diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 114b15b..da309bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -452,6 +452,36 @@ says so, and the terminal is unaffected. Any row can be switched off and on whil
 phone runs forwards too, listed behind a `⇄` in its terminal's bar, but cannot edit them yet; see
 [The Android head](#the-android-head).
 
+### Reaching a server through Spelunk
+
+A server managed by Spelunk runs Spelunk's agent, which keeps a connection open to Spelunk. DodoSSH can use
+that connection instead of dialling: tick **Connect through Spelunk** in the host editor and fill in
+Spelunk's API address, the server's id in Spelunk, and the credential that holds your Spelunk API key. A
+connection then asks Spelunk for a ticket, opens a WebSocket, and the agent connects to the SSH server on
+the machine's own loopback — so the server needs no open SSH port at all. Shells and file transfers both go
+this way; the relay and Spelunk are one choice, and ticking one unticks the other.
+
+- **The API key is an ordinary keychain credential** — paste the key (`spelunk_…`, with the Admin role) as a
+  credential's password. It is encrypted, synced and rotated like every other secret, one credential serves
+  every server in that Spelunk organisation, and it is sent to the host's API address and nowhere else.
+  The API address must be `https://`, except for a Spelunk on this machine.
+- **The hostname and port still matter**, though nothing dials them: the host key is pinned under them as it
+  is for every host, and the port is what the agent connects to on the server.
+- **There is no falling back to a direct dial**, and a refusal is said in Spelunk's terms: a key Spelunk will
+  not take, a key whose role is too low, a server outside the key's organisation, an agent that is not
+  connected, an agent that could not reach the SSH port or is too old to open terminals.
+
+**"Open in DodoSSH" in Spelunk** starts DodoSSH with a `dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=…&server=…&name=…&host=…`
+link, or hands the link to the copy already running. The link never carries a credential. If a saved host
+already reaches that server through that Spelunk, DodoSSH connects to it; otherwise it opens the host editor
+filled in for a new Spelunk host — name, address, API and server — and you choose how to log in and which
+credential holds the key, and save. Nothing is ever connected that you have not saved, and a link that
+arrives while the vault is locked waits for the unlock.
+
+The Windows installer registers the scheme for your user and removes it on uninstall, the macOS bundle
+declares it in its `Info.plist`, and the Linux package's desktop entry declares `x-scheme-handler/dodossh`.
+The phone reaches Spelunk hosts the same way but does not answer links yet.
+
 ### Sharing a vault
 
 **VAULTS** in the nav rail lists every vault you can see, makes new ones, adds people to one,
diff --git a/build/linux/dodossh.spec b/build/linux/dodossh.spec
index 723c526..2a5becc 100644
--- a/build/linux/dodossh.spec
+++ b/build/linux/dodossh.spec
@@ -247,6 +247,13 @@ ln -s ../../opt/%{dodo_dir}/DodoSSH %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/%{dodo_bin}
 # window is a second, unlabelled icon in the dock beside the one that launched it. It is the assembly
 # name deliberately and not the package's binary name — the window does not know which package
 # started it.
+#
+# %%u — RPM's spelling of a literal %u, the field code for "one URL" — and the MimeType line make this
+# the handler for dodossh:// links, which is how Spelunk's "Open in DodoSSH" reaches the application:
+# the desktop starts the binary with the link as its one argument, and Program.Main reads and checks
+# it, or passes it to the instance already running. update-desktop-database in the post-install
+# scriptlet is what makes xdg-open see the handler. Both channels declare it, so whichever is
+# installed answers, and with both installed the desktop's own default decides.
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/applications
 cat > %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/applications/%{dodo_bin}.desktop <<DESKTOP
 [Desktop Entry]
@@ -255,13 +262,14 @@ Version=1.0
 Name=%{dodo_title}
 GenericName=SSH Client
 Comment=SSH and SFTP with an end-to-end encrypted credential vault
-Exec=%{dodo_bin}
+Exec=%{dodo_bin} %%u
 Icon=%{dodo_bin}
 Terminal=false
 StartupNotify=true
 StartupWMClass=DodoSSH
 Categories=Network;RemoteAccess;System;
 Keywords=SSH;SFTP;Terminal;Remote;Shell;
+MimeType=x-scheme-handler/dodossh;
 DESKTOP
 
 # One file per size into the hicolor theme, named for the package so the two channels show different
diff --git a/build/macos/Info.plist.template b/build/macos/Info.plist.template
index 2430a73..96b7ab8 100644
--- a/build/macos/Info.plist.template
+++ b/build/macos/Info.plist.template
@@ -119,6 +119,25 @@
   <key>LSUIElement</key>
   <false/>
 
+  <!--
+    The dodossh:// scheme, which is how Spelunk's "Open in DodoSSH" reaches the application. macOS
+    does not pass the link as an argument: Launch Services sends an "open URL" event to the running
+    application, or to the one it has just started, and DodoSshApp.ListenForOpenedLinks takes it from
+    Avalonia's activation event. Registered when the bundle is first seen by Launch Services, which
+    for a Velopack install is on first launch from /Applications.
+  -->
+  <key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
+  <array>
+    <dict>
+      <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
+      <string>dev.dodotech.dodossh.link</string>
+      <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
+      <array>
+        <string>dodossh</string>
+      </array>
+    </dict>
+  </array>
+
   <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
   <string>© DodoTech. MIT licensed.</string>
 </dict>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/HostsScreen.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/HostsScreen.axaml
index 1b094c3..dbb962f 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/HostsScreen.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/HostsScreen.axaml
@@ -1212,6 +1212,35 @@
           <TextBlock Classes="body"
                      Text="The server dials this host on your behalf, for a machine this phone cannot reach — so the server has to be able to reach it. That is why the address and port are stored on the server in the clear; everything else about the host stays encrypted. A relayed host needs a port of its own rather than its group's, and connects only while you are online." />
 
+          <!--
+            The relay's alternative, and the desktop drawer's Spelunk card in this head's controls: ticking
+            one unticks the other. The key is a keychain credential chosen here, never typed here. See
+            VaultViewModel.Spelunk.cs.
+          -->
+          <CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding EditorThroughSpelunk}" MinHeight="44">
+            <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="11.5"
+                       Text="Reach this host through Spelunk"
+                       TextWrapping="Wrap" />
+          </CheckBox>
+          <StackPanel Spacing="8" IsVisible="{Binding EditorThroughSpelunk}">
+            <TextBox Classes="field" Text="{Binding EditorSpelunkApi}"
+                     PlaceholderText="Spelunk API address (https://api.…)" />
+            <TextBox Classes="field" Text="{Binding EditorSpelunkServerId}"
+                     PlaceholderText="Spelunk server id" />
+            <TextBlock Classes="detail" Text="Credential holding the Spelunk API key" />
+            <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding EditorSpelunkKeyChoices}"
+                      SelectedItem="{Binding EditorSelectedSpelunkKey}"
+                      HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" MinHeight="44">
+              <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+                <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:AuthenticationChoice">
+                  <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" Text="{Binding Label}" />
+                </DataTemplate>
+              </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+            </ComboBox>
+          </StackPanel>
+          <TextBlock Classes="body"
+                     Text="Spelunk's agent on the server connects to its SSH server for you, so the server needs no open SSH port. Save a Spelunk API key with the Admin role as a credential's password and choose it here; it is sent only to the address above. Connects only while Spelunk and its agent are reachable." />
+
           <!--
             This page covers the whole screen while it is open, which is why it needs a Status line of its
             own rather than relying on the one the list behind it draws at the top of HOSTS (see this file's
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml.cs
index d5f7b6f..015f7ab 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml.cs
@@ -26,6 +26,20 @@ namespace DodoSSH.Client.App;
 /// </remarks>
 internal sealed partial class DodoSshApp : Application
 {
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Where a <c>dodossh://</c> link goes once the shell exists; null until then.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Links can arrive before there is anything to hand them to — macOS delivers the one an application was
+    /// opened with as an event shortly after launch, which may be while the splash is still up — so until
+    /// <see cref="Compose"/> sets this, the latest is kept in <see cref="waitingLink"/>. Both are touched on
+    /// the UI thread only.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static Action<SpelunkLink>? openLink;
+
+    /// <summary>A link that arrived before <see cref="openLink"/> was set. See there.</summary>
+    private static SpelunkLink? waitingLink;
+
     /// <inheritdoc />
     public override void Initialize() => AvaloniaXamlLoader.Load(this);
 
@@ -34,12 +48,59 @@ internal sealed partial class DodoSshApp : Application
     {
         if (ApplicationLifetime is IClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetime desktop)
         {
+            ListenForOpenedLinks();
             ShowSomethingWhileComposing(desktop);
         }
 
         base.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted();
     }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Takes the links the platform hands a running application, which on macOS is every link.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Windows and Linux start the executable with the link as an argument, and <c>Program.Main</c> reads it
+    /// there — or passes it to the instance already running. macOS does neither: Launch Services sends the
+    /// running application, or the one it has just started, an "open URL" event, which Avalonia raises as an
+    /// activation. The scheme is declared for it in build/macos's Info.plist template.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Checked exactly as a launch argument is, by <see cref="SpelunkLink.TryParse"/>; anything else is
+    /// ignored. Where the lifetime offers no activation at all this does nothing, which is the answer on the
+    /// desktops that deliver links as arguments instead.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    private void ListenForOpenedLinks()
+    {
+        if (TryGetFeature(typeof(IActivatableLifetime)) is not IActivatableLifetime activatable)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        activatable.Activated += (_, e) =>
+        {
+            if (e is ProtocolActivatedEventArgs { Kind: ActivationKind.OpenUri, Uri: { } uri }
+                && SpelunkLink.TryParse(uri.OriginalString, out var link))
+            {
+                Avalonia.Threading.Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => Receive(link));
+            }
+        };
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Hands a link to the shell, or keeps it until there is one. UI thread only.</summary>
+    private static void Receive(SpelunkLink link)
+    {
+        if (openLink is { } open)
+        {
+            open(link);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            waitingLink = link;
+        }
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Puts a window on screen first, and composes the application behind it.
     /// </summary>
@@ -206,9 +267,20 @@ internal sealed partial class DodoSshApp : Application
         // The other half of Program's claim on this profile: a second launch was refused, and this is what
         // answers it. Posted onto the UI thread because a pipe accept completes on a thread pool thread and
         // a window may only be touched from the thread that owns it — see SingleInstance.Listen.
+        // A second launch's dodossh:// link comes the same way as this launch's own and macOS's: through
+        // Receive on the UI thread, then MainWindowViewModel.OpenLink, which holds it until a vault is open.
         var others = SingleInstance.Listen(
             paths,
-            () => Avalonia.Threading.Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => BringToFront(desktop.MainWindow)));
+            () => Avalonia.Threading.Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => BringToFront(desktop.MainWindow)),
+            link => Avalonia.Threading.Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => Receive(link)));
+
+        openLink = viewModel.OpenLink;
+
+        if ((waitingLink ?? Program.LaunchLink) is { } first)
+        {
+            waitingLink = null;
+            viewModel.OpenLink(first);
+        }
 
         // Started rather than awaited: the framework's initialisation must not block on a schema
         // migration. The view model shows its own progress and handles its own failures, which is why
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/SingleInstance.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/SingleInstance.cs
index 89935ce..1bc5d3f 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/SingleInstance.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/SingleInstance.cs
@@ -34,6 +34,12 @@ namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Platform;
 /// process asks the first to come forward and then leaves, which is what every desktop application does and
 /// what makes the exclusion invisible rather than mysterious.
 /// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>A launch that carries a link passes the link on.</b> Clicking "Open in DodoSSH" in Spelunk starts
+/// this executable with a <c>dodossh://</c> link, and while DodoSSH is already running that start is a
+/// second launch like any other — so the doorbell has a second message, which carries the link to the
+/// instance that can act on it. See <see cref="OpenLinkPrefix"/>.
+/// </para>
 /// </remarks>
 internal static class SingleInstance
 {
@@ -46,6 +52,30 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
     /// </remarks>
     private const string ComeForward = "dodossh.come-forward";
 
+    /// <summary>The other thing a second launch may say: come forward, and open this link.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Followed by the link, on the same one line. Checked as strictly as <see cref="ComeForward"/> is, and
+    /// for the same reason: anything on this machine may write to the pipe, so the link is parsed again here
+    /// by <see cref="SpelunkLink.TryParse"/>, and a message that is not exactly this prefix and a link that
+    /// passes is ignored whole — the window does not even come forward for it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A second message rather than a second line after <see cref="ComeForward"/>, so that an older running
+    /// build, which compares the whole line against that constant, ignores a link it cannot act on rather
+    /// than half-obeying it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    private const string OpenLinkPrefix = "dodossh.open-link ";
+
+    /// <summary>The longest message the doorbell reads before it stops listening to that caller.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The longest link a second launch could send, and its prefix. A caller that goes on past it is not a
+    /// DodoSSH, and reading a line of whatever length it likes would let it decide how much memory this
+    /// process spends on it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private const int MaxMessageLength = 64 + SpelunkLink.MaxLength;
+
     /// <summary>How long a second launch waits for the first to answer its pipe.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// Short, because the pipe is local and the process on the other end is either listening or not. It is
@@ -86,7 +116,11 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
     /// How long to keep trying a lock nobody answers for, or null for <see cref="DefaultPatience"/>. Named
     /// by a test so the give-up path does not cost the suite three seconds; the application never passes it.
     /// </param>
-    internal static IDisposable? Claim(ClientPaths paths, TimeSpan? patience = null)
+    /// <param name="link">
+    /// The link this launch was started with, if any — passed to the running instance instead of a bare
+    /// request to come forward.
+    /// </param>
+    internal static IDisposable? Claim(ClientPaths paths, TimeSpan? patience = null, SpelunkLink? link = null)
     {
         ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(paths);
 
@@ -116,7 +150,7 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
 
             // Asked before waiting, so the ordinary case — an instance that is up and running — costs one
             // round trip on a local pipe rather than the whole window below.
-            if (AskTheRunningOneToComeForward(paths))
+            if (AskTheRunningOneToComeForward(paths, link))
             {
                 return null;
             }
@@ -142,25 +176,32 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
     /// </remarks>
     /// <param name="paths">The profile this instance claimed.</param>
     /// <param name="comeForward">What to do when another launch asks for the window.</param>
-    internal static IAsyncDisposable Listen(ClientPaths paths, Action comeForward)
+    /// <param name="openLink">
+    /// What to do with a link another launch passed on, after <paramref name="comeForward"/>; null to ignore
+    /// links, which then still bring the window forward. Invoked on the same thread pool thread.
+    /// </param>
+    internal static IAsyncDisposable Listen(
+        ClientPaths paths,
+        Action comeForward,
+        Action<SpelunkLink>? openLink = null)
     {
         ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(paths);
         ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(comeForward);
 
-        var listener = new Doorbell(PipeNameFor(paths), comeForward);
+        var listener = new Doorbell(PipeNameFor(paths), comeForward, openLink);
 
         listener.Start();
 
         return listener;
     }
 
-    /// <summary>Tells the instance that holds this profile to raise its window.</summary>
+    /// <summary>Tells the instance that holds this profile to raise its window, and to open a link if given one.</summary>
     /// <returns>Whether anything was listening.</returns>
     /// <remarks>
     /// Internal rather than private because it is the half a test can drive: the exclusion is a file handle
     /// and proves itself, and this is the part with a protocol in it.
     /// </remarks>
-    internal static bool AskTheRunningOneToComeForward(ClientPaths paths)
+    internal static bool AskTheRunningOneToComeForward(ClientPaths paths, SpelunkLink? link = null)
     {
         ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(paths);
 
@@ -175,7 +216,9 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
 
             using var writer = new StreamWriter(pipe, Encoding.UTF8) { AutoFlush = true };
 
