Getting Started

Cleat is in early development. This guide gets you from a fresh download to your first SSH session in under five minutes.

What you'll need

• A machine running macOS 12+, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 38+), or Windows 10/11
• An SSH server you can reach (a remote host, a VM, or just localhost if you have OpenSSH running locally)
• A username on that server, plus either a password or an SSH key

The three-step tour

1. Install Cleat — one download per platform.
2. Make your first connection — pick a name, type a host, hit Enter.
3. Explore from there — SFTP, port forwarding, themes, plugins.

Coming from PuTTY, Termius, or MobaXterm?

Cleat can import your existing hosts. See Importing connections.

Where things live

Cleat stores everything locally. There is no cloud account.

What	Location
Settings & host list	~/.config/cleat/ (Linux) · ~/Library/Application Support/Cleat/ (macOS) · %APPDATA%\Cleat\ (Windows)
Keys	Your OS keychain — Keychain (macOS), libsecret (Linux), Credential Manager (Windows)
Logs	<settings dir>/logs/

See Settings for the full reference.