IntelliJ IDEA 2024.1 Help

Create SSH configurations

In IntelliJ IDEA, you can save the remote server SSH connection parameters as a dedicated SSH configuration. The created configuration can be then used for configuring remote interpreters, connecting to SFTP deployment servers, and launching SSH sessions.

SSH configurations dialog

Enable the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin

This functionality relies on the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin, which is bundled and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA by default. If the relevant features aren't available, make sure that you didn't disable the plugin.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins.

  2. Open the Installed tab, find the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin, and select the checkbox next to the plugin name.

  1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Tools | SSH Configurations.

  2. In the left-hand pane that lists all the existing SSH configurations, click Add item.

  3. Use the Visible only for this project checkbox to enable reuse of this server access configuration in other projects.

    • Select the checkbox to restrict the use of the SSH configuration to the current project. Such SSH configuration cannot be reused outside the current project. It does not appear in the list of available configurations in other projects.

      The SSH configurations are stored in the .idea directory together with the project, which allows sharing them between team members through a VCS.

    • When the checkbox is cleared, the SSH configuration is visible in all IntelliJ IDEA projects. Its settings can be reused across several projects.

  4. In the Host, User name, and Port fields, specify the connection parameters. If necessary, you can provide the outgoing port in the Local port field. Otherwise, the port is selected automatically.

  5. Choose the way to authenticate to the server. Do one of the following:

    • Password: Access the host with a password. To save the password in IntelliJ IDEA, select the Save password checkbox.

    • Key pair (OpenSSH or PuTTY): Use SSH authentication with a key pair. To apply this authentication method, you must have a private key on the client machine and a public key on the remote server. IntelliJ IDEA supports private keys that are generated with the OpenSSH utility.

      Specify the path to the file where your private key is stored and type the passphrase (if any) in the corresponding fields. To have IntelliJ IDEA remember the passphrase, select the Save passphrase checkbox.

    • OpenSSH config and authentication agent: Use a credentials helper application that manages your SSH keys, such as ssh-agent.

    For more information about working with SSH keys, refer to the Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent tutorial.

  6. Click the Test Connection button to make sure that the settings are correct and IntelliJ IDEA can connect to the target server.

Supported OpenSSH directives

Last modified: 23 February 2024