-            writer.WriteLine(ComeForward);
+            // The link as this build writes it, rather than as it arrived: the receiver parses what a DodoSSH
+            // sent, and a link that parsed here has exactly one spelling. See SpelunkLink.ToString.
+            writer.WriteLine(Message(link));
 
             return true;
         }
@@ -188,6 +231,42 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
         }
     }
 
+    /// <summary>What a launch says down the pipe: come forward, with or without a link to open.</summary>
+    internal static string Message(SpelunkLink? link) =>
+        link is null ? ComeForward : OpenLinkPrefix + link;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Reads what a caller said: whether it is a ring at all, and the link that came with it.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <returns>
+    /// True for exactly <see cref="ComeForward"/>, with no link, and for <see cref="OpenLinkPrefix"/> followed
+    /// by a link <see cref="SpelunkLink.TryParse"/> accepts, with that link. False for everything else,
+    /// including a link that is almost right — the caller then does nothing at all.
+    /// </returns>
+    internal static bool TryRead(string? said, out SpelunkLink? link)
+    {
+        link = null;
+
+        if (said is null || said.Length > MaxMessageLength)
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (string.Equals(said, ComeForward, StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            return true;
+        }
+
+        if (said.StartsWith(OpenLinkPrefix, StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            && SpelunkLink.TryParse(said[OpenLinkPrefix.Length..], out var parsed))
+        {
+            link = parsed;
+            return true;
+        }
+
+        return false;
+    }
+
     /// <summary>Takes the lock, or answers null if somebody else has it.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// The file is left in place rather than deleted on close. <c>FileOptions.DeleteOnClose</c> looks
@@ -278,14 +357,16 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
     {
         private readonly string name;
         private readonly Action comeForward;
+        private readonly Action<SpelunkLink>? openLink;
         private readonly CancellationTokenSource lifetime = new();
 
         private Task? loop;
 
-        internal Doorbell(string name, Action comeForward)
+        internal Doorbell(string name, Action comeForward, Action<SpelunkLink>? openLink)
         {
             this.name = name;
             this.comeForward = comeForward;
+            this.openLink = openLink;
         }
 
         internal void Start() => loop = RunAsync(lifetime.Token);
@@ -324,11 +405,16 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
                     // leaveOpen, because this server outlives the conversation. See the remark above.
                     using (var reader = new StreamReader(server, Encoding.UTF8, false, 1024, leaveOpen: true))
                     {
-                        var said = await reader.ReadLineAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+                        var said = await ReadBoundedLineAsync(reader, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
 
-                        if (string.Equals(said, ComeForward, StringComparison.Ordinal))
+                        if (TryRead(said, out var link))
                         {
                             comeForward();
+
+                            if (link is not null)
+                            {
+                                openLink?.Invoke(link);
+                            }
                         }
                     }
 
@@ -348,6 +434,39 @@ internal static class SingleInstance
             }
         }
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Reads one line, or null once it runs past <see cref="MaxMessageLength"/> or the caller hangs up.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <remarks>
+        /// <see cref="StreamReader.ReadLineAsync(CancellationToken)"/> reads a line of whatever length the
+        /// caller sends, and the caller is anybody on this machine. A character at a time is cheap here — the
+        /// reader buffers underneath, and a real message is one short line.
+        /// </remarks>
+        private static async Task<string?> ReadBoundedLineAsync(
+            StreamReader reader,
+            CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+        {
+            var line = new StringBuilder();
+            var next = new char[1];
+
+            while (await reader.ReadAsync(next.AsMemory(), cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false) == 1)
+            {
+                if (next[0] == '\n')
+                {
+                    return line.ToString().TrimEnd('\r');
+                }
+
+                if (line.Length == MaxMessageLength)
+                {
+                    return null;
+                }
+
+                line.Append(next[0]);
+            }
+
+            return line.Length == 0 ? null : line.ToString().TrimEnd('\r');
+        }
+
         /// <summary>Ends one conversation without ending the doorbell.</summary>
         /// <remarks>
         /// Guarded, because <c>Disconnect</c> throws on a server that is not connected — which is the state
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/WindowsUrlScheme.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/WindowsUrlScheme.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ce1d1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Platform/WindowsUrlScheme.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+using System.Runtime.Versioning;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+using Microsoft.Win32;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Platform;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Registers this executable as the handler for <c>dodossh://</c> links, for this user, on Windows.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Under HKCU\Software\Classes, because the install is per user.</b> Velopack installs into the user's
+/// own profile with no elevation, and a handler registered machine-wide would need the elevation the
+/// installer deliberately never asks for. Windows merges this key into <c>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT</c> for the
+/// user, which is all a browser consults.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Written by Velopack's install and update hooks, removed by its uninstall hook</b> — see
+/// <c>Program.Main</c>. An update rewrites it because the first update to a build that has this is how an
+/// existing installation gets it at all, and because it costs nothing to say again.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Removed only when it is still ours.</b> The release and the nightly are separate installations that
+/// both answer <c>dodossh://</c>, and the last one installed holds the key. Uninstalling the other must not
+/// take the handler away from the one that is still there.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+[SupportedOSPlatform("windows")]
+internal static class WindowsUrlScheme
+{
+    private const string KeyPath = @"Software\Classes\" + SpelunkLink.Scheme;
+    private const string CommandPath = @"shell\open\command";
+
+    /// <summary>Points <c>dodossh://</c> at <paramref name="executable"/>.</summary>
+    internal static void Register(string executable)
+    {
+        using var scheme = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(KeyPath);
+
+        scheme.SetValue(string.Empty, "URL:DodoSSH");
+
+        // Empty, and its presence is the whole of it: this value is what makes the key a URL scheme rather
+        // than a file type.
+        scheme.SetValue("URL Protocol", string.Empty);
+
+        using (var icon = scheme.CreateSubKey("DefaultIcon"))
+        {
+            icon.SetValue(string.Empty, $"\"{executable}\",0");
+        }
+
+        using var command = scheme.CreateSubKey(CommandPath);
+
+        command.SetValue(string.Empty, CommandFor(executable));
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Takes the handler away, if it is still <paramref name="executable"/>'s.</summary>
+    internal static void Unregister(string executable)
+    {
+        string? registered;
+
+        using (var command = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey($@"{KeyPath}\{CommandPath}"))
+        {
+            registered = command?.GetValue(string.Empty) as string;
+        }
+
+        if (IsOurs(registered, executable))
+        {
+            Registry.CurrentUser.DeleteSubKeyTree(KeyPath, throwOnMissingSubKey: false);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The command Windows runs for a link: this executable, with the link as its one argument.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Both halves quoted. The path has spaces in it on any profile whose user name does, and the link is
+    /// handed over whole as <c>%1</c> — which Windows quotes into one argument only because it is quoted
+    /// here. Program.Main then reads it back and checks it before anything acts on it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal static string CommandFor(string executable) => $"\"{executable}\" \"%1\"";
+
+    /// <summary>Whether a registered command is the one <see cref="Register"/> writes for this executable.</summary>
+    internal static bool IsOurs(string? registered, string executable) =>
+        string.Equals(registered, CommandFor(executable), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Program.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Program.cs
index 94d80ce..54c4d15 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Program.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Program.cs
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ namespace DodoSSH.Client.App;
 
 internal static class Program
 {
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The <c>dodossh://</c> link this process was started with, once it has claimed the profile; null for an
+    /// ordinary launch.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A static handed across to <c>DodoSshApp</c> rather than a constructor argument, because Avalonia
+    /// constructs the application itself — and the designer does too, through <see cref="BuildAvaloniaApp"/>,
+    /// with no arguments to have.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal static SpelunkLink? LaunchLink { get; private set; }
     /// <summary>
     /// Entry point.
     /// </summary>
@@ -29,11 +39,12 @@ internal static class Program
         // and a silent installer run that reached either would be a background process holding the cache
         // file open during the very file operations the installer is performing.
         //
-        // There are deliberately no OnFirstRun or OnAfterUpdate hooks. A hook process has no passphrase,
-        // so the cache is bytes it cannot read, and the one thing that would want doing after an update —
-        // a schema migration — already runs on every ordinary launch from MainWindowViewModel.StartAsync,
-        // before unlock and touching no encrypted content.
-        VelopackApp.Build().Run();
+        // There are deliberately no OnFirstRun or OnAfterUpdate hooks that touch the profile. A hook process
+        // has no passphrase, so the cache is bytes it cannot read, and the one thing that would want doing
+        // after an update — a schema migration — already runs on every ordinary launch from
+        // MainWindowViewModel.StartAsync, before unlock and touching no encrypted content. The hooks it does
+        // have touch only the registry; see RunVelopack.
+        RunVelopack();
 
         KeepTheWebViewProfileOutOfTheInstallDirectory();
 
@@ -51,16 +62,100 @@ internal static class Program
         */
         var paths = ClientPaths.ForChannel(DesktopChannel.Name);
 
-        using var claim = SingleInstance.Claim(paths);
+        // Read before the claim, because a launch that carries a link and finds DodoSSH already running
+        // passes the link on rather than merely asking for the window.
+        var link = LinkFrom(args);
+
+        using var claim = SingleInstance.Claim(paths, link: link);
 
         if (claim is null)
         {
             return;
         }
 
+        LaunchLink = link;
+
         BuildAvaloniaApp().StartWithClassicDesktopLifetime(args);
     }
 
+    /// <summary>Lets Velopack do its install bookkeeping, with this application's three hooks.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The hooks touch only the registry: they make this executable the handler for <c>dodossh://</c> links,
+    /// which is how Spelunk's "Open in DodoSSH" reaches it, and take that away again on uninstall. Velopack
+    /// runs them on Windows only, and offers them only there; the other desktops declare the scheme in their
+    /// packages instead — build/macos's Info.plist template and build/linux's desktop entry. See
+    /// <see cref="WindowsUrlScheme"/>.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static void RunVelopack()
+    {
+        var velopack = VelopackApp.Build();
+
+        if (OperatingSystem.IsWindows())
+        {
+            velopack = velopack
+                .OnAfterInstallFastCallback(_ => RegisterUrlScheme())
+                .OnAfterUpdateFastCallback(_ => RegisterUrlScheme())
+                .OnBeforeUninstallFastCallback(_ => UnregisterUrlScheme());
+        }
+
+        velopack.Run();
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The <c>dodossh://</c> link among this launch's arguments, if there is one and it passes the checks.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A link that fails them is dropped and the launch goes ahead as an ordinary one: the user clicked
+    /// something that meant "open DodoSSH", and a window is still the right answer to that even when what
+    /// came with it cannot be trusted. See <see cref="SpelunkLink.TryParse"/> for what is checked.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static SpelunkLink? LinkFrom(string[] args) =>
+        args.FirstOrDefault(SpelunkLink.LooksLikeOne) is { } candidate
+            && SpelunkLink.TryParse(candidate, out var link)
+                ? link
+                : null;
+
+    /// <summary>Makes this executable the handler for <c>dodossh://</c> links, where that is a registry key.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Failures are swallowed. This runs inside Velopack's install, and an installer that failed because a
+    /// convenience could not be set up would be the wrong trade — the application works without it, and the
+    /// only thing lost is Spelunk's button opening it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static void RegisterUrlScheme()
+    {
+        if (!OperatingSystem.IsWindows() || Environment.ProcessPath is not { } executable)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        try
+        {
+            WindowsUrlScheme.Register(executable);
+        }
+        catch (Exception exception) when (exception is IOException or UnauthorizedAccessException or System.Security.SecurityException)
+        {
+            // See the remarks.
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc cref="RegisterUrlScheme" path="/remarks" />
+    private static void UnregisterUrlScheme()
+    {
+        if (!OperatingSystem.IsWindows() || Environment.ProcessPath is not { } executable)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        try
+        {
+            WindowsUrlScheme.Unregister(executable);
+        }
+        catch (Exception exception) when (exception is IOException or UnauthorizedAccessException or System.Security.SecurityException)
+        {
+            // See the remarks on RegisterUrlScheme.
+        }
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Puts WebView2's user data folder beside the vault cache instead of beside the executable.
     /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostDrawer.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostDrawer.axaml
index 4188378..0c24663 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostDrawer.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostDrawer.axaml
@@ -692,6 +692,51 @@
                   </StackPanel>
                 </Border>
 
+                <!--
+                  ◆ THE SPELUNK CARD, the relay card's twin and its alternative: ticking one unticks the other,
+                  because a host has one route. A host ticked here is reached through the Spelunk agent already
+                  on the server, so it needs no open SSH port at all. The fields appear only when the box is
+                  ticked, and the key is a keychain credential — picked, never typed here — so it is encrypted
+                  and synced like every other secret. See VaultViewModel.Spelunk.cs.
+                -->
+                <Border CornerRadius="12" Background="{StaticResource Field}"
+                        BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}" BorderThickness="1" Padding="12">
+                  <StackPanel Spacing="6">
+                    <CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding EditorThroughSpelunk}" VerticalContentAlignment="Center">
+                      <TextBlock Text="Connect through Spelunk" FontSize="13"
+                                 FontWeight="SemiBold" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}"
+                                 TextWrapping="Wrap" />
+                    </CheckBox>
+                    <StackPanel Spacing="6" IsVisible="{Binding EditorThroughSpelunk}">
+                      <TextBox Text="{Binding EditorSpelunkApi}" Height="36"
+                               PlaceholderText="Spelunk API address (https://api.…)" />
+                      <TextBox Text="{Binding EditorSpelunkServerId}" Height="36"
+                               PlaceholderText="Spelunk server id" />
+                      <!--
+                        Credentials only: the key is the credential's password. A deleted one keeps a
+                        placeholder, as the authentication picker's does, so an unrelated edit cannot drop it.
+                      -->
+                      <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="10.5" Text="Credential holding the Spelunk API key" />
+                      <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding EditorSpelunkKeyChoices}"
+                                SelectedItem="{Binding EditorSelectedSpelunkKey}"
+                                HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="40">
+                        <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+                          <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:AuthenticationChoice">
+                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Label}" />
+                          </DataTemplate>
+                        </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+                      </ComboBox>
+                    </StackPanel>
+                    <!--
+                      What the route asks for and what it costs, said where the decision is made: an Admin-role
+                      Spelunk API key, sent to the address above and nowhere else, and a host that is reached
+                      only while Spelunk and its agent are.
+                    -->
+                    <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="11.5"
+                               Text="Spelunk's agent on the server connects to its SSH server for you, so the server needs no open SSH port. Save a Spelunk API key with the Admin role as a credential's password and choose it here; it is sent only to the address above. The hostname and port still name this machine's host key. Connects only while Spelunk and its agent are reachable." />
+                  </StackPanel>
+                </Border>
+
                 <!--
                   Withdrawing host key trust lives here, in the host's own settings, because a changed host
                   key is refused outright with no way to continue past it — so a legitimately rebuilt server
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecret.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecret.cs
index 79e2a01..fcf7ec3 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecret.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecret.cs
@@ -297,6 +297,30 @@ public sealed record HostSecret : IVaultSecret
     /// </remarks>
     public bool RelayEnabled { get; init; }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// How this host is reached through Spelunk, or null for a host that is dialled.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A host carrying one is never dialled directly and never falls back to it, for the reason the relay
+    /// does not: the user chose this route because the direct one does not exist or does not work, and a
+    /// connection that quietly went another way would be the box saying one thing and the connection doing
+    /// another. See <see cref="SpelunkRoute"/> for what the route is.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b><see cref="Hostname"/> and <see cref="Port"/> still matter, and not for dialling.</b> The host key
+    /// is pinned under them, as it is for every host, so they have to name this machine stably — a host made
+    /// from a Spelunk link takes the server's address, or a name made from its id when Spelunk gave none.
+    /// The port is also what the agent is asked to connect to on the server's own loopback.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>Mutually exclusive with <see cref="RelayEnabled"/>.</b> Two routes to one host is the same failure
+    /// as two bindings: the editor, the connect path and the user would each be free to guess which one is
+    /// meant. <see cref="TryValidate"/> refuses the pair.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    public SpelunkRoute? Spelunk { get; init; }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Checks the fields that must hold before this can be stored.
     /// </summary>
@@ -332,7 +356,8 @@ public sealed record HostSecret : IVaultSecret
 
         return PinnedPathsAreStorable(out reason)
             && PortForwardsAreStorable(out reason)
-            && ReferencesAreStorable(out reason);
+            && ReferencesAreStorable(out reason)
+            && RouteIsStorable(out reason);
     }
 
