging Embedded Serial Devices in the Field

Plug in a USB-to-TTL adapter and, right next to the device, capture boot logs, tweak line parameters, and transfer firmware — all the daily serial-debugging chores without leaving one window.

• Choose the Serial protocol when creating a session; AuraTerm lists detected serial devices. Pick the port and set baud rate, data bits, parity, and stop bits.
• While connected you can change line parameters without disconnecting, send BREAK, drive DTR/RTS, and watch framing/parity error counters — the most direct evidence of a wrong baud rate.
• Configure a log filename template (e.g. {serialPort}-{date}) in Settings, and every session automatically writes its own log file — field records without screenshots.
• Run rz / sz on the device side to trigger the built-in Zmodem transfer: push firmware up, pull logs down — the serial line itself is the transport.

See the manual: Making Connections, File Transfer.

Reaching Lab Boards Through a Device Server

The board is plugged into a ser2net, Moxa NPort, Digi, or Lantronix device server in the lab — and you are not. Network Serial (RFC 2217) lets you attach to that port from anywhere, with baud rate and line parameters genuinely applied on the device server.

• Create a session with the "Network Serial (RFC 2217)" protocol and enter the device server's address and port; baud rate, data bits, parity, stop bits, and flow control are applied via COM-PORT-OPTION.
• On a shared console server, keep the default "Use the device server's existing port settings" checked, so you never clobber parameters someone else has tuned.
• Network sessions come with TCP keepalive and optional backoff reconnect — device servers reboot all the time; you don't have to babysit them.
• For device servers that only expose plain TCP, fall back to the "Raw TCP" protocol: a pure byte pipe that cannot control line parameters, but always connects.

See the manual: Making Connections.

Sharing a Group of Bookmarks with Your Team

A new teammate joins and needs the whole "Prod-EU" group of servers — not a wiki page to copy connection settings from, one by one.

• In the bookmark manager, right-click the group and choose "Export this group (shareable)" to get a share bundle: group paths are relative to the shared root, so the recipient can mount it under any group of their own.
• Even easier: "Generate a share code". The group is encrypted and uploaded, yielding a share code plus a short link the recipient simply pastes — no AuraXLab account required. You can set an expiry and an import limit, and revoke at any time; revoking deletes the server-side ciphertext.

• Before anything lands, the recipient sees a preview: what each entry is, which group it goes to, and what it conflicts with locally — with per-entry add / update / skip. Sensitive items in external files, such as post-login commands, are stripped by default and must be explicitly re-enabled.
• Imported share codes are remembered: when the group changes, the recipient hits "Check for updates" under "My Shares ▸ Subscribed", and changes land on the original entries instead of duplicating them.

See the manual: Bookmarks, Credential Security & Encryption.

Keeping Multiple Machines in Sync

A desktop at work, a laptop at home, another one for travel — bookmarks, themes, quick buttons, and known-hosts should look identical on every machine, and the cloud should not be able to read any of it.

• Pick a storage backend under "Cloud ▸ Sync Settings": GitHub Gist, Gitee Gist, WebDAV, or an AuraXLab account.
• Set a dedicated sync passphrase: everything is end-to-end encrypted with Argon2id + AES-256-GCM before upload, so the storage provider and the server only ever see ciphertext (zero-knowledge).
• Choose what to sync: bookmarks (default), a subset of settings, SSH known-hosts, and optionally saved credentials (requires the master password to be unlocked).
• "Sync now" merges both ways: bookmarks merge by id, known-hosts take the union with local trust winning; when needed you can explicitly "overwrite local" or "overwrite cloud" instead.

See the manual: Cloud Sync, Credential Security & Encryption.

Troubleshooting Together, Remotely

Something is broken in production, you are in the terminal, and you want a colleague to watch over your shoulder — or take the keyboard for a few commands. They don't even need AuraTerm installed.

• "Cloud ▸ Live Share" generates a 12-character share code: pick the session to share, a control policy (view-only / guests may request / auto-grant), and an expiry.
• Your colleague opens the share link in a browser, or uses "Join Live Share" in another AuraTerm — no account needed. Both sides authenticate via SPAKE2 and derive end-to-end encryption keys; the server and relay can neither read the traffic nor impersonate either side.
• You confirm each guest joining or requesting control; control can be revoked at any time, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Esc yanks it back from every guest at once, and closing the shared tab ends the share.
• For standing observation rather than a one-off session, flip on "Cloud Console": the current session becomes observable from the cloud web console, and nothing is uploaded while no viewer is attached.

See the manual: Live Share, Cloud Console.

Turning Repetitive Work into a Toolbar

The few dozen commands you type every day, and the handful of keywords you must not miss during on-call — both deserve to become something you just click.

• Build snippet toolbars: commands organized in groups, bound to hosts or bookmark groups, with {{variable}} parameters and raw control-character sending.
• Let the output-rule engine watch the terminal: on a keyword or regex hit it highlights, rings the bell, raises a desktop notification, or auto-responds (e.g. answering yes), with cooldowns and global/per-host scopes.
• Press Ctrl/Cmd+K in the input bar and describe the task in plain language — the AI assistant drafts a command into the input bar. "Explain last command / analyze the failure" hands shell-integration command blocks to the AI in one click.

See the manual: Input Toolbar & Automation, AI Assistant.