User Guide

Get started with FishMux — your visual Docker & tmux cockpit — in a few steps.

FishMux connects to your machines over a secure SSH transport, then turns what's running on them into something you can see and touch: Docker containers and Compose stacks, tmux sessions, quick commands, and Wake-on-LAN. This guide walks through the basics.

Getting Started

Add server form — hostname, port, username, password Connected terminal with accessory bar

Docker & Compose

If the host runs Docker, FishMux shows your containers and Compose stacks as a visual panel — no typing required:

• See each container's status, image, uptime and live CPU/memory.
• Tap a container to view its logs, open a shell, or start / stop / restart it.
• Containers belonging to the same Compose stack are grouped together.
• Jump straight into a tmux session inside a container for long-running work.

tmux Sessions

tmux lets you run persistent terminal sessions that survive disconnections. When you tap a server:

• Existing sessions are listed with their name, window count and attachment status.
• Tap a session to attach to it.
• Tap + to create a new session.
• Swipe left on a session to kill it.
• Pull down to refresh the session list.

Existing tmux sessions on the server

Quick Commands

The Cmd button in the terminal toolbar opens a list of pre-defined commands you can fire with one tap. Useful for recurring tasks (logs, deploys, restarts).

• Default commands ship with the app (ls, ls -la, cd, cd ~…)
• Add your own from Settings → Commands.
• Toggle Execute immediately to send \r at the end — off if you want to edit before running.

Wake-on-LAN & power control

FishMux turns your phone into a power switch for your whole fleet: wake the machines that are off, and shut down, reboot or sleep the ones that are on — straight from the host list, no terminal needed.

Waking a machine ⚡

• When a host is offline, its row shows a lightning button (⚡). Tap it to send a Wake-on-LAN magic packet and power the machine on.
• On the same network the packet is sent directly. Can't reach the machine (you're away, it's behind NAT)? FishMux routes it through a relay host (a "bounce server") that sits on the target's LAN, then you can connect straight in.

No MAC address to type

• FishMux learns MAC addresses automatically. Each time you connect to a host over SSH, it records that host's MAC and reads its neighbour table to pick up the MACs of other machines on the same LAN.
• So Wake-on-LAN just works for any machine you've reached at least once while it was on — no manual setup. Works with Linux, macOS and Windows hosts.

Powering off ⏻

• When a host is online, its row shows a power button (⏻). Tap it for Shut down · Reboot · Sleep, executed over a secure SSH connection. Destructive actions ask for confirmation.
• Shut down is hidden on macOS and on machines whose network card doesn't support Wake-on-LAN, so you never strand a machine you couldn't turn back on remotely. Reboot and Sleep stay available.

Terminal Settings

Tap the gear icon to access settings:

• Theme — choose from 8 themes (Pro, Dracula, Solarized Dark/Light, Material, Ocean, Nord, Tango Dark).
• Font size — adjust from 10pt to 24pt.
• Font — Hack Nerd Font Mono with full glyph support (powerline, icons).

Theme picker in Settings

iPad Mode

On iPad, FishMux uses a split layout: the server list stays in the sidebar while the terminal occupies the main area. Same features as iPhone, more screen real estate.

iPad split view: server list + terminal

Combined with tmux, the iPad becomes a real workstation: attach to long-running sessions, AI coding agents (like opencode), build pipelines — everything keeps running on the server, you just reconnect when you want.

Running opencode (AI coding agent) over SSH from iPad

Compatibility

FishMux talks to any host running a standard SSH server (OpenSSH). The richer features adapt to the host's operating system, and FishMux simply hides what isn't available rather than failing.

• Linux — full support (Docker, tmux, Wake-on-LAN, power control). Tested, including Raspberry Pi OS. Note: the Pi's onboard network card doesn't support Wake-on-LAN, so wake is unavailable on those.
• macOS — works as an SSH host (tmux, Docker, Reboot and Sleep). Shut down is intentionally hidden, because macOS Wake-on-LAN (via pmset) is unreliable and you might not be able to wake the machine back.
• Windows — supported through OpenSSH; MAC capture and power commands use PowerShell. This path is less tested than Linux/macOS — if you run FishMux against Windows, let us know how it goes.

In short: anything tested so far has been Linux and macOS (Raspberry Pi included). Other systems should work over SSH, but we haven't verified every operating system yet.

Security

• Keychain — passwords and SSH private keys are stored in the iOS Keychain, encrypted by the OS.
• TOFU — server fingerprints are verified on every connection. A warning is shown if the fingerprint changes.
• Ed25519 — keys are generated per-server and auto-deployed. No manual key management needed.

Keyboard & Accessory Bar

The accessory bar above the keyboard has two modes. Tap F# / abc to switch between them.

Main bar

• Ctrl — tap once for a single Ctrl combo, double-tap to lock. Type a letter to send Ctrl+letter (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Z, etc.)
• Alt — same toggle behavior, sends Alt+key (useful for tmux prefix, readline shortcuts)
• Esc — escape key
• Tab / ⇧Tab — autocomplete / reverse autocomplete
• ← ↑ ↓ → — arrow keys (combine with Ctrl for word navigation, with Alt for alt-arrow)
• Copy / Paste — copy the terminal selection to the iOS clipboard, or paste clipboard content into the terminal. Handy for transferring API keys, tokens or URLs from Safari.
• / | - ~ — commonly used special characters
• ^C — interrupt (SIGINT)
• ⌫ — clear input line (Ctrl+U)

Extended bar (F#)

• F1–F12 — function keys
• Home / End — jump to start/end of line
• PgUp / PgDn — scroll or navigate in pagers