     /// <summary>Checks the forwards saved on this host, each on its own terms and the list as a whole.</summary>
@@ -356,6 +381,24 @@ public sealed record HostSecret : IVaultSecret
         return true;
     }
 
+    /// <summary>Checks the Spelunk route, if there is one, and that it is the only route.</summary>
+    private bool RouteIsStorable([NotNullWhen(false)] out string? reason)
+    {
+        if (Spelunk is null)
+        {
+            reason = null;
+            return true;
+        }
+
+        if (RelayEnabled)
+        {
+            reason = "A host is reached through the server relay or through Spelunk, not both.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        return Spelunk.TryValidate(out reason);
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Checks the paths pinned on this host.
     /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretCodec.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretCodec.cs
index 11ce696..4c369e5 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretCodec.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretCodec.cs
@@ -119,12 +119,28 @@ public static class HostSecretCodec
     /// </remarks>
     public const int PortForwardsSchemaVersion = 8;
 
+    /// <summary>The version that introduced <see cref="HostSecret.Spelunk"/>.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Its own version, by the rule this file follows, and it matters more here than for a tag. An older
+    /// build that decoded a Spelunk host as editable would drop the route on the next save — and the host
+    /// would then be dialled directly, at an address that exists only so its key has a name to be pinned
+    /// under. Written at this version, the older build shows the host, refuses to edit it, and says to update.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Additive, like every version but <see cref="PortInheritSchemaVersion"/>: the route is one more
+    /// property, and a build that does not know it skips it and still reads a valid host. It follows
+    /// <see cref="PortForwardsSchemaVersion"/>, whose forwards reached main first.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    public const int SpelunkSchemaVersion = 9;
+
     /// <summary>The highest schema version this build can write.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// Names the highest constant above, which <see cref="SchemaVersionFor"/> assumes when it takes a
     /// maximum. A new field added below this line has to be named here too.
     /// </remarks>
-    public const int CurrentSchemaVersion = PortForwardsSchemaVersion;
+    public const int CurrentSchemaVersion = SpelunkSchemaVersion;
 
     /// <summary>Serialises a host to the bytes that get sealed.</summary>
     /// <exception cref="ArgumentException">The host is not valid for storage.</exception>
@@ -175,6 +191,16 @@ public static class HostSecretCodec
             PortForwards = host.PortForwards.Count == 0
                 ? null
                 : [.. host.PortForwards.Select(PortForwardDocument.From)],
+            // Last of all, and absent for a host that is dialled, so every host without a route encodes
+            // exactly as it did before routes existed.
+            Spelunk = host.Spelunk is { } route
+                ? new SpelunkPayloadDocument
+                {
+                    Api = route.ApiBase,
+                    ServerId = route.ServerId,
+                    ApiKeyCredentialId = route.ApiKeyCredentialId,
+                }
+                : null,
         };
 
         return JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(
@@ -255,6 +281,11 @@ public static class HostSecretCodec
             version = Math.Max(version, PortForwardsSchemaVersion);
         }
 
+        if (host.Spelunk is not null)
+        {
+            version = Math.Max(version, SpelunkSchemaVersion);
+        }
+
         return version;
     }
 
@@ -340,6 +371,7 @@ public static class HostSecretCodec
             PinnedPaths = PinnedPathList.Create(parsed.PinnedPaths ?? []),
 
             PortForwards = forwards,
+            Spelunk = RouteFrom(parsed.Spelunk),
         };
 
         if (!candidate.TryValidate(out _))
@@ -389,6 +421,23 @@ public static class HostSecretCodec
         forwards = PortForwardList.Create(rules);
         return true;
     }
+
+    /// <summary>The route as stored, or null when there is none.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Missing parts come through as empty values rather than making the route vanish, so that
+    /// <see cref="HostSecret.TryValidate"/> refuses the host. Reading a half-written route as "no route"
+    /// would turn a Spelunk host into one that is dialled directly, which is the one reading of a damaged
+    /// payload that does something the user never asked for.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static SpelunkRoute? RouteFrom(SpelunkPayloadDocument? parsed) =>
+        parsed is null
+            ? null
+            : new SpelunkRoute
+            {
+                ApiBase = parsed.Api ?? string.Empty,
+                ServerId = parsed.ServerId ?? Guid.Empty,
+                ApiKeyCredentialId = parsed.ApiKeyCredentialId ?? Guid.Empty,
+            };
 }
 
 /// <summary>
@@ -462,6 +511,23 @@ internal sealed class HostPayloadDocument
 
     /// <remarks>Last, and null rather than <c>[]</c>, for the reasons <see cref="TagIds"/> gives.</remarks>
     public PortForwardDocument?[]? PortForwards { get; set; }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Last, and null for a host that is dialled, for the reason <see cref="TagIds"/> gives. One nested object
+    /// rather than three loose properties, because the three are one decision — a server id without its
+    /// Spelunk means nothing — and an object makes "all or none" the shape of the JSON.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public SpelunkPayloadDocument? Spelunk { get; set; }
+}
+
+/// <summary>The serialised shape of a <see cref="SpelunkRoute"/>. Nullable because it models untrusted input.</summary>
+internal sealed class SpelunkPayloadDocument
+{
+    public string? Api { get; set; }
+
+    public Guid? ServerId { get; set; }
+
+    public Guid? ApiKeyCredentialId { get; set; }
 }
 
 /// <summary>One forward's serialised shape. Nullable throughout, because it models untrusted input.</summary>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretMerge.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretMerge.cs
index ca86a5b..e33d1db 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretMerge.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/HostSecretMerge.cs
@@ -168,6 +168,18 @@ public static class HostSecretMerge
                 remote.AsksForPassword,
                 conflicts,
                 static asked => asked is true ? "a typed password" : "the group's binding"),
+
+            // Here rather than beside RelayEnabled, because it is a reference too — to a Spelunk server and to
+            // the credential holding its key — and it merges as one value for the reason the jump chain does:
+            // an API address from one side and a server id from the other would be a route neither user
+            // chose, to a server that may not exist on that Spelunk.
+            Spelunk = Field(
+                nameof(HostSecret.Spelunk),
+                ancestor.Spelunk,
+                local.Spelunk,
+                remote.Spelunk,
+                conflicts,
+                static route => route is null ? "dialled directly" : $"server {route.ServerId} on {route.ApiBase}"),
         };
 
     private static string Text(
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/SpelunkRoute.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/SpelunkRoute.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b41ffe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Domain/SpelunkRoute.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Domain;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// How a host is reached through Spelunk: which Spelunk, which of its servers, and which key opens the way.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Spelunk manages servers through an agent that runs on each of them and keeps a connection open to
+/// Spelunk. A host carrying one of these is never dialled: a connection to it asks that Spelunk for a
+/// ticket, opens a WebSocket, and Spelunk hands the bytes to the agent, which connects to the SSH server on
+/// the machine's own loopback. That reaches a server with no public SSH port at all — which is the case
+/// this exists for — and it is why nothing here names an address to dial.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Inside the host's encrypted payload, and nowhere else.</b> Unlike the relay, nothing about this has to
+/// be readable by the DodoSSH server: the tunnel is opened by this client, against Spelunk, with a key only
+/// the vault holds. So the concession ADR 0004 argues for the relay's address is not made for this.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>The API key is referenced, not embedded.</b> <see cref="ApiKeyCredentialId"/> names an ordinary
+/// keychain credential whose password is the key, for the reason <see cref="HostSecret.CredentialId"/>
+/// gives: one Spelunk key is the key for every server in its organisation, and a copy per host is twenty
+/// places to rotate it and one to forget. It also means the key is encrypted, synced, merged and shown in
+/// the keychain exactly as a password is, with no item type of its own to build and keep in step.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed record SpelunkRoute
+{
+    /// <summary>The longest API address stored.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Far beyond any real address, and there for the reason <see cref="HostSecret.MaxPinnedPathLength"/>
+    /// is: this is rendered by every device that decrypts the host, and an unbounded string is the shape a
+    /// corrupted payload takes.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public const int MaxApiBaseLength = 512;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The Spelunk API's base address, as <see cref="TryNormalizeApiBase"/> writes it — for example
+    /// <c>https://api.spelunk.example.com</c>.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A string in its normalised form rather than a <see cref="Uri"/>, because this is compared: two hosts
+    /// on the same Spelunk must say so in the same bytes, or a link from Spelunk would not find the host
+    /// already saved for it and the merge would see a change nobody made.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public required string ApiBase { get; init; }
+
+    /// <summary>The server's id in Spelunk.</summary>
+    public required Guid ServerId { get; init; }
+
+    /// <summary>The keychain credential whose password is the Spelunk API key.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Required rather than nullable. A route with no key can never be opened, and a host saved that way
+    /// would refuse every connection with a sentence about something the editor let through. The reference
+    /// can still dangle — the credential may be deleted on another machine — and that is refused where it
+    /// is noticed, at connect, exactly as a missing SSH credential is.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public required Guid ApiKeyCredentialId { get; init; }
+
+    /// <summary>Whether this is the route to the given server on the given Spelunk.</summary>
+    /// <param name="apiBase">A normalised API base, as <see cref="TryNormalizeApiBase"/> writes it.</param>
+    /// <param name="serverId">The server's id in Spelunk.</param>
+    public bool IsFor(string apiBase, Guid serverId) =>
+        ServerId == serverId && string.Equals(ApiBase, apiBase, StringComparison.Ordinal);
+
+    /// <summary>Checks that this route can be stored and opened.</summary>
+    public bool TryValidate([NotNullWhen(false)] out string? reason)
+    {
+        if (!TryNormalizeApiBase(ApiBase, out var normalized, out reason))
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        // Stored normalised or not at all, for the comparison the remarks on ApiBase depend on.
+        if (!string.Equals(normalized, ApiBase, StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            reason = "The Spelunk API address is not in its normal form.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (ServerId == Guid.Empty)
+        {
+            reason = "A host reached through Spelunk needs the id of its Spelunk server.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (ApiKeyCredentialId == Guid.Empty)
+        {
+            reason = "A host reached through Spelunk needs a credential holding its Spelunk API key.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        reason = null;
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Reads a Spelunk API address as a user or a link gives it, into the one form it is stored in.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>HTTPS, or plain HTTP to this machine only.</b> The API key travels in a header on every tunnel, so
+    /// an address that sends it in clear across a network is refused rather than stored. A Spelunk running
+    /// on the developer's own box is the one place plain HTTP is harmless, and it is allowed there so the
+    /// feature can be tried against one.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// No user name, password, query or fragment: none of them means anything to the API, and the first two
+    /// are the classic way to make an address read as one host while naming another. What is left is the
+    /// scheme, the authority and any path prefix, lower-cased where URLs are case-insensitive and without a
+    /// trailing slash — so the same Spelunk typed twice is stored the same way twice.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    public static bool TryNormalizeApiBase(
+        string? text,
+        [NotNullWhen(true)] out string? apiBase,
+        [NotNullWhen(false)] out string? reason)
+    {
+        apiBase = null;
+
+        var trimmed = text?.Trim() ?? string.Empty;
+
+        if (trimmed.Length == 0)
+        {
+            reason = "A host reached through Spelunk needs the address of the Spelunk API.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (trimmed.Length > MaxApiBaseLength
+            || !Uri.TryCreate(trimmed, UriKind.Absolute, out var uri)
+            || uri.Scheme is not ("https" or "http")
+            || uri.HostNameType is UriHostNameType.Unknown
+            || string.IsNullOrEmpty(uri.Host))
+        {
+            reason = "The Spelunk API address must be a web address, like https://api.spelunk.example.com.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (string.Equals(uri.Scheme, Uri.UriSchemeHttp, StringComparison.Ordinal) && !uri.IsLoopback)
+        {
+            reason = "The Spelunk API address must use https, because the API key is sent with every connection.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (uri.UserInfo.Length > 0 || uri.Query.Length > 0 || uri.Fragment.Length > 0)
+        {
+            reason = "The Spelunk API address cannot carry a user name, a query or a fragment.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        apiBase = uri.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Path).TrimEnd('/');
+        reason = null;
+        return true;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ConnectionRoute.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ConnectionRoute.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf533eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ConnectionRoute.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+using DodoSSH.Client.Ssh;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// A way to a host that is not a dial: one connection long, handed to SSH.NET as a loopback proxy.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Two things answer to this — the server relay (<see cref="RelayRoute"/>) and a Spelunk tunnel
+/// (<see cref="SpelunkTunnelRoute"/>) — and both are the same shape underneath: a WebSocket carrying the
+/// SSH bytes, and a <see cref="RelayBridge"/> that turns it into an address SSH.NET can be given. What the
+/// connect path needs from either is exactly that address, the reason the far end gave if it hung up, and a
+/// way to let go of it when the connect never got as far as handing it over.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// Handing <see cref="Proxy"/> to a connection hands the bridge over with it, so the connection's own
+/// disposal is what closes the route. <see cref="IAsyncDisposable.DisposeAsync"/> is for a caller that ends
+/// up not connecting; after a hand-over it does nothing, because the bridge's disposal is idempotent.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public interface IConnectionRoute : IAsyncDisposable
+{
+    /// <summary>The loopback proxy to connect through, which owns the route from then on.</summary>
+    SshLoopbackProxy Proxy { get; }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// What the far end said when it closed, in words a user can act on; null when it has not closed, or
+    /// closed with nothing to say.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// For a connect that failed. SSH.NET reports a route that hung up as a stream that ended, which reads
+    /// exactly like the direct connection the route was chosen to get around — so the route's own reason,
+    /// when it gave one, replaces it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    string? Failure { get; }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ServerRelay.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ServerRelay.cs
index f03fcbd..c2f44c3 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ServerRelay.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/ServerRelay.cs
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public interface IServerRelay
 /// disposal is what closes the relay. <see cref="DisposeAsync"/> is for a caller that ends up not
 /// connecting; after a hand-over it does nothing, because the bridge's disposal is idempotent.
 /// </remarks>
-public sealed class RelayRoute : IAsyncDisposable
+public sealed class RelayRoute : IConnectionRoute
 {
     private readonly RelayBridge bridge;
 
