Browse and edit files
Open a server's filesystem in your browser — browse folders, edit a config, save it, and run the command that reloads it, all from one screen.
The file explorer opens a server's filesystem right next to a terminal: browse the tree, open a config, edit it, save, then reload the service in the shell below — without leaving the page or reaching for an SFTP client.
Unlock your vault first
Every file operation is signed in your browser, so it needs an unlocked vault — see Unlock your vault. Read-only viewers can't open the explorer.
Open the explorer
Pick a connected server
In Servers, open a server showing a green connected status.
Click the files icon
In the server header, next to the settings gear, click the files icon. The explorer opens full screen over the dashboard.
Browse the tree
Folders open on click and are listed on demand — nothing is fetched until you ask for it. Click a file to open it in the editor.
Edit and save
Open a file, edit it, then save with the Save button or Ctrl/Cmd
- S. An unsaved file is marked in the header and in the status line under the editor.
Saving is atomic: the new content is written beside the file and swapped into place, so a save that fails halfway leaves the original intact rather than a truncated file. The permissions of the file you replaced are preserved — saving a config never widens who can read it.
Two limits worth knowing
Files are capped at 8 MB in either direction, and binary files open read-only — editing one as text would corrupt it on save. Use the terminal for anything larger.
Upload and download
Download a file with Download in its right-click menu — it lands in your browser's downloads like any other file, bytes untouched, binary or not.
Upload with the upload icon at the top of the explorer, or Upload files in a folder's right-click menu. You can pick several files at once; each is written into that folder under its own name. A file already there is overwritten, and an upload past the 8 MB ceiling is skipped with a message rather than failing the whole batch.
Why 8 MB
Every transfer travels in one signed message through the agent tunnel, so the
ceiling is the message budget rather than an arbitrary quota. For anything
bigger, the terminal and the tools already on the machine (scp, rsync,
curl) are the right instrument.
Create, rename, delete
Right-click any entry for the full menu, or use the icons at the top of the explorer:
- New file and New folder create inside the folder you clicked.
- Rename moves the entry within its own folder.
- Change permissions sets the octal mode (
0644,755…) on a file or a folder, prefilled with what it has today. - Delete removes a file, or a folder and everything in it, after a confirmation.
Deletions are final
There is no trash and no undo. Deleting a folder deletes its contents. As a
guardrail, a recursive delete of a system root (/, /etc, /usr, /var…)
is refused outright.
The terminal below
The panel at the bottom is the same web terminal as the
Terminal tab — a real shell on the machine. Drag the divider to give the editor
or the terminal more room. The usual loop is: edit a config, save it, then run
its check and reload below (nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx).
Who can do what
| Role | Browse | Edit, create, delete |
|---|---|---|
| Owner / Admin / Member | Yes | Yes |
| Viewer | No | No |
Requirements
The explorer needs the agent to be version 1.1.0 or newer. Agents update themselves, so a server on an older build shows a short message and starts working on its own once the update lands.
Troubleshooting
- "Vault locked" — file operations are signed with a key only your unlocked browser holds. Unlock your vault and retry.
- "Permission denied" — the agent performs file operations as the user commands run as. If that user can't read or write the path, neither can the explorer; check the file's ownership from the terminal below.
- The file is too large to open — the 8 MB ceiling is deliberate, the whole
file travels through the tunnel in one message. Use the terminal (
tail,less,grep) for large logs. - Still stuck? See Troubleshooting.