Getting started

Vault

Everything you save in Termbit lives in an encrypted vault on your Mac. Here’s what’s in it and how to keep its key safe.

What’s in the vault

Hosts, passwords, SSH keys and their passphrases, identities, notes, snippets, workspaces, forwarding rules and known host keys. Each record is encrypted on its own. App preferences, such as appearance and fonts, are stored separately because they aren’t sensitive.

There’s no account and no cloud copy. Your vault stays on this Mac.

The vault key

The vault is locked with a vault key that Termbit keeps in the macOS Keychain, so you don’t need to type a master password when the app starts. The vault key is not an SSH key: it only protects your data in Termbit and is never sent to servers.

If iCloud Keychain is turned on, macOS can make the vault key available on your other Macs. Only the key travels this way; the data in your vault is never synced.

Back up your vault key

  1. Choose File → Export Vault Key….
  2. Keep Protect with password on and enter and confirm a password of at least 15 characters.
  3. Click Export… and choose where to save the file.

The file contains only the vault key, not your hosts, passwords or other data.

Keep the key file and its password somewhere other than this Mac, for example in your password manager. If every copy of the vault key is lost, the data in your vault can’t be recovered, not even by us.

If Termbit can’t open your vault

If the vault key is missing from the Keychain, Termbit shows a recovery screen when it starts. Choose to restore the key and either select your key file or paste the key text. Termbit checks that the key really opens your vault before using it.

If you don’t have a copy, you can start over with Create New Vault. Termbit archives the old data instead of deleting it, and you begin with an empty vault.

Using Termbit on another Mac

Termbit doesn’t sync data between Macs. On a new Mac, Termbit uses your vault key automatically if iCloud Keychain has already delivered it; otherwise choose Import Vault Key… during setup. Either way the new Mac starts with an empty vault: your hosts and other data stay on the Mac where you created them.