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkLink.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkLink.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1817953
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkLink.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,207 @@
+using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
+using System.Text;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Domain;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// A <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect</c> link from Spelunk's web interface, read and checked.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Spelunk puts one of these behind a "Open in DodoSSH" button on a server's page:
+/// <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=…&amp;server=…&amp;name=…&amp;host=…</c>. It says which Spelunk and which
+/// server, and what to call it. <b>It never carries a credential</b>, and nothing reads one out of it: the
+/// API key is the user's, chosen in the vault, and a link that could supply one would be a link that could
+/// supply somebody else's.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Anything on the machine can hand this application a link</b> — a web page, a mail, another program —
+/// so a link is data to check, never an instruction. It is refused whole unless it is exactly this shape,
+/// and the most it can ever do is select a host the user already saved, or open the editor on a new one
+/// that the user then has to finish and save. It never connects to anything the user has not saved.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+/// <param name="ApiBase">The Spelunk API's base address, normalised as <see cref="SpelunkRoute"/> stores it.</param>
+/// <param name="ServerId">The server's id in Spelunk.</param>
+/// <param name="Name">What Spelunk calls the server, cleaned for display.</param>
+/// <param name="Host">The server's public address as Spelunk knows it, or null when it gave none.</param>
+public sealed record SpelunkLink(string ApiBase, Guid ServerId, string Name, string? Host)
+{
+    /// <summary>The URL scheme DodoSSH registers.</summary>
+    public const string Scheme = "dodossh";
+
+    /// <summary>The longest link read at all. Anything longer is refused before it is parsed.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A real link is a few hundred characters. The bound is what a second launch may put down the doorbell
+    /// pipe, and what the parser is asked to walk — neither of which should be up to the sender.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public const int MaxLength = 4096;
+
+    /// <summary>The longest name kept. Longer is cut, not refused: it is only a label.</summary>
+    public const int MaxNameLength = 100;
+
+    private const string Authority = "spelunk";
+    private const string Path = "/connect";
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The hostname a new host from this link is given: Spelunk's address for the server, or a name made
+    /// from its id when there is none.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// It is not dialled — the tunnel ignores it — but the host key is pinned under it, so it has to be
+    /// stable for this server and unlike any other. The id is both; the address is also what the user would
+    /// recognise, and a key already trusted for a direct connection to that address is found again.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public string Hostname => Host ?? $"spelunk-{ServerId}";
+
+    /// <summary>Whether a string looks like it is meant to be one of these, before checking it is one.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// For the launcher, which is handed arguments of every kind and needs to tell a link that failed the
+    /// checks from something that was never a link.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public static bool LooksLikeOne(string? text) =>
+        text is not null && text.StartsWith(Scheme + ":", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+
+    /// <summary>Reads a link, or refuses it.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Strict on everything that decides where anything goes: the scheme, <c>spelunk</c> as the authority
+    /// with no user, password or port, <c>/connect</c> as the path, no fragment, each known parameter at
+    /// most once, an API address <see cref="SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase"/> accepts, and a server id
+    /// that is a real one. Unknown parameters are ignored rather than refused, so a newer Spelunk can add
+    /// one without every existing DodoSSH ignoring its links outright.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Lenient only on the name, which is display text: control characters become spaces and a long one is
+    /// cut. A missing name falls back to the host, then to a plain one.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    public static bool TryParse(string? text, [NotNullWhen(true)] out SpelunkLink? link)
+    {
+        link = null;
+
+        if (text is null
+            || text.Length > MaxLength
+            || text.Any(character => char.IsWhiteSpace(character) || char.IsControl(character))
+            || !Uri.TryCreate(text, UriKind.Absolute, out var uri)
+            || !string.Equals(uri.Scheme, Scheme, StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            || !string.Equals(uri.Host, Authority, StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            || uri.UserInfo.Length > 0
+            || !uri.IsDefaultPort
+            || !string.Equals(uri.AbsolutePath, Path, StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            || uri.Fragment.Length > 0
+            || !TryReadQuery(QueryOf(text), out var parameters)
+            || !parameters.TryGetValue("api", out var api)
+            || !SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase(api, out var apiBase, out _)
+            || !parameters.TryGetValue("server", out var server)
+            || !Guid.TryParseExact(server, "D", out var serverId)
+            || serverId == Guid.Empty)
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        string? host = null;
+
+        if (parameters.TryGetValue("host", out var given) && given.Trim() is { Length: > 0 } trimmed)
+        {
+            if (trimmed.Length > 253 || Uri.CheckHostName(trimmed) is UriHostNameType.Unknown)
+            {
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            host = trimmed;
+        }
+
+        var name = Clean(parameters.GetValueOrDefault("name")) ?? host ?? "Spelunk server";
+
+        link = new SpelunkLink(apiBase, serverId, name, host);
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The link written out again, in the one form <see cref="TryParse"/> reads back to the same value.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// What a second launch sends the running instance, so the instance parses a link this build wrote rather
+    /// than whatever the browser handed over.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public override string ToString()
+    {
+        var builder = new StringBuilder($"{Scheme}://{Authority}{Path}?api=")
+            .Append(Uri.EscapeDataString(ApiBase))
+            .Append("&server=")
+            .Append(ServerId.ToString("D"))
+            .Append("&name=")
+            .Append(Uri.EscapeDataString(Name));
+
+        if (Host is not null)
+        {
+            builder.Append("&host=").Append(Uri.EscapeDataString(Host));
+        }
+
+        return builder.ToString();
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Splits a query into its known parameters, refusing one that names any of them twice.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// By hand rather than through a web utility, because this project has none and because the rule that
+    /// matters — twice is refused, not "last wins" — is one no general-purpose parser applies. <c>+</c> is a
+    /// space, as a browser's form encoding writes it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static bool TryReadQuery(string query, out Dictionary<string, string> parameters)
+    {
+        parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.Ordinal);
+
+        foreach (var pair in query.Split('&', StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
+        {
+            var equals = pair.IndexOf('=', StringComparison.Ordinal);
+            var key = equals < 0 ? pair : pair[..equals];
+            var value = equals < 0 ? string.Empty : pair[(equals + 1)..];
+
+            if (key is not ("api" or "server" or "name" or "host"))
+            {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            string decoded;
+
+            try
+            {
+                decoded = Uri.UnescapeDataString(value.Replace('+', ' '));
+            }
+            catch (UriFormatException)
+            {
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            if (!parameters.TryAdd(key, decoded))
+            {
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The query exactly as it was written, rather than as <see cref="Uri"/> re-escapes it.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <see cref="Uri"/> has no rules for a scheme it does not know, and how much of the query it unescapes
+    /// for one is its business. Taking the text after the first <c>?</c> means every parameter is decoded
+    /// exactly once, here.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static string QueryOf(string text) =>
+        text.IndexOf('?', StringComparison.Ordinal) is var at and >= 0 ? text[(at + 1)..] : string.Empty;
+
+    private static string? Clean(string? name)
+    {
+        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(name))
+        {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        var cleaned = new string([.. name.Trim().Select(character => char.IsControl(character) ? ' ' : character)]);
+
+        return cleaned.Length > MaxNameLength ? cleaned[..MaxNameLength].TrimEnd() : cleaned;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkTunnel.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkTunnel.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da7f999
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Session/SpelunkTunnel.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,555 @@
+using System.Globalization;
+using System.Net;
+using System.Net.Http.Headers;
+using System.Net.Http.Json;
+using System.Net.WebSockets;
+using System.Text;
+using System.Text.Json;
+using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Domain;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Ssh;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Spelunk's tunnel: the routes, the subprotocol and the close codes, as Spelunk defines them.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// The same two steps as the server relay's, and on purpose, because the bridge on this side is the relay's
+/// and it only has to be told where to go. An authenticated POST decides everything — whose key, which
+/// server, whether the key may — and answers with a ticket; the WebSocket that spends the ticket carries no
+/// authority of its own, and after the upgrade every binary message is simply the next bytes of the SSH
+/// stream, both ways, with nothing else in the socket at all.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// This is Spelunk's contract, not DodoSSH's, which is why it lives here and not in
+/// <c>DodoSSH.Contracts</c>: nothing on the DodoSSH server takes part in a Spelunk tunnel.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public static class SpelunkTunnelProtocol
+{
+    /// <summary>The only subprotocol this version speaks.</summary>
+    public const string SubProtocol = "spelunk.tunnel.v1";
+
+    /// <summary>The prefix of the second subprotocol an upgrade offers, which carries the ticket.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A header rather than the query string, for the reason the relay gives: a URL is what proxies, access
+    /// logs and traces keep. Spelunk echoes <see cref="SubProtocol"/> alone.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public const string TicketProtocolPrefix = "ticket.";
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Close code for an agent that could not connect to the port on its own machine — or that is too old to
+    /// know what a tunnel is, in which case the reason says <see cref="UnknownStreamKind"/>.
+    /// </summary>
+    public const int TargetUnreachableCloseCode = 4502;
+
+    /// <summary>Close code for an agent that disconnected from Spelunk while the tunnel was open.</summary>
+    public const int AgentDisconnectedCloseCode = 4503;
+
+    /// <summary>What an agent that predates tunnels says, inside a <see cref="TargetUnreachableCloseCode"/>.</summary>
+    internal const string UnknownStreamKind = "Unknown stream kind";
+
+    /// <summary>Where a ticket for one server is asked for.</summary>
+    internal static string TicketsPath(Guid serverId) =>
+        string.Create(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, $"/api/servers/{serverId}/tunnel-tickets");
+}
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Opens SSH connections to Spelunk-managed servers through Spelunk.
+/// </summary>
+public interface ISpelunkTunnel
+{
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens a tunnel to one server, ready for a connection to be made through it.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <param name="apiBase">The Spelunk API's base address, normalised by <see cref="SpelunkRoute"/>.</param>
+    /// <param name="serverId">The server's id in Spelunk.</param>
+    /// <param name="apiKey">The Spelunk API key, which authorises the ticket and is sent nowhere else.</param>
+    /// <param name="port">The port the agent is to connect to on the server's own loopback.</param>
+    /// <param name="cancellationToken">Cancellation.</param>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Asks for a ticket, opens the socket and starts the bridge, in that order and at once — the ticket is
+    /// spent by the socket and dead thirty seconds after issue, so this is called by the connect that will
+    /// use it and never ahead of one. The key is a parameter rather than a field of some request record
+    /// because a record prints its fields, and a key has no business in anything that might be logged.
+    /// </remarks>
+    /// <exception cref="SpelunkTunnelException">The tunnel could not be opened; the message says why.</exception>
+    Task<SpelunkTunnelRoute> OpenAsync(
+        string apiBase,
+        Guid serverId,
+        string apiKey,
+        int port,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken);
+}
+
+/// <summary>
+/// An open Spelunk tunnel, one connection long.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// The same ownership as <see cref="RelayRoute"/>, because it is the same bridge: see
+/// <see cref="IConnectionRoute"/>.
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkTunnelRoute : IConnectionRoute
+{
+    /// <summary>The longest stretch of Spelunk's own close reason that is repeated to the user.</summary>
+    private const int MaxReasonLength = 200;
+
+    private readonly RelayBridge bridge;
+    private readonly int port;
+
+    internal SpelunkTunnelRoute(RelayBridge bridge, int port)
+    {
+        this.bridge = bridge;
+        this.port = port;
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public SshLoopbackProxy Proxy => bridge.Proxy;
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A normal close is not a failure worth rewording: it is the SSH server hanging up, and SSH.NET's own
+    /// account of that is the accurate one.
+    /// </remarks>
+    public string? Failure =>
+        bridge.CloseStatus is { } status ? Describe((int)status, bridge.CloseDescription, port) : null;
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public ValueTask DisposeAsync() => bridge.DisposeAsync();
+
+    /// <summary>What a close code from Spelunk means, for someone who has to do something about it.</summary>
+    internal static string? Describe(int code, string? reason, int port) => code switch
+    {
+        SpelunkTunnelProtocol.TargetUnreachableCloseCode
+            when reason?.Contains(SpelunkTunnelProtocol.UnknownStreamKind, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) is true =>
+            "The Spelunk agent on this server is too old to open a terminal. Update the agent, then try again.",
+
+        SpelunkTunnelProtocol.TargetUnreachableCloseCode =>
+            string.Create(
+                CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
+                $"The Spelunk agent could not connect to port {port} on the server itself")
+            + (Readable(reason) is { } said ? $" ({said})" : string.Empty)
+            + ". Check that the SSH server is running and listening on that port.",
+
+        SpelunkTunnelProtocol.AgentDisconnectedCloseCode =>
+            "The Spelunk agent on this server disconnected from Spelunk. It may be restarting; try again in a "
+            + "moment.",
+
+        (int)WebSocketCloseStatus.EndpointUnavailable => "Spelunk is restarting. Try again in a moment.",
+
+        _ => null,
+    };
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Spelunk's own words, cut to one line of printable text, or null when there are none worth showing.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Shown because they are specific — "connection refused" and "no route to host" are different problems
+    /// on the server — and trimmed because they are another program's output going onto a status line.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal static string? Readable(string? text)
+    {
+        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(text))
+        {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        var builder = new StringBuilder(Math.Min(text.Length, MaxReasonLength));
+
+        foreach (var character in text.Trim())
+        {
+            if (builder.Length == MaxReasonLength)
+            {
+                builder.Append('…');
+                break;
+            }
+
+            builder.Append(char.IsControl(character) ? ' ' : character);
+        }
+
+        return builder.ToString();
+    }
+}
+
+/// <summary>A Spelunk tunnel that could not be opened, with the reason in its message.</summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// Its own type for the reason <see cref="ServerRelayException"/> is one: the connect path must be able to
+/// tell a refusal, which already says exactly what happened, from a connection failure it might explain by
+/// probing — and probing a Spelunk host would dial an address that exists only to name its key.
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkTunnelException : Exception
+{
+    /// <summary>A refusal with nothing underneath it.</summary>
+    public SpelunkTunnelException(string message)
+        : base(message)
+    {
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>A refusal and what caused it.</summary>
+    public SpelunkTunnelException(string message, Exception innerException)
+        : base(message, innerException)
+    {
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>A refusal Spelunk answered with a status.</summary>
+    public SpelunkTunnelException(string message, HttpStatusCode statusCode)
+        : base(message) =>
+        StatusCode = statusCode;
+
+    /// <summary>What Spelunk answered with, or null where the refusal came from somewhere else.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>Kept for tests and logs; the screen reads the message.</remarks>
+    public HttpStatusCode? StatusCode { get; }
+}
+
+/// <summary>
+/// The Spelunk tunnel: a ticket from the API, a socket, and the relay's bridge.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Every way this can fail is turned into a sentence here, as <see cref="ServerRelay"/> does for the relay,
+/// because the status codes are Spelunk's and the one place that should know what each means is the one
+/// that asked.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <b>Nothing from Spelunk's answer is trusted to go anywhere else.</b> The socket is opened on the API's
+/// own scheme, host and port, with only the path taken from the answer — and only a path that is one — so a
+/// ticket response cannot send this client, or the ticket, to a different machine.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkTunnel : ISpelunkTunnel
+{
+    /// <summary>The longest ticket accepted. Far beyond Spelunk's; a bound on what goes into a header.</summary>
+    private const int MaxTicketLength = 2048;
+
+    /// <summary>The longest error body read, so a misbehaving proxy cannot hand this a gigabyte.</summary>
+    private const int MaxProblemBytes = 16 * 1024;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// One transport for the process, as the platform advises for <see cref="HttpClient"/>.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Bounded well short of the default hundred seconds: a ticket is one small request, and somebody
+    /// watching "Connecting…" should hear that Spelunk is not answering while they still care.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static readonly HttpClient SharedHttp = new(
+        new SocketsHttpHandler { PooledConnectionLifetime = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5) })
+    {
+        Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30),
+    };
+
+    private readonly HttpClient http;
+    private readonly Func<Uri, IReadOnlyList<string>, CancellationToken, Task<WebSocket>> connect;
+
+    /// <summary>A tunnel over the process's shared transport, which is how the application builds one.</summary>
+    public SpelunkTunnel()
+        : this(SharedHttp, DialAsync)
+    {
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>A tunnel whose requests and socket are supplied, for tests.</summary>
+    internal SpelunkTunnel(
+        HttpClient http,
+        Func<Uri, IReadOnlyList<string>, CancellationToken, Task<WebSocket>> connect)
+    {
+        this.http = http;
+        this.connect = connect;
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public async Task<SpelunkTunnelRoute> OpenAsync(
+        string apiBase,
+        Guid serverId,
+        string apiKey,
+        int port,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        if (!SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase(apiBase, out var normalized, out var reason))
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(reason);
+        }
+
+        var ticket = await IssueTicketAsync(normalized, serverId, Sanitise(apiKey), port, cancellationToken)
+            .ConfigureAwait(false);
+
+        var socket = await connect(
+                SocketUrl(normalized, ticket.Path!),
+                [SpelunkTunnelProtocol.SubProtocol, SpelunkTunnelProtocol.TicketProtocolPrefix + ticket.Ticket],
+                cancellationToken)
+            .ConfigureAwait(false);
+
+        return new SpelunkTunnelRoute(RelayBridge.Start(socket), port);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Where the tunnel socket is: the API's own origin, on the WebSocket scheme, at the path Spelunk named.
+    /// </summary>
+    internal static Uri SocketUrl(string apiBase, string path)
+    {
+        var secure = apiBase.StartsWith("https://", StringComparison.Ordinal);
+        var rest = apiBase[(secure ? "https".Length : "http".Length)..];
+
+        return new Uri((secure ? "wss" : "ws") + rest + path, UriKind.Absolute);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Trims the stored key and refuses one that could not be a header value.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A key pasted into a credential arrives with a newline behind it often enough to be worth handling, and
+    /// one with a space in the middle would otherwise surface as a <see cref="FormatException"/> from inside
+    /// <see cref="HttpClient"/> rather than as a sentence about the credential.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static string Sanitise(string apiKey)
+    {
+        var trimmed = apiKey?.Trim() ?? string.Empty;
+
+        if (trimmed.Length == 0 || trimmed.Any(character => char.IsWhiteSpace(character) || char.IsControl(character)))
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                "The credential chosen for the Spelunk API key does not hold one. A Spelunk API key is one "
+                + "unbroken run of characters starting with spelunk_; paste it as the credential's password.");
+        }
+
+        return trimmed;
+    }
+
+    private async Task<SpelunkTicketDocument> IssueTicketAsync(
+        string apiBase,
+        Guid serverId,
+        string apiKey,
+        int port,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        using var request = new HttpRequestMessage(
+            HttpMethod.Post,
+            new Uri(apiBase + SpelunkTunnelProtocol.TicketsPath(serverId), UriKind.Absolute));
+
+        request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", apiKey);
+
+        // Serialised up front rather than streamed, so the request carries a Content-Length: a dozen bytes
+        // do not need chunked encoding, and not every proxy in front of an API accepts it.
+        request.Content = new ByteArrayContent(JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(
+            new SpelunkTicketRequestDocument { Port = port },
+            SpelunkTunnelJsonContext.Default.SpelunkTicketRequestDocument))
+        {
+            Headers = { ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json") },
+        };
+
+        HttpResponseMessage response;
+
+        try
+        {
+            response = await http.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+        }
+        catch (HttpRequestException exception)
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                $"Spelunk could not be reached at {apiBase}: {exception.Message}",
+                exception);
+        }
+        catch (TaskCanceledException exception) when (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                $"Spelunk at {apiBase} did not answer in time. Try again in a moment.",
+                exception);
+        }
+
+        using (response)
+        {
+            if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
+            {
+                var problem = await ReadProblemAsync(response, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+
+                throw new SpelunkTunnelException(Describe(response.StatusCode, problem), response.StatusCode);
+            }
+
+            return await ReadTicketAsync(response, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Reads the ticket, and refuses one this client would have to take on trust.</summary>
+    private static async Task<SpelunkTicketDocument> ReadTicketAsync(
+        HttpResponseMessage response,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        SpelunkTicketDocument? ticket;
+
+        try
+        {
+            ticket = await response.Content
+                .ReadFromJsonAsync(SpelunkTunnelJsonContext.Default.SpelunkTicketDocument, cancellationToken)
+                .ConfigureAwait(false);
+        }
+        catch (JsonException exception)
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(Unintelligible, exception);
+        }
+
+        // The ticket goes into a header as part of a subprotocol name, which may hold only token characters —
+        // base64url is all of those, and anything else would fail inside the WebSocket client instead. The
+        // path is appended to the API's own origin, so it has to be a path: "//elsewhere" or "@elsewhere"
+        // would turn it into a different host.
+        if (ticket is not { Ticket: { Length: > 0 and <= MaxTicketLength } value, Path: { } path }
+            || !value.All(IsBase64UrlCharacter)
+            || !path.StartsWith('/')
+            || path.StartsWith("//", StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            || path.Any(character => character is '?' or '#' or '\\' or '@' || char.IsWhiteSpace(character) || char.IsControl(character))
+            || (ticket.Subprotocol is { } named
+                && !string.Equals(named, SpelunkTunnelProtocol.SubProtocol, StringComparison.Ordinal)))
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(Unintelligible);
+        }
+
+        return ticket;
+    }
+
+    private const string Unintelligible =
+        "Spelunk answered the tunnel request in a way this app does not understand. Update DodoSSH, or check "
+        + "that the API address is Spelunk's.";
+
+    private static bool IsBase64UrlCharacter(char character) =>
+        char.IsAsciiLetterOrDigit(character) || character is '-' or '_';
+
+    /// <summary>What a refused ticket means, in the words of the status and of Spelunk's own detail.</summary>
+    private static string Describe(HttpStatusCode status, SpelunkProblemDocument? problem)
+    {
+        var detail = SpelunkTunnelRoute.Readable(problem?.Detail);
+
+        return status switch
+        {
+            HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized =>
+                "Spelunk did not accept the API key. It may have been revoked or mistyped — create a new one in "
+                + "Spelunk and paste it into the credential this host uses for it.",
+
+            // The detail is the useful half here: it says which role the key has and which it needs.
+            HttpStatusCode.Forbidden =>
+                "The Spelunk API key is not allowed to open a terminal on this server"
+                + (detail is null ? ". Opening one needs a key with the Admin role." : $": {detail}"),
+
+            HttpStatusCode.NotFound =>
+                "Spelunk does not know this server in the API key's organisation. It may have been removed, or "
+                + "the key belongs to a different organisation.",
+
+            HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable =>
+                "The Spelunk agent on this server is not connected, so Spelunk cannot reach it. Check that the "
+                + "agent is running on the server, then try again.",
+
+            _ => string.Create(
+                    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
+                    $"Spelunk would not open the tunnel (HTTP {(int)status})")
+                + ((detail ?? SpelunkTunnelRoute.Readable(problem?.Title)) is { } said ? $": {said}" : "."),
+        };
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Reads an RFC 7807 body if there is one; null when there is not, or it will not parse.</summary>
+    private static async Task<SpelunkProblemDocument?> ReadProblemAsync(
+        HttpResponseMessage response,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        try
+        {
+            var body = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+
+            return body.Length is 0 or > MaxProblemBytes
+                ? null
+                : JsonSerializer.Deserialize(body, SpelunkTunnelJsonContext.Default.SpelunkProblemDocument);
+        }
+        catch (JsonException)
+        {
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Opens the tunnel socket, and translates a refused upgrade into its reason.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The status of a refused upgrade is collected, as the relay's dialler does. A 401 is a ticket Spelunk
+    /// would not take — spent, or expired on the way — and asking again is the remedy; a 503 is the agent
+    /// going away in the moment between the ticket and the socket.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static async Task<WebSocket> DialAsync(
+        Uri url,
+        IReadOnlyList<string> protocols,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        var socket = new ClientWebSocket();
+
+        try
+        {
+            foreach (var protocol in protocols)
+            {
+                socket.Options.AddSubProtocol(protocol);
+            }
+
+            socket.Options.CollectHttpResponseDetails = true;
+
+            await socket.ConnectAsync(url, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
+        }
+        catch (WebSocketException exception)
+        {
+            var status = socket.HttpStatusCode;
+            socket.Dispose();
+
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                status switch
+                {
+                    HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized => "Spelunk refused the tunnel ticket. Try connecting again.",
+                    HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable => Describe(status, problem: null),
+                    _ => $"The Spelunk tunnel could not be opened: {exception.Message}",
+                },
+                exception);
+        }
+        catch
+        {
+            socket.Dispose();
+            throw;
+        }
+
+        if (!string.Equals(socket.SubProtocol, SpelunkTunnelProtocol.SubProtocol, StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            socket.Abort();
+            socket.Dispose();
+
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                "Spelunk answered the tunnel in a protocol this app does not speak. Update DodoSSH or Spelunk.");
+        }
+
+        return socket;
+    }
+}
+
+/// <summary>The body of a ticket request.</summary>
+internal sealed class SpelunkTicketRequestDocument
+{
+    public int Port { get; set; }
+}
+
+/// <summary>A ticket as Spelunk returns it. Nullable because it models untrusted input.</summary>
+internal sealed class SpelunkTicketDocument
+{
+    public string? Ticket { get; set; }
+
+    public DateTimeOffset? ExpiresAt { get; set; }
+
+    public string? Path { get; set; }
+
+    public string? Subprotocol { get; set; }
+}
+
+/// <summary>The two fields of an RFC 7807 problem this client repeats.</summary>
+internal sealed class SpelunkProblemDocument
+{
+    public string? Title { get; set; }
+
+    public string? Detail { get; set; }
+}
+
+[JsonSourceGenerationOptions(
+    PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonKnownNamingPolicy.CamelCase,
+    PropertyNameCaseInsensitive = true,
+    UnmappedMemberHandling = JsonUnmappedMemberHandling.Skip)]
+[JsonSerializable(typeof(SpelunkTicketRequestDocument))]
+[JsonSerializable(typeof(SpelunkTicketDocument))]
+[JsonSerializable(typeof(SpelunkProblemDocument))]
+internal sealed partial class SpelunkTunnelJsonContext : JsonSerializerContext;
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.Spelunk.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.Spelunk.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28614be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.Spelunk.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+using DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// The shell's half of a link from Spelunk: holding it until there is a vault to act on it.
+/// </summary>
+internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel
+{
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Acts on a <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect</c> link now, or as soon as a vault is open.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Called by the head, on the UI thread, for a link this launch was started with, a link a second launch
+    /// passed down the doorbell, or one the platform delivered to the running application. The link has
+    /// already been checked by <see cref="SpelunkLink.TryParse"/>; what it may do is decided by
+    /// <see cref="VaultViewModel.OpenSpelunkLinkAsync"/>, which never connects to a host the user has not
+    /// saved.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>A locked application keeps it rather than dropping it.</b> Clicking a server in Spelunk and being
+    /// asked for the passphrase is the ordinary first half of this; losing the click at the second half would
+    /// make the button look broken. It is not kept across a restart.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal void OpenLink(SpelunkLink link)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(link);
+
+        pendingLink = link;
+
+        if (State is ShellState.Unlocked && Vault is not null)
+        {
+            DeliverPendingLink();
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (State is ShellState.Locked)
+        {
+            StatusMessage = $"Unlock to open {link.Name} from Spelunk.";
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Hands a waiting link to the open vault, on the Hosts screen where its answer appears.</summary>
+    private void DeliverPendingLink()
+    {
+        if (pendingLink is not { } link || Vault is not { } vault)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        pendingLink = null;
+
+        ShowScreen(ShellScreen.Hosts);
+
+        // Not awaited: a connect reports its own progress and failures on the vault's status line and in its
+        // tab, as a tap on the row does, and this is called from places that must not wait on a handshake.
+        _ = vault.OpenSpelunkLinkAsync(link);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs
index 6b13b3a..a67d7ff 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs
@@ -360,6 +360,25 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// </remarks>
     private readonly ISshReachabilityProbe? reachability;
 
+    /// <summary>What opens a Spelunk tunnel, handed to each vault this shell opens.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Held for the reason <see cref="reachability"/> is: the vault is built on unlock, not here. Null means
+    /// the real one, which is what both heads use; a test passes one so a Spelunk host's connect never leaves
+    /// the process.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private readonly ISpelunkTunnel? spelunk;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// A <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect</c> link that arrived while there was no open vault to act on it.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// One, and the latest: a link is somebody pressing a button in Spelunk, and a second press while this
+    /// machine is still locked means the second server, not both. Delivered as soon as a vault opens, and
+    /// dropped if the application closes first — it is a request to do something now, not something to
+    /// remember.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private SpelunkLink? pendingLink;
+
     /// <inheritdoc cref="MainWindowViewModel(ClientPaths, ClientCacheFactory, TerminalWorkspace, VaultKnownHostStore, IDeviceKeyStore, SignInHandler, TimeProvider, ISftpSessionFactory, Argon2Profile?, ResumeHandler?, Func{string, Task}?, string?, IUpdateChannel?, Action{Action}?)" path="/param[@name='post']" />
     private readonly Action<Action> post;
 
@@ -569,9 +588,11 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         Action<Action>? post = null,
         Func<string, Task>? openInEditor = null,
         Func<string, Action, IDisposable>? watchFile = null,
-        ISshReachabilityProbe? reachability = null)
+        ISshReachabilityProbe? reachability = null,
+        ISpelunkTunnel? spelunk = null)
     {
         this.reachability = reachability;
+        this.spelunk = spelunk;
         this.post = post ?? (action => Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(action));
 
         this.paths = paths;
@@ -2938,7 +2959,8 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
             copyToClipboard,
             connectionLog,
             visibility,
-            reachability);
+            reachability,
+            spelunk);
         State = ShellState.Unlocked;
 
         // Offered only where it can actually be honoured: a machine that can keep a key, and a profile that
@@ -2954,19 +2976,7 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
 
         await Vault.LoadAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
 
-        // After the load, because the switches are built from the vaults the session admitted and the
-        // keyring is filled during it — before, and a machine with a team vault would come up with one
-        // switch until something else rebuilt them.
-        RebuildVaultToggles();
-
-        // After the load, because what the transfers screen takes from the vault is the host list and an
-        // empty one would leave its picker blank until the next unlock.
-        transfers.Attach(Vault, knownHosts, connectionLog, new S3ObjectStoreFactory());
-
-        // After the list exists, and it matters after a lock rather than after the first unlock: shells kept
-        // running while the vault was closed, so some of these hosts are connected before their rows are a
-        // second old.
-        RefreshConnectedHosts();
+        AfterTheFirstLoad(Vault);
 
         // After the first load, so the list is on screen before anything talks to a server. The loop is
         // started from the UI thread deliberately: every pass resumes here, which is what keeps the
@@ -2984,6 +2994,32 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         Vault.StartAutoSync();
     }
 
+    /// <summary>Everything an unlock does that needs the vault's lists to have been read.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Split out of <see cref="AdoptAsync"/> for length rather than for reuse; the order is still the one that
+    /// method's remarks call load-bearing, and it is kept here as it was there.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private void AfterTheFirstLoad(VaultViewModel vault)
+    {
+        // After the load, because the switches are built from the vaults the session admitted and the
+        // keyring is filled during it — before, and a machine with a team vault would come up with one
+        // switch until something else rebuilt them.
+        RebuildVaultToggles();
+
+        // After the load, because what the transfers screen takes from the vault is the host list and an
+        // empty one would leave its picker blank until the next unlock.
+        transfers.Attach(vault, knownHosts, connectionLog, new S3ObjectStoreFactory());
+
+        // After the list exists, and it matters after a lock rather than after the first unlock: shells kept
+        // running while the vault was closed, so some of these hosts are connected before their rows are a
+        // second old.
+        RefreshConnectedHosts();
+
+        // After the hosts are loaded, because what a link does depends on whether one of them is already
+        // the server it names.
+        DeliverPendingLink();
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Points the two process-lifetime stores at the session that has just opened.
     /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
index e3bcb49..2ef739b 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
@@ -1816,7 +1816,7 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
     }
 
     /// <summary>
-    /// Opens the session on a host, through the relay when the host uses it, or says why not.
+    /// Opens the session on a host, through the relay or Spelunk when the host uses one, or says why not.
     /// </summary>
     /// <returns>The session, or null with <see cref="Status"/> saying why there is none.</returns>
     private async Task<ISftpSession?> OpenHostSessionAsync(
@@ -1825,25 +1825,23 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
         SshConnectionRequest request,
         CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        RelayRoute? relay = null;
+        IConnectionRoute? route = null;
 
         try
         {
-            // Through the relay for a host set to use it, exactly as a shell to it would be. The
-            // session owns the relay from here, on success and on failure alike.
-            relay = row.Host.RelayEnabled
-                ? await open.OpenRelayAsync(row.Label, row.EntityId, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true)
-                : null;
+            // Through the relay or Spelunk for a host set to use one, exactly as a shell to it would be.
+            // The session owns the route from here, on success and on failure alike.
+            route = await open.OpenRouteAsync(row, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
 
             return await sftp
-                .OpenSftpAsync(relay is null ? request : request with { Proxy = relay.Proxy }, cancellationToken)
+                .OpenSftpAsync(route is null ? request : request with { Proxy = route.Proxy }, cancellationToken)
                 .ConfigureAwait(true);
         }
         catch (Exception exception)
-            when (relay?.Failure is { } failure
+            when (route?.Failure is { } failure
                 && exception is not (OperationCanceledException or SshHostKeyUnknownException or SshHostKeyMismatchException))
         {
-            // See VaultViewModel.OpenThroughAsync: the relay's reason is the true one.
+            // See VaultViewModel.OpenThroughAsync: the route's reason is the true one.
             Status = failure;
             return null;
         }
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.Spelunk.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.Spelunk.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4958392
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.Spelunk.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,266 @@
+using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
+using CommunityToolkit.Mvvm.ComponentModel;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Domain;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Reaching a host through Spelunk: the editor's half, the connect path's half, and a link from Spelunk.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// A file of its own because it is one feature and this class is long enough without it. Everything here
+/// follows the relay, which is the other route a host can take: a tick box in the editor, a route opened by
+/// the connect that will use it, no falling back to a direct dial, and a stated failure when the route
+/// cannot be opened. See <see cref="HostSecret.Spelunk"/> and <see cref="SpelunkRoute"/>.
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel
+{
+    /// <summary>What opens a tunnel when no caller supplied something else.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Static and shared for the reason <see cref="DefaultReachability"/> is: it holds nothing but a
+    /// transport, and every tunnel is a fresh ticket and a fresh socket. Optional in the constructor so both
+    /// heads and every existing test go on meaning what they did, and a test that wants to see what was
+    /// opened passes a substitute.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static readonly ISpelunkTunnel DefaultSpelunk = new SpelunkTunnel();
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the host being edited is reached through Spelunk.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Ticking it unticks the relay and the other way round, rather than letting both be ticked and refusing
+    /// the save: a host has one route, and <see cref="HostSecret.TryValidate"/> would only catch after the
+    /// fact what these two boxes can simply not express.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private bool editorThroughSpelunk;
+
+    /// <summary>The Spelunk API address in the editor, as typed.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string editorSpelunkApi = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>The Spelunk server id in the editor, as typed.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string editorSpelunkServerId = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>The credentials the editor offers as the Spelunk API key.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Credentials only, and no "none" entry: a route with no key cannot be opened, and nothing selected is
+    /// how a host made from a link says it has not been chosen yet. A key the host names that has since been
+    /// deleted keeps a placeholder, for the reason <see cref="BuildAuthenticationChoices"/> keeps one.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal ObservableCollection<AuthenticationChoice> EditorSpelunkKeyChoices { get; } = [];
+
+    /// <summary>The credential chosen to hold the Spelunk API key.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private AuthenticationChoice? editorSelectedSpelunkKey;
+
+    /// <inheritdoc cref="DefaultSpelunk" />
+    private ISpelunkTunnel Spelunk => spelunk ?? DefaultSpelunk;
+
+    partial void OnEditorThroughSpelunkChanged(bool value)
+    {
+        if (value)
+        {
+            EditorRelayEnabled = false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    partial void OnEditorRelayEnabledChanged(bool value)
+    {
+        if (value)
+        {
+            EditorThroughSpelunk = false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens the route a host is reached by, or null for a host that is dialled.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The one place that decides, for both transports: a shell comes through here from
+    /// <see cref="OpenThroughAsync"/>, and file transfer opens its own connection and comes through here from
+    /// the transfers screen — or that screen would fail for exactly the hosts a route exists for.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A host naming a route that cannot be opened is a refusal, never a quiet direct dial. See
+    /// <see cref="OpenRelayAsync"/> for the relay's half of that argument; Spelunk's is stronger still,
+    /// because a Spelunk host's address may be nothing that answers at all.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal async Task<IConnectionRoute?> OpenRouteAsync(HostRowViewModel row, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(row);
+
+        if (row.Host.Spelunk is { } route)
+        {
+            return await OpenSpelunkTunnelAsync(row, route, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
+        }
+
+        return row.Host.RelayEnabled
+            ? await OpenRelayAsync(row.Label, row.EntityId, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true)
+            : null;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens a Spelunk tunnel to a host, with the key its credential holds.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The key is read from the keychain at the moment of connecting, like every other secret the connect
+    /// path uses, and goes only to the API address the host names. A credential that has gone is refused in
+    /// words, exactly as a missing SSH credential is — see <see cref="TryBuildAuthentication"/>.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The port is the host's resolved one, group and all: it is the port the agent connects to on the
+    /// server's own loopback, which is where the SSH server listens whatever address the world sees.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    private async Task<IConnectionRoute> OpenSpelunkTunnelAsync(
+        HostRowViewModel row,
+        SpelunkRoute route,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        if (Credentials.FirstOrDefault(credential => credential.EntityId == route.ApiKeyCredentialId) is not { } key)
+        {
+            throw new SpelunkTunnelException(
+                $"'{row.Label}' is reached through Spelunk with an API key credential that is not in this "
+                + "keychain any more. Edit the host to choose another one.");
+        }
+
+        return await Spelunk
+            .OpenAsync(route.ApiBase, route.ServerId, key.Credential.Password, row.Resolved.Port.Value, cancellationToken)
+            .ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Does what a <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect</c> link asks, as far as it is allowed to.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <returns>
+    /// The connection attempt when a saved host was found, so a caller that wants to can wait for it; a
+    /// completed task otherwise.
+    /// </returns>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>A saved host for that server on that Spelunk is connected to</b>, exactly as a tap on its row
+    /// would — a password prompt if it asks for one, a host key question if it has not been seen.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>Otherwise the editor opens on a new host, and nothing more.</b> The link came from outside, and
+    /// anything on this machine can make one; it must never be able to make this application connect
+    /// somewhere, or send an API key somewhere, that the user has not looked at and saved. So the host is
+    /// pre-filled — the name, the address its key will be pinned under, the Spelunk and the server — and
+    /// the user chooses how to log in and which credential holds the key, and presses SAVE.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>The key is pre-chosen only when another host already sends it to the same Spelunk.</b> That is a
+    /// convenience that cannot leak anything — the key already goes there — whereas guessing a key for a
+    /// Spelunk no host uses would be offering to send it to whatever address the link named.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal Task OpenSpelunkLinkAsync(SpelunkLink link)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(link);
+
+        if (Hosts.FirstOrDefault(row => row.Host.Spelunk?.IsFor(link.ApiBase, link.ServerId) is true) is { } saved)
+        {
+            return ConnectToRowCommand.ExecuteAsync(saved);
+        }
+
+        // Refused while another host is half-edited, as NewHost refuses it, and said the same way: the link
+        // is not worth somebody's unsaved host.
+        if (AHostEditorIsInTheWay())
+        {
+            return Task.CompletedTask;
+        }
+
+        NewHost();
+
+        EditorLabel = link.Name;
+        EditorHostname = link.Hostname;
+        EditorPort = HostSecret.DefaultPort;
+        EditorThroughSpelunk = true;
+        EditorSpelunkApi = link.ApiBase;
+        EditorSpelunkServerId = link.ServerId.ToString();
+
+        var knownKey = Hosts
+            .Select(row => row.Host.Spelunk)
+            .FirstOrDefault(route => route is not null && string.Equals(route.ApiBase, link.ApiBase, StringComparison.Ordinal))
+            ?.ApiKeyCredentialId;
+
+        BuildSpelunkKeyChoices(Credentials.Any(credential => credential.EntityId == knownKey) ? knownKey : null);
+
+        IsHostPaneOpen = true;
+        Status = EditorSelectedSpelunkKey is null
+            ? $"Adding {link.Name} from Spelunk at {link.ApiBase}. Choose how to log in and the credential "
+                + "holding your Spelunk API key, then save."
+            : $"Adding {link.Name} from Spelunk at {link.ApiBase}. Choose how to log in, then save.";
+
+        return Task.CompletedTask;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether a host needs this key or credential to connect: as its resolved binding, or as the credential
+    /// holding its Spelunk API key.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The one question the deletion warning, the table's USED BY column and the detail pane's list all ask,
+    /// so a credential that is only somebody's Spelunk key is not deleted as though nothing used it. Spelunk
+    /// keys are named by the host itself and never inherited, so the stored route is the whole answer there.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static bool Uses(HostRowViewModel row, ResolvedBindingKind kind, Guid entityId) =>
+        (row.Resolved.Binding is { } binding && binding.Kind == kind && binding.EntityId == entityId)
+        || (kind is ResolvedBindingKind.Credential && row.Host.Spelunk?.ApiKeyCredentialId == entityId);
+
+    /// <summary>Puts a host's route into the editor, or clears it for a host that has none.</summary>
+    private void LoadEditorSpelunk(SpelunkRoute? route)
+    {
+        EditorThroughSpelunk = route is not null;
+        EditorSpelunkApi = route?.ApiBase ?? string.Empty;
+        EditorSpelunkServerId = route?.ServerId.ToString() ?? string.Empty;
+
+        BuildSpelunkKeyChoices(route?.ApiKeyCredentialId);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Fills the API key picker, keeping whatever the host names selectable.</summary>
+    private void BuildSpelunkKeyChoices(Guid? selectedId)
+    {
+        EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.Clear();
+
+        foreach (var credential in Credentials)
+        {
+            EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.Add(AuthenticationChoice.ForCredential(credential.EntityId, credential.Label));
+        }
+
+        if (selectedId is { } missing && EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.All(choice => choice.EntityId != missing))
+        {
+            EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.Add(AuthenticationChoice.Missing(AuthenticationKind.Credential, missing));
+        }
+
+        EditorSelectedSpelunkKey = EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.FirstOrDefault(choice => choice.EntityId == selectedId);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The editor's route, or null when the box is not ticked.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// What cannot be read is written as empty rather than left out, so that
+    /// <see cref="HostSecret.TryValidate"/> says what is wrong with it — "needs the id of its Spelunk server"
+    /// — instead of the save quietly producing a host that is dialled directly. The address is normalised
+    /// here when it can be, so <c>https://api.example.com/</c> saves as the same Spelunk as the link's.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private SpelunkRoute? BuildSpelunkRoute()
+    {
+        if (!EditorThroughSpelunk)
+        {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        return new SpelunkRoute
+        {
+            ApiBase = SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase(EditorSpelunkApi, out var normalized, out _)
+                ? normalized
+                : EditorSpelunkApi.Trim(),
+            ServerId = Guid.TryParse(EditorSpelunkServerId.Trim(), out var serverId) ? serverId : Guid.Empty,
+            ApiKeyCredentialId = EditorSelectedSpelunkKey?.EntityId ?? Guid.Empty,
+        };
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.cs
index 1986483..a0bc153 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.cs
@@ -1482,7 +1482,8 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     Func<string, Task>? copyToClipboard = null,
     ConnectionRecorder? connectionLog = null,
     VaultVisibility? visibility = null,
-    ISshReachabilityProbe? reachability = null) : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisposable
+    ISshReachabilityProbe? reachability = null,
+    ISpelunkTunnel? spelunk = null) : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisposable
 {
     /// <summary>What explains a failed connection when no caller supplied something else.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
@@ -4588,6 +4589,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
             // longer say what the user chose.
             var authentication = EditorSelectedAuthentication;
             var groupId = EditorSelectedGroup?.EntityId;
+            var spelunkKeyId = EditorSelectedSpelunkKey?.EntityId;
 
             BuildTagChoices();
 
@@ -4606,6 +4608,8 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
                 authentication?.Kind == AuthenticationKind.Credential ? authentication.EntityId : null,
                 asksForPassword: authentication?.Kind == AuthenticationKind.Typed,
                 grouped: EditorSelectedGroup?.EntityId is not null);
+
+            BuildSpelunkKeyChoices(spelunkKeyId);
         }
 
         if (IsEditingGroup)
@@ -7745,6 +7749,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         EditorUsername = string.Empty;
         EditorNotes = string.Empty;
         EditorRelayEnabled = false;
+        LoadEditorSpelunk(route: null);
         editorTagIds = TagSet.Empty;
         EditorNewTag = string.Empty;
         BuildTagChoices();
@@ -7836,6 +7841,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         EditorUsername = row.Host.Username ?? string.Empty;
         EditorNotes = row.Host.Notes ?? string.Empty;
         EditorRelayEnabled = row.Host.RelayEnabled;
+        LoadEditorSpelunk(row.Host.Spelunk);
         editorTagIds = row.Host.TagIds;
         EditorNewTag = string.Empty;
         BuildTagChoices();
@@ -11047,9 +11053,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     private string HostsBoundTo(ResolvedBindingKind kind, Guid entityId)
     {
         var bound = Hosts
-            .Where(row => row.Resolved.Binding is { } binding
-                && binding.Kind == kind
-                && binding.EntityId == entityId)
+            .Where(row => Uses(row, kind, entityId))
             .Select(row => row.Label)
             .ToArray();
 
@@ -11876,10 +11880,13 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         PhaseReporter reporter,
         CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        // A relay refusal already says exactly what happened, and a relayed host is reached by a path the
-        // probe does not take: it would dial the host directly — the route the user chose the relay because
-        // they cannot use — and report on that instead.
-        if (reporter.Furthest != SshConnectionPhase.Reaching || exception is ServerRelayException || target.Relayed)
+        // A relay or Spelunk refusal already says exactly what happened, and a routed host is reached by a
+        // path the probe does not take: it would dial the host directly — the route the user chose the relay
+        // or Spelunk because they cannot use, or for a Spelunk host an address that exists only to name its
+        // key — and report on that instead.
+        if (reporter.Furthest != SshConnectionPhase.Reaching
+            || exception is ServerRelayException or SpelunkTunnelException
+            || target.Routed)
         {
             return exception.Message;
         }
@@ -12046,11 +12053,11 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// this machine without touching the host.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
-    /// Internal because file transfer opens a connection of its own and a relayed host needs the relay
-    /// there too — or the transfers screen would fail for exactly the hosts the relay exists for.
+    /// Reached through <see cref="OpenRouteAsync"/>, which is what both transports call — file transfer
+    /// opens a connection of its own, and a relayed host needs the relay there too.
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
-    internal async Task<RelayRoute> OpenRelayAsync(string label, Guid hostId, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    private async Task<RelayRoute> OpenRelayAsync(string label, Guid hostId, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
         if (await ResolveServerAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true) is not { } server)
         {
@@ -12063,17 +12070,18 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     }
 
     /// <summary>
-    /// Opens the session, through the relay when there is one, and puts the relay's reason on a failure.
+    /// Opens the session, through the relay or Spelunk when the host uses one, and puts the route's reason on
+    /// a failure.
     /// </summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// <para>
-    /// A relay that hung up reaches SSH.NET as a stream that ended, and it reports that the way it reports
-    /// every lost transport — a sentence that reads exactly like the direct failure the relay was ticked to
-    /// get around. When the relay said why it closed, that sentence is the true one and replaces it. The
-    /// host key refusals are left alone: a key was presented, so the relay did its job.
+    /// A route that hung up reaches SSH.NET as a stream that ended, and it reports that the way it reports
+    /// every lost transport — a sentence that reads exactly like the direct failure the route was chosen to
+    /// get around. When the route said why it closed, that sentence is the true one and replaces it. The
+    /// host key refusals are left alone: a key was presented, so the route did its job.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
-    /// The relay is disposed on every failure. The connection owns it once it is handed over and disposes
+    /// The route is disposed on every failure. The connection owns it once it is handed over and disposes
     /// it on its own failure paths too, but a throw before the factory is reached would otherwise leave a
     /// bridge listening until its own timeout; disposing twice is safe.
     /// </para>
@@ -12086,28 +12094,30 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     {
         // After the renderer rather than before it: a ticket is dead thirty seconds after issue, and the
         // renderer's wait is the one step of a connect with no bound a user would recognise.
-        var relay = target.Relayed
-            ? await OpenRelayAsync(target.Label, target.HostId!.Value, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true)
+        var route = target.Row is { } row
+            ? await OpenRouteAsync(row, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true)
             : null;
 
         try
         {
             return await workspace
                 .OpenSessionAsync(
-                    relay is null ? request : request with { Proxy = relay.Proxy },
+                    route is null ? request : request with { Proxy = route.Proxy },
                     TerminalSize.Default,
                     reporter,
                     cancellationToken)
                 .ConfigureAwait(true);
         }
-        catch (Exception exception) when (relay is not null)
+        catch (Exception exception) when (route is not null)
         {
-            await relay.DisposeAsync().ConfigureAwait(true);
+            await route.DisposeAsync().ConfigureAwait(true);
 
-            if (relay.Failure is { } failure
+            if (route.Failure is { } failure
                 && exception is not (OperationCanceledException or SshHostKeyUnknownException or SshHostKeyMismatchException))
             {
-                throw new ServerRelayException(failure, exception);
+                throw route is SpelunkTunnelRoute
+                    ? new SpelunkTunnelException(failure, exception)
+                    : new ServerRelayException(failure, exception);
             }
 
             throw;
@@ -12334,13 +12344,13 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         internal Guid? HostId => Row?.EntityId;
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// Whether this is reached through the server relay rather than dialled.
+        /// Whether this is reached through the server relay or through Spelunk rather than dialled.
         /// </summary>
         /// <remarks>
-        /// Only a keychain host can be: the relay dials the address the server holds for an item, and a
-        /// machine typed into the manual box has no item and therefore nothing on the server to dial.
+        /// Only a keychain host can be: the relay dials the address the server holds for an item, Spelunk is
+        /// reached with a key the item names, and a machine typed into the manual box has neither.
         /// </remarks>
-        internal bool Relayed => Row?.Host.RelayEnabled is true;
+        internal bool Routed => Row?.Host is { } host && (host.RelayEnabled || host.Spelunk is not null);
     }
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -12549,6 +12559,10 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
             Notes = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(EditorNotes) ? null : EditorNotes,
             RelayEnabled = EditorRelayEnabled,
 
+            // Null unless the box is ticked, whatever the fields below it still hold: unticking is how a host
+            // goes back to being dialled, and it must not keep a route the user just turned off.
+            Spelunk = BuildSpelunkRoute(),
+
             // Only ever true or null, never false: the two would mean the same thing, and writing false would
             // change the bytes of every host that has never touched this. See HostSecret.AsksForPassword.
             //
@@ -13322,8 +13336,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     private string UsedBySummaryFor(ResolvedBindingKind kind, Guid entityId)
     {
         var names = Hosts
-            .Where(row => row.Resolved.Binding is { } binding
-                && binding.Kind == kind && binding.EntityId == entityId)
+            .Where(row => Uses(row, kind, entityId))
             .Select(row => row.Label)
             .ToList();
 
@@ -13518,8 +13531,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
 
         if (kind is { } resolvedKind && value is not null)
         {
-            foreach (var row in Hosts.Where(row => row.Resolved.Binding is { } binding
-                && binding.Kind == resolvedKind && binding.EntityId == value.EntityId))
+            foreach (var row in Hosts.Where(row => Uses(row, resolvedKind, value.EntityId)))
             {
                 SelectedItemUsedByHosts.Add(new UsedByHostRowViewModel(row.Label, row.IsConnected));
             }
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Sync/ItemKinds.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Sync/ItemKinds.cs
index c5774ee..9400082 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Sync/ItemKinds.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Sync/ItemKinds.cs
@@ -268,6 +268,7 @@ internal sealed class HostKind : IItemKind<HostSecret>
         Note(changed, "Jump chain", before.JumpHostIds, after.JumpHostIds);
         Note(changed, "Options", before.Options, after.Options);
         Note(changed, "Relay", before.RelayEnabled, after.RelayEnabled);
+        Note(changed, "Spelunk", before.Spelunk, after.Spelunk);
         Note(changed, "SSH key", before.SshKeyId, after.SshKeyId);
         Note(changed, "Credential", before.CredentialId, after.CredentialId);
         Note(changed, "Password prompt", before.AsksForPassword, after.AsksForPassword);
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.Spelunk.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.Spelunk.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba6c67a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.Spelunk.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,389 @@
+using System.Net;
+using System.Net.Sockets;
+using System.Net.WebSockets;
+using System.Text;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Session;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Ssh;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// A host reached through Spelunk, from the editor and from a link to the request that reaches SSH.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// The tunnel is stood in for at <see cref="ISpelunkTunnel"/>, and what it hands back is a real
+/// <see cref="SpelunkTunnelRoute"/> over the relay's real bridge and an in-process WebSocket pair — so the
+/// proxy SSH is given, and the close code a failed connect is explained by, are the real ones. The tunnel's
+/// own HTTP and WebSocket half is <c>SpelunkTunnelTests</c>' job.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// What these hold is what the tick box and the link promise: a Spelunk host is never dialled directly and
+/// never probed, a refusal is said in Spelunk's terms, the key goes only where the host says, and a link
+/// never connects anything the user has not saved.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed partial class ShellFlowTests
+{
+    private const string SpelunkApi = "https://api.spelunk.example.com";
+
+    private const string SpelunkApiKey = "spelunk_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG";
+
+    private static readonly Guid SpelunkServer = Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b");
+
+    private readonly FakeSpelunkTunnel spelunkTunnels = new();
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ASpelunkHost_IsDialledThroughTheTunnel_AndStillAsItself()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        await using var renderer = await FakeRenderer.AttachAsync(workspace, Token);
+        await vault.ConnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        // The key from the credential, to the Spelunk and server the host names, for the host's own port.
+        var opened = spelunkTunnels.Opened.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+        opened.ShouldBe((SpelunkApi, SpelunkServer, SpelunkApiKey, 22));
+
+        // Through the loopback proxy, and named as the host, because the name is what its key is pinned under.
+        var request = ssh.Requests.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+        request.Proxy.ShouldNotBeNull().Lifetime.ShouldBeOfType<RelayBridge>();
+        request.Host.ShouldBe("203.0.113.10");
+
+        shell.IsTerminalShowing.ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        await request.Proxy.Lifetime.DisposeAsync();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ARefusedTunnel_IsExplained_AndNothingIsDialledOrProbed()
+    {
+        spelunkTunnels.Refusal = new SpelunkTunnelException(
+            "The Spelunk agent on this server is not connected, so Spelunk cannot reach it.");
+
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        await using var renderer = await FakeRenderer.AttachAsync(workspace, Token);
+        await vault.ConnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        // No fallback to the address. For a Spelunk host it may be nothing that answers at all.
+        ssh.Requests.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        reachability.Probed.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        vault.Status.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("agent on this server is not connected");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ATunnelWhoseAgentCouldNotReachThePort_SaysSo_InsteadOfTheTransportError()
+    {
+        // What Spelunk does when the agent's own connect to 127.0.0.1:22 fails: accept, then close with 4502.
+        spelunkTunnels.CloseWith = (4502, "dial tcp 127.0.0.1:22: connection refused");
+
+        ssh.BeforeConnect = request => ThroughSocksToTheEndAsync(request.Proxy.ShouldNotBeNull().Port);
+        ssh.Failure = new InvalidOperationException("An established connection was aborted by the server.");
+
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        await using var renderer = await FakeRenderer.AttachAsync(workspace, Token);
+        await vault.ConnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        vault.Status.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("could not connect to port 22 on the server itself");
+        vault.Status.ShouldNotContain("aborted");
+        reachability.Probed.ShouldBeEmpty();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ASpelunkHostsFileTransfer_GoesThroughTheTunnelToo()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        shell.Transfers.Attach(vault, knownHosts);
+        shell.Transfers.SelectedHost = shell.Transfers.Hosts[0];
+
+        await shell.Transfers.ConnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        spelunkTunnels.Opened.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+        var request = ssh.SftpRequests.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+        request.Proxy.ShouldNotBeNull().Lifetime.ShouldBeOfType<RelayBridge>();
+
+        await request.Proxy.Lifetime.DisposeAsync();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheRelayAndSpelunk_AreOneChoice_InTheEditor()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+        var vault = shell.Vault!;
+
+        vault.NewHostCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        vault.EditorRelayEnabled = true;
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk = true;
+        vault.EditorRelayEnabled.ShouldBeFalse("ticking Spelunk unticks the relay");
+
+        vault.EditorRelayEnabled = true;
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk.ShouldBeFalse("and the other way round");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ASpelunkHostWithNoKeyChosen_IsNotSaved()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+        var vault = shell.Vault!;
+
+        vault.NewHostCommand.Execute(null);
+        vault.EditorLabel = "web-01";
+        vault.EditorHostname = "203.0.113.10";
+        vault.EditorUsername = "deploy";
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk = true;
+        vault.EditorSpelunkApi = SpelunkApi;
+        vault.EditorSpelunkServerId = SpelunkServer.ToString();
+
+        await vault.SaveHostCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        vault.Status.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("Spelunk API key");
+        vault.Hosts.ShouldBeEmpty();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ASavedSpelunkHost_OpensInTheEditorWithItsRoute()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        vault.EditSelectedHostCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk.ShouldBeTrue();
+        vault.EditorSpelunkApi.ShouldBe(SpelunkApi);
+        vault.EditorSpelunkServerId.ShouldBe(SpelunkServer.ToString());
+        vault.EditorSelectedSpelunkKey.ShouldNotBeNull().Label.ShouldBe("spelunk key");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ACredentialHoldingASpelunkKey_IsInUse_WhereverThatIsDrawn()
+    {
+        // So deleting it is warned about like any other credential a host needs, rather than looking unused.
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        vault.ShowSectionCommand.Execute(VaultSection.All);
+        var row = vault.VaultItems.Single(item => string.Equals(item.Name, "spelunk key", StringComparison.Ordinal));
+
+        row.UsedBySummary.ShouldBe("web-01");
+
+        vault.SelectedVaultItem = row;
+        vault.SelectedItemUsedByHosts.ShouldHaveSingleItem().Label.ShouldBe("web-01");
+    }
+
+    // ---- A link from Spelunk ----
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALinkForAServerWithNoHost_OpensTheEditor_AndConnectsNothing()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+        var vault = shell.Vault!;
+
+        shell.OpenLink(Link(host: "203.0.113.10"));
+
+        vault.IsEditing.ShouldBeTrue();
+        vault.EditorLabel.ShouldBe("web 01");
+        vault.EditorHostname.ShouldBe("203.0.113.10");
+        vault.EditorPort.ShouldBe(22);
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk.ShouldBeTrue();
+        vault.EditorSpelunkApi.ShouldBe(SpelunkApi);
+        vault.EditorSpelunkServerId.ShouldBe(SpelunkServer.ToString());
+
+        // No key chosen for a Spelunk no host already uses: the link named the address, and guessing a key
+        // for it would be offering to send the key wherever a link says.
+        vault.EditorSelectedSpelunkKey.ShouldBeNull();
+
+        spelunkTunnels.Opened.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        ssh.Requests.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        vault.Hosts.ShouldBeEmpty("nothing is saved until the user saves it");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALinkWithNoAddress_NamesTheHostAfterTheServer()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+
+        shell.OpenLink(Link(host: null));
+
+        shell.Vault!.EditorHostname.ShouldBe($"spelunk-{SpelunkServer}");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALinkForASecondServerOnAKnownSpelunk_PicksTheKeyThatSpelunkAlreadyGets()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        shell.OpenLink(Link(server: Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-cccc-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0c")));
+
+        vault.IsEditing.ShouldBeTrue();
+        vault.EditorSelectedSpelunkKey.ShouldNotBeNull().Label.ShouldBe("spelunk key");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALinkForASavedHost_ConnectsToIt()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync();
+
+        await using var renderer = await FakeRenderer.AttachAsync(workspace, Token);
+        await vault.OpenSpelunkLinkAsync(Link(host: "198.51.100.7"));
+
+        vault.IsEditing.ShouldBeFalse();
+        spelunkTunnels.Opened.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+
+        // The saved host, as saved — not the address the link happened to carry.
+        var request = ssh.Requests.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+        request.Host.ShouldBe("203.0.113.10");
+
+        await request.Proxy.ShouldNotBeNull().Lifetime.DisposeAsync();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALinkWhileLocked_WaitsForTheUnlock()
+    {
+        await EnrolledAndConfirmedAsync();
+
+        shell.OpenLink(Link(host: "203.0.113.10"));
+
+        shell.Vault.ShouldBeNull();
+        shell.StatusMessage.ShouldContain("Unlock to open web 01");
+
+        shell.Passphrase = Passphrase;
+        await shell.UnlockCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        var vault = shell.Vault.ShouldNotBeNull();
+        vault.IsEditing.ShouldBeTrue();
+        vault.EditorSpelunkServerId.ShouldBe(SpelunkServer.ToString());
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ALink_LeavesAHalfEditedHostAlone()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+        var vault = shell.Vault!;
+
+        vault.NewHostCommand.Execute(null);
+        vault.EditorLabel = "something I was typing";
+
+        shell.OpenLink(Link(host: "203.0.113.10"));
+
+        vault.EditorLabel.ShouldBe("something I was typing");
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk.ShouldBeFalse();
+        vault.Status.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("Finish or cancel");
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>A saved host through Spelunk, bound to a stored SSH password, with its key in the keychain.</summary>
+    private async Task<VaultViewModel> ReadyToConnectThroughSpelunkAsync()
+    {
+        await UnlockedAsync();
+
+        var vault = shell.Vault!;
+
+        await AddCredentialAsync(vault, "spelunk key", password: SpelunkApiKey);
+        await AddCredentialAsync(vault, "deploy password", password: "s3cret", username: "deploy");
+
+        vault.NewHostCommand.Execute(null);
+        vault.EditorLabel = "web-01";
+        vault.EditorHostname = "203.0.113.10";
+        vault.EditorUsername = "deploy";
+        vault.EditorThroughSpelunk = true;
+        vault.EditorSpelunkApi = SpelunkApi + "/";
+        vault.EditorSpelunkServerId = SpelunkServer.ToString();
+        vault.EditorSelectedSpelunkKey = vault.EditorSpelunkKeyChoices.Single(choice => choice.Label == "spelunk key");
+        vault.EditorSelectedAuthentication = vault.EditorAuthenticationChoices
+            .Single(choice => choice.Label == "deploy password");
+
+        await vault.SaveHostCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        vault.SelectedHost = vault.Hosts.Single(row => row.Host.Spelunk is not null);
+
+        // Saved in the one form, whatever was typed — which is what lets a link find it.
+        vault.SelectedHost.Host.Spelunk!.ApiBase.ShouldBe(SpelunkApi);
+
+        return vault;
+    }
+
+    private static SpelunkLink Link(string? host = "203.0.113.10", Guid? server = null) =>
+        new(SpelunkApi, server ?? SpelunkServer, "web 01", host);
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Speaks SOCKS5 to the bridge as SSH.NET would, then reads until the bridge closes the stream — which it
+    /// does once the tunnel has closed, so its reason is recorded by the time this returns.
+    /// </summary>
+    private static async Task ThroughSocksToTheEndAsync(int port)
+    {
+        using var client = new TcpClient();
+        await client.ConnectAsync(IPAddress.Loopback, port, Token);
+
+        var stream = client.GetStream();
+        var name = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("203.0.113.10");
+
+        await stream.WriteAsync(new byte[] { 5, 1, 0 }, Token);
+        await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(new byte[2], Token);
+
+        await stream.WriteAsync((byte[])[5, 1, 0, 3, (byte)name.Length, .. name, 0, 22], Token);
+        await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(new byte[10], Token);
+
+        var rest = new byte[256];
+        while (await stream.ReadAsync(rest, Token) > 0)
+        {
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Spelunk as far as the shell can see it: a route over a real bridge, or a refusal, as a test arranges.
+    /// </summary>
+    private sealed class FakeSpelunkTunnel : ISpelunkTunnel
+    {
+        internal List<(string ApiBase, Guid ServerId, string ApiKey, int Port)> Opened { get; } = [];
+
+        internal SpelunkTunnelException? Refusal { get; set; }
+
+        /// <summary>A close Spelunk sends as soon as the tunnel is open, or null to leave it open.</summary>
+        internal (int Code, string Reason)? CloseWith { get; set; }
+
+        public async Task<SpelunkTunnelRoute> OpenAsync(
+            string apiBase,
+            Guid serverId,
+            string apiKey,
+            int port,
+            CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+        {
+            Opened.Add((apiBase, serverId, apiKey, port));
+
+            if (Refusal is { } refusal)
+            {
+                throw refusal;
+            }
+
+            var (client, far) = await PairAsync(cancellationToken);
+
+            if (CloseWith is { } close)
+            {
+                await far.CloseOutputAsync((WebSocketCloseStatus)close.Code, close.Reason, cancellationToken);
+            }
+
+            return new SpelunkTunnelRoute(RelayBridge.Start(client), port);
+        }
+
+        private static async Task<(WebSocket Client, WebSocket Far)> PairAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+        {
+            using var listener = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Loopback, 0);
+            listener.Start();
+
+            var dialling = new TcpClient();
+            var connecting = dialling.ConnectAsync((IPEndPoint)listener.LocalEndpoint, cancellationToken);
+            var accepted = await listener.AcceptTcpClientAsync(cancellationToken);
+            await connecting;
+
+            return (
+                WebSocket.CreateFromStream(
+                    dialling.GetStream(),
+                    new WebSocketCreationOptions { IsServer = false, KeepAliveInterval = TimeSpan.Zero }),
+                WebSocket.CreateFromStream(
+                    accepted.GetStream(),
+                    new WebSocketCreationOptions { IsServer = true, KeepAliveInterval = TimeSpan.Zero }));
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
index 564c804..b8538da 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
@@ -226,7 +226,11 @@ public sealed partial class ShellFlowTests : IAsyncLifetime
             // Scripted rather than real, so that a failed connection in any test in this file does not go
             // and do a DNS lookup and open a socket. See FakeReachabilityProbe for why that matters beyond
             // the wall clock.
-            reachability: reachability);
+            reachability: reachability,
+
+            // Scripted for the same reason: a Spelunk host's connect never leaves the process. See
+            // ShellFlowTests.Spelunk.cs.
+            spelunk: spelunkTunnels);
 
         return ValueTask.CompletedTask;
     }
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/SingleInstanceTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/SingleInstanceTests.cs
index 6fa25a6..52af962 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/SingleInstanceTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/SingleInstanceTests.cs
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+using System.IO.Pipes;
+using System.Security.Cryptography;
+using System.Text;
 using DodoSSH.Client.App.Platform;
 using DodoSSH.Client.Session;
 
@@ -198,4 +201,149 @@ public sealed class SingleInstanceTests : IDisposable
             }
         }
     }
+
+    // ---- A launch that carries a link ----
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Clicking "Open in DodoSSH" in Spelunk while DodoSSH is running is a second launch like any other, and
+    /// the link has to reach the instance that can act on it — along with the window coming forward.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ARefusedLaunchWithALink_PassesTheLinkOn()
+    {
+        using var first = SingleInstance.Claim(paths, Impatient);
+        first.ShouldNotBeNull();
+
+        var cameForward = new TaskCompletionSource();
+        var opened = new TaskCompletionSource<SpelunkLink>();
+
+        await using var doorbell = SingleInstance.Listen(
+            paths,
+            () => cameForward.TrySetResult(),
+            link => opened.TrySetResult(link));
+
+        var link = Link();
+
+        SingleInstance.Claim(paths, Impatient, link).ShouldBeNull("the profile is taken");
+
+        await cameForward.Task.WaitAsync(LongEnoughForAPipe, TestContext.Current.CancellationToken);
+        (await opened.Task.WaitAsync(LongEnoughForAPipe, TestContext.Current.CancellationToken)).ShouldBe(link);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ThePlainRing_IsStillThePlainRing()
+    {
+        // An older running build compares the whole line against this, so a launch with no link must go on
+        // saying exactly it.
+        SingleInstance.Message(link: null).ShouldBe("dodossh.come-forward");
+
+        SingleInstance.TryRead("dodossh.come-forward", out var link).ShouldBeTrue();
+        link.ShouldBeNull();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ALinkMessage_ReadsBackToTheSameLink()
+    {
+        var link = Link();
+
+        SingleInstance.TryRead(SingleInstance.Message(link), out var read).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        read.ShouldBe(link);
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Anything on this machine can write to the pipe, so a message that is not exactly one of the two is
+    /// ignored whole — the window does not even come forward for it.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData(null)]
+    [InlineData("")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.come-forward ")]
+    [InlineData("DODOSSH.COME-FORWARD")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.open-link")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.open-link https://evil.example")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.open-link dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=http%3A%2F%2Fevil.example&server=0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.open-link dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.spelunk.example.com&server=not-a-server")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh.run calc.exe")]
+    public void AnythingElse_IsNotARing(string? said)
+    {
+        SingleInstance.TryRead(said, out var link).ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        link.ShouldBeNull();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AnOverlongMessage_IsNotARing()
+    {
+        SingleInstance.TryRead("dodossh.open-link " + new string('a', 64 * 1024), out _).ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AGarbledRing_IsIgnored_AndTheDoorbellKeepsAnswering()
+    {
+        using var first = SingleInstance.Claim(paths, Impatient);
+        first.ShouldNotBeNull();
+
+        var rings = 0;
+        var answered = new TaskCompletionSource();
+
+        await using var doorbell = SingleInstance.Listen(
+            paths,
+            () =>
+            {
+                Interlocked.Increment(ref rings);
+                answered.TrySetResult();
+            });
+
+        // Somebody else's program, writing something that is not a ring and going on far past a line. The
+        // doorbell stops reading and hangs up part way, which the writer sees as a broken pipe.
+        using (var pipe = new NamedPipeClientStream(".", PipeNameOf(paths), PipeDirection.Out))
+        {
+            await pipe.ConnectAsync(TestContext.Current.CancellationToken);
+
+            try
+            {
+                await pipe.WriteAsync(
+                    Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(new string('x', 20_000) + "\n"),
+                    TestContext.Current.CancellationToken);
+            }
+            catch (IOException)
+            {
+                // Hung up on, which is the point.
+            }
+        }
+
+        SingleInstance.AskTheRunningOneToComeForward(paths).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        await answered.Task.WaitAsync(LongEnoughForAPipe, TestContext.Current.CancellationToken);
+        rings.ShouldBe(1, "the garbage rang nothing, and the real ring after it was still answered");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void TheWindowsHandler_RunsThisExecutableWithTheLinkAsOneArgument()
+    {
+        Assert.SkipUnless(OperatingSystem.IsWindows(), "The registry handler exists only on Windows.");
+
+        const string executable = @"C:\Users\Jane Doe\AppData\Local\DodoSSH.Desktop\current\DodoSSH.exe";
+        const string nightly = @"C:\Users\Jane Doe\AppData\Local\DodoSSH.Desktop.Nightly\current\DodoSSH.exe";
+
+        WindowsUrlScheme.CommandFor(executable)
+            .ShouldBe(@"""C:\Users\Jane Doe\AppData\Local\DodoSSH.Desktop\current\DodoSSH.exe"" ""%1""");
+
+        // Uninstalling one channel must not take the handler away from the other if it registered since.
+        WindowsUrlScheme.IsOurs(WindowsUrlScheme.CommandFor(executable), executable).ShouldBeTrue();
+        WindowsUrlScheme.IsOurs(WindowsUrlScheme.CommandFor(nightly), executable).ShouldBeFalse();
+        WindowsUrlScheme.IsOurs(null, executable).ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    private static SpelunkLink Link() =>
+        new("https://api.spelunk.example.com", Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b"), "web 01", "203.0.113.10");
+
+    /// <summary>The pipe name <c>SingleInstance</c> derives, so a test can write to it as a stranger would.</summary>
+    private static string PipeNameOf(ClientPaths profile)
+    {
+        var digest = SHA256.HashData(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(profile.DataDirectory));
+
+        return "dodossh-" + Convert.ToHexStringLower(digest.AsSpan(0, 8));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostFactory.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostFactory.cs
index 2ba531c..6c35822 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostFactory.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostFactory.cs
@@ -39,6 +39,16 @@ internal static class HostFactory
         BindPort = 1080,
     };
 
+    /// <summary>A credential holding a Spelunk API key, for the hosts reached through Spelunk.</summary>
+    internal static Guid SpelunkKey { get; } = Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-cccc-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0c");
+
+    /// <summary>A server's id in Spelunk.</summary>
+    internal static Guid SpelunkServer { get; } = Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-dddd-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0d");
+
+    /// <summary>A route to <see cref="SpelunkServer"/>, with <see cref="SpelunkKey"/>.</summary>
+    internal static SpelunkRoute ThroughSpelunk(string apiBase = "https://api.spelunk.example.com") =>
+        new() { ApiBase = apiBase, ServerId = SpelunkServer, ApiKeyCredentialId = SpelunkKey };
+
     /// <remarks>
     /// <paramref name="port"/> defaults to an explicit 22 rather than to null, so a test that says nothing
     /// about ports gets the host shape that existed before inheritance did — which is what nearly every
@@ -59,7 +69,8 @@ internal static class HostFactory
         Guid? groupId = null,
         Guid[]? tags = null,
         string[]? pinnedPaths = null,
-        PortForwardRule[]? portForwards = null) =>
+        PortForwardRule[]? portForwards = null,
+        SpelunkRoute? spelunk = null) =>
         new()
         {
             Label = label,
@@ -79,6 +90,7 @@ internal static class HostFactory
             TagIds = tags is null ? TagSet.Empty : TagSet.Create(tags),
             PinnedPaths = pinnedPaths is null ? PinnedPathList.Empty : PinnedPathList.Create(pinnedPaths),
             PortForwards = portForwards is null ? PortForwardList.Empty : PortForwardList.Create(portForwards),
+            Spelunk = spelunk,
         };
 
     /// <summary>
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostSecretCodecTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostSecretCodecTests.cs
index c3702b6..3a94ff0 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostSecretCodecTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/HostSecretCodecTests.cs
@@ -18,8 +18,10 @@ public sealed class HostSecretCodecTests
     /// "Full" cannot mean every field: the two authentication bindings are mutually exclusive, so a host may
     /// carry a key or a credential and never both, and neither may sit beside <c>AsksForPassword</c>. This
     /// one carries the credential, because that is the newer of the two, plus a group, a pair of tags, a
-    /// pair of pinned paths and a pair of forwards — which are orthogonal to the binding and are what make
-    /// this host reach the highest schema version a valid host can.
+    /// pair of pinned paths, a pair of forwards and a Spelunk route — which are orthogonal to the binding and
+    /// are what make this host reach the highest schema version a valid host can. The route and the relay are
+    /// exclusive in the same way the bindings are, so this carries the newer of those two as well; the relay's
+    /// flag has its own tests.
     /// </remarks>
     [Fact]
     public void AFullHost_RoundTrips()
@@ -34,12 +36,12 @@ public sealed class HostSecretCodecTests
             notes: "primary replica",
             jumps: [Bastion, Relay],
             options: [("ServerAliveInterval", "30"), ("Compression", "yes")],
-            relayEnabled: true,
             credentialId: credentialId,
             groupId: Production,
             tags: [Pci, EuWest],
             pinnedPaths: ["/var/www/app", "/var/log"],
-            portForwards: [Postgres, Socks]);
+            portForwards: [Postgres, Socks],
+            spelunk: ThroughSpelunk());
 
         HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(HostSecretCodec.Encode(host), out var document).ShouldBeTrue();
 
@@ -50,6 +52,21 @@ public sealed class HostSecretCodecTests
         document.IsReadOnly.ShouldBeFalse();
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public void ARelayedHost_RoundTrips_AtTheVersionItsOtherFieldsNeed()
+    {
+        // The relay flag predates schema versions, so it costs none; it is here because the full host above
+        // now takes the Spelunk route, which the relay excludes.
+        var host = Host(relayEnabled: true);
+
+        HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(HostSecretCodec.Encode(host), out var document).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        document.ShouldNotBeNull();
+        document.Host.ShouldBe(host);
+        document.Host.RelayEnabled.ShouldBeTrue();
+        document.SchemaVersion.ShouldBe(HostSecretCodec.BaseSchemaVersion);
+    }
+
     // ---- The schema version is content-dependent ----
 
     [Fact]
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/SpelunkRouteTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/SpelunkRouteTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42b6199
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests/SpelunkRouteTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+using System.Text;
+using static DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests.HostFactory;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Domain.Tests;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// A host reached through Spelunk: the route's own rules, how it is stored, and how it merges.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// The weight is on the compatibility rules, because a Spelunk host misread by some build is a host dialled
+/// directly at an address that exists only to name its key — the one misreading that does something the
+/// user never asked for.
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkRouteTests
+{
+    // ---- The API address ----
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("https://api.spelunk.example.com", "https://api.spelunk.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("  https://API.Spelunk.Example.com/  ", "https://api.spelunk.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("https://api.spelunk.example.com:8443/", "https://api.spelunk.example.com:8443")]
+    [InlineData("https://example.com/spelunk/", "https://example.com/spelunk")]
+    [InlineData("http://localhost:5080", "http://localhost:5080")]
+    [InlineData("http://127.0.0.1:5080/", "http://127.0.0.1:5080")]
+    public void AnApiAddress_IsStoredInOneForm(string typed, string stored)
+    {
+        // One form, so the host a link finds is the host that was saved for it however either was typed.
+        SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase(typed, out var normalized, out _).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        normalized.ShouldBe(stored);
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("")]
+    [InlineData("api.spelunk.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("ftp://api.spelunk.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("javascript:alert(1)")]
+    [InlineData("https://user:pass@api.spelunk.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("https://api.spelunk.example.com/?x=1")]
+    [InlineData("https://api.spelunk.example.com/#top")]
+    public void AnAddressThatIsNotASpelunkApi_IsRefused(string typed)
+    {
+        SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase(typed, out _, out var reason).ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        reason.ShouldNotBeNullOrWhiteSpace();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void PlainHttp_IsRefusedAnywhereButThisMachine()
+    {
+        // The key is a bearer token sent with every tunnel; in clear across a network it is somebody else's.
+        SpelunkRoute.TryNormalizeApiBase("http://api.spelunk.example.com", out _, out var reason)
+            .ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        reason.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("https");
+    }
+
+    // ---- The host ----
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AHostReachedThroughSpelunk_IsValid()
+    {
+        Host(spelunk: ThroughSpelunk()).TryValidate(out var reason).ShouldBeTrue(reason);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AHostCannotTakeTheRelayAndSpelunkBoth()
+    {
+        Host(relayEnabled: true, spelunk: ThroughSpelunk()).TryValidate(out var reason).ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        reason.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("not both");
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("server")]
+    [InlineData("key")]
+    [InlineData("api")]
+    public void ARouteMissingAPart_IsRefused(string missing)
+    {
+        var route = missing switch
+        {
+            "server" => ThroughSpelunk() with { ServerId = Guid.Empty },
+            "key" => ThroughSpelunk() with { ApiKeyCredentialId = Guid.Empty },
+            _ => ThroughSpelunk() with { ApiBase = "https://api.spelunk.example.com/" },
+        };
+
+        Host(spelunk: route).TryValidate(out _).ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    // ---- The payload ----
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AHostReachedThroughSpelunk_RoundTrips_AtTheVersionThatIntroducedIt()
+    {
+        var host = Host(spelunk: ThroughSpelunk(), credentialId: Guid.CreateVersion7