diff --git a/docs/manual-checks.md b/docs/manual-checks.md
index 19fa0ce..e7f8f60 100644
--- a/docs/manual-checks.md
+++ b/docs/manual-checks.md
@@ -2335,6 +2335,23 @@ Android is not delivering the click as a `contextmenu` event, and the gesture ne
 `WebView` instead of a page one. Neither costs this head anything it has today: a phone without a pointer
 has no right button to miss.
 
+### 11.14 Connections with nothing open asks what to connect to
+
+Close every shell, then press **Connections**. Type part of a saved host's name into the `connect to:` line.
+
+**Pass:** the matching hosts appear under the line as buttons a thumb can hit; tapping one asks for that
+host's password on a line of its own under ssh's wording — or connects at once, for a host with a key or a
+saved password. Then type `user@host` for a machine that is not saved and press CONNECT: the password line
+appears with the keyboard already on it, and BACK — or the system back gesture — steps off it onto the
+address rather than leaving the screen. A tap on a RECENT row lands on the prompt and asks whatever it needs
+to before anything is dialled. Nothing new appears on HOSTS or in the keychain afterwards.
+
+**Failure means:** a password line that appears with the keyboard still on the first line is the posted focus
+in `ConnectPrompt.axaml.cs` arriving before the box has bounds. Back that leaves Connections from the password
+line is `PhoneShell.OnBackRequested`'s prompt step having been reordered below the surface check. The
+decisions themselves — which name matches, what is refused, what is saved — are `ShellFlowTests`' prompt
+cases, shared with the desktop; this is the rectangles and the keyboard.
+
 ---
 
 ## Phase 12 — Shared vaults: the operations that span two accounts
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
index c6b42b7..37d7f8d 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml
@@ -843,6 +843,30 @@
     <Setter Property="TextInputOptions.ContentType" Value="Password" />
   </Style>
 
+  <!--
+    The Connections prompt's two lines, typed into the way a shell is: no fill and no border in any state, so
+    the text sits on the pane where its label leaves off and the caret is the only sign the line takes input.
+    44 tall all the same, which is this head's touch floor — the line has no box to aim at, so the whole
+    height of it has to be the target. See ConnectPrompt.axaml. Declared after .secret, which it combines with
+    on the password line and sets nothing in common with.
+  -->
+  <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt">
+    <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="44" />
+    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="0" />
+    <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
+    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource Text}" />
+    <Setter Property="CaretBrush" Value="{StaticResource AccentText}" />
+    <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
+    <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="14" />
+  </Style>
+  <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                   TextBox.prompt:pointerover /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                   TextBox.prompt:focus /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement">
+    <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
+    <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="Transparent" />
+    <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="0" />
+  </Style>
+
   <!--
     The live dot, and the class name is the same one the desktop sidebar uses so the two heads cannot
     drift on what green means: a terminal is open on this host right now. Deliberately not reachability —
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..539cbc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+<UserControl xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
+             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
+             xmlns:vm="using:DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels"
+             xmlns:views="using:DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views"
+             x:Class="DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views.ConnectPrompt"
+             x:DataType="vm:MainWindowViewModel">
+
+  <!--
+    The phone's half of the desktop's empty-terminal prompt, drawn on Connections while nothing is open: the
+    same two lines, over the same view-model state — MainWindowViewModel.PromptText and its siblings — so a
+    name or an address typed here is read, refused and dialled exactly as it is on the desktop. See the
+    desktop's ConnectPrompt.axaml for the reasoning; what is here is only what a phone changes.
+
+    THREE THINGS A PHONE CHANGES.
+
+    No Tab and no Escape. The matches under the first line are buttons sized for a thumb instead of a
+    completion list for a key, and a tap on one takes it outright — completing to a name and then pressing
+    CONNECT is two taps for what one already says. The way off the password line is BACK beside CONNECT,
+    and the system back gesture, which PhoneShell routes to the same command.
+
+    A CONNECT button, because the software keyboard's own return key may commit or may only close the
+    keyboard — that is the IME's choice, as the files screen's GO button already says. Enter is still bound,
+    for every keyboard that does send it.
+
+    The password's label on its own line. ssh's wording — "deploy@build.internal:2222's password:" — is a
+    third of a phone's width before anything is typed, so the box goes under it rather than beside it.
+  -->
+  <Border Background="{StaticResource Pane}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}" BorderThickness="1"
+          CornerRadius="12" Padding="14,12">
+    <StackPanel Spacing="6">
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                 Text="Type a saved host's name, or user@host[:port] for a machine that is not saved." />
+
+      <!-- ============ what to connect to ============ -->
+      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*" Margin="0,4,0,0">
+        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold"
+                   Foreground="{StaticResource AccentText}" Text="connect to:" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Target" Classes="prompt" Margin="8,0,0,0"
+                 AutomationProperties.Name="Connect to"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptText}" IsReadOnly="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}">
+          <TextBox.KeyBindings>
+            <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+          </TextBox.KeyBindings>
+        </TextBox>
+      </Grid>
+
+      <!-- The saved hosts that match so far, best first. A tap takes one: it connects, or asks its password. -->
+      <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding PromptMatches}" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsPromptMatches}">
+        <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+          <ItemsPanelTemplate>
+            <WrapPanel />
+          </ItemsPanelTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+        <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+          <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
+            <Button Classes="chiptoggle" MinHeight="44" Margin="0,0,6,6"
+                    Command="{Binding $parent[views:ConnectPrompt].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptMatchCommand}"
+                    CommandParameter="{Binding}">
+              <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Text="{Binding Label}" />
+            </Button>
+          </DataTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+      </ItemsControl>
+
+      <!-- ============ the password, when one is needed ============ -->
+      <StackPanel x:Name="PasswordLine" Spacing="0" IsVisible="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}">
+        <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                   Text="{Binding PromptPasswordLabel}" />
+        <!--
+          Classes="secret" for what it tells the software keyboard, not only for the dots: see Phone.axaml.
+        -->
+        <TextBox x:Name="Password" Classes="prompt secret" AutomationProperties.Name="Password"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptPassword}">
+          <TextBox.KeyBindings>
+            <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+          </TextBox.KeyBindings>
+        </TextBox>
+      </StackPanel>
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasPromptRefusal}" />
+
+      <!--
+        CONNECT always; BACK only on the password line, where there is a line to go back from. Side by side,
+        CONNECT on the right where the thumb ends up, the order the hosts screen's own panels use.
+      -->
+      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="*,8,*" Margin="0,6,0,0">
+        <Button Grid.Column="0" Classes="secondary" Height="44" Content="BACK"
+                Command="{Binding CancelPromptCommand}" IsVisible="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}" />
+        <Button Grid.Column="2" Classes="primary" Height="44" Content="CONNECT"
+                Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+      </Grid>
+
+    </StackPanel>
+  </Border>
+
+</UserControl>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce01e6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+using Avalonia;
+using Avalonia.Controls;
+using Avalonia.Input;
+using Avalonia.Markup.Xaml;
+using Avalonia.Threading;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views;
+
+/// <summary>The phone's empty-terminal prompt: what to connect to, and its password when one is needed.</summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// The one thing the code-behind does is move the keyboard onto the password line when it appears. Enter on a
+/// name is answered with a second question, and a keyboard left on the first line — read-only by then — would
+/// type nothing and look as though it should.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// It does not take the keyboard when the screen opens, unlike the desktop's prompt. On a phone that would
+/// raise the software keyboard over the recent connections underneath, which are the likelier tap.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <c>FindControl</c> rather than the generated <c>x:Name</c> fields, for the reason
+/// <c>HostsScreen</c>'s constructor gives: no view on this head calls <c>InitializeComponent</c>, so those
+/// fields are null at run time.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed partial class ConnectPrompt : UserControl
+{
+    public ConnectPrompt()
+    {
+        AvaloniaXamlLoader.Load(this);
+
+        var line = this.FindControl<StackPanel>("PasswordLine")!;
+        var box = this.FindControl<TextBox>("Password")!;
+
+        line.PropertyChanged += (_, e) =>
+        {
+            if (e.Property == IsVisibleProperty && line.IsVisible)
+            {
+                // Posted at Loaded, as HostsScreen's own password sheet is: the box has no bounds on the turn
+                // its line becomes visible, and focusing a control with none raises no keyboard.
+                Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => box.Focus(NavigationMethod.Tab), DispatcherPriority.Loaded);
+            }
+        };
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/PhoneShell.axaml.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/PhoneShell.axaml.cs
index 2498b61..43fd72b 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/PhoneShell.axaml.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/PhoneShell.axaml.cs
@@ -674,6 +674,16 @@ internal sealed partial class PhoneShell : UserControl
             return;
         }
 
+        // The Connections prompt's password line, which back steps off onto the name it asked about — the
+        // same thing its BACK button does, and the nearer of the two things back could mean here. Leaving the
+        // surface would throw the name away along with the question.
+        if (current is { IsConnectPromptShowing: true, IsPromptAskingForPassword: true })
+        {
+            current.CancelPromptCommand.Execute(null);
+            e.Handled = true;
+            return;
+        }
+
         if (!current.IsShowingPages)
         {
             current.ShowScreenCommand.Execute(current.Screen);
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml
index 2f8f909..b264c6b 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/TerminalScreen.axaml
@@ -345,9 +345,11 @@
         running this surface is where a connection is made rather than a page apologising for having
         nothing on it. Two things are offered, in the order somebody reaches for them.
 
-        A box, because the case this application had no answer for is the address somebody has just been
-        given. Everything else here starts from a keychain item, which is right for a machine used twice and
-        is several screens of work for one used once.
+        A prompt, because a terminal with nothing in it should do what a terminal does, which is ask — the
+        same one the desktop draws in its empty terminal, over the same view-model state. It takes a saved
+        host's name or user@host for a machine that is not saved, and asks for a password only when one is
+        needed. See ConnectPrompt.axaml. It replaced a box that took addresses alone, which left a saved
+        machine several screens away from here.
 
         And the machines already connected to, under it, because that is the commoner half by far: the
         thing most likely to be wanted is the thing that was wanted yesterday. They come out of the vault's
@@ -359,44 +361,7 @@
 
           <TextBlock Classes="title" FontSize="13" Text="CONNECT TO A MACHINE" />
 
-          <!--
-            The manual target. One box in the grammar people already have — user@host, or user@host:port —
-            rather than three, because three boxes on a phone is three taps between three keyboards for
-            something that arrives as one string.
-          -->
-          <TextBox Classes="field" Text="{Binding Vault.ManualTarget}"
-                   PlaceholderText="user@host or user@host:port">
-            <TextBox.KeyBindings>
-              <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-            </TextBox.KeyBindings>
-          </TextBox>
-
-          <!--
-            A typed password and nothing else. Offering the keychain's keys here would be a second binding
-            resolution beside the one the connect path already has, and a key is the reason to save the
-            machine as a host rather than dial it from a box.
-
-            Classes="secret" and not merely PasswordChar: the class is what also tells the software keyboard
-            this is not prose, which is the difference between dots on screen and dots on screen with the
-            password in the IME's dictionary. See Theme/Phone.axaml.
-          -->
-          <TextBox Classes="field secret" Text="{Binding Vault.ManualPassword}"
-                   PlaceholderText="password">
-            <TextBox.KeyBindings>
-              <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-            </TextBox.KeyBindings>
-          </TextBox>
-
-          <Button Classes="primary" Content="CONNECT" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-
-          <!--
-            Beside the box rather than on the shell's status line. What fails here is about what was typed —
-            a missing account, a port that is not a number — and a sentence about a text box belongs under
-            the text box.
-          -->
-          <TextBlock Classes="detail" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
-                     Text="{Binding Vault.ManualStatus}"
-                     IsVisible="{Binding Vault.ManualStatus, Converter={x:Static StringConverters.IsNotNullOrEmpty}}" />
+          <views:ConnectPrompt />
 
           <TextBlock Classes="body"
                      Text="Nothing typed here is saved. A machine worth keeping belongs on HOSTS, where it can carry a key, a group's defaults and a name." />
@@ -410,14 +375,13 @@
               <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
                 <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:ConnectionLogRowViewModel">
                   <!--
-                    Tapping one does not connect, and that is deliberate rather than a missing step. A row
-                    that names a keychain host goes to that host with its connect bar — which is where its
-                    key, or its password box, or its refusal lives — and one that names only an address goes
-                    back into the box above, without the password, which was never stored. Either way what
-                    happens next is visible before anything is dialled. See ConnectToRecentCommand.
+                    A tap goes onto the prompt above and carries on as if it had been typed: a keychain host
+                    connects, or asks for its password there; an address asks for its password, which was
+                    never stored. Nothing is dialled before the prompt has asked whatever it needs to. See
+                    MainWindowViewModel.ChoosePromptRecentCommand.
                   -->
                   <Button Classes="row" MinHeight="52" Padding="12,8" CornerRadius="10"
-                          Command="{Binding $parent[views:TerminalScreen].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ConnectToRecentCommand}"
+                          Command="{Binding $parent[views:TerminalScreen].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptRecentCommand}"
                           CommandParameter="{Binding}">
                     <Grid ColumnDefinitions="*,Auto">
                       <StackPanel Grid.Column="0" Spacing="2" VerticalAlignment="Center">
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
index b57d9fc..02564dd 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
@@ -1363,6 +1363,27 @@ public sealed partial class ShellFlowTests : IAsyncLifetime
         shell.HasPromptRefusal.ShouldBeFalse("typing again clears a refusal about what was typed");
     }
 
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A tap on a match takes that host outright — the phone's way of completing a name, where there is no
+    /// Tab — and carries on as Enter would: here, to the host's password, with nothing dialled yet.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ATappedMatchOnThePrompt_TakesThatHost()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectAsync();
+
+        shell.ShowTerminalCommand.Execute(null);
+        shell.PromptText = "prod";
+
+        await shell.ChoosePromptMatchCommand.ExecuteAsync(shell.PromptMatches.ShouldHaveSingleItem());
+
+        shell.PromptText.ShouldBe("prod-db");
+        shell.IsPromptAskingForPassword.ShouldBeTrue();
+        shell.ShowsPromptMatches.ShouldBeFalse("the matches are for the name, not drawn under its password");
+        shell.PromptPasswordLabel.ShouldBe($"{vault.Hosts[0].Address}'s password:");
+        ssh.Requests.ShouldBeEmpty();
+    }
+
     /// <remarks>
     /// Two hosts in two vaults can share a name, and the prompt has no room to say which vault each is in, so
     /// it refuses rather than guessing and points at the palette, which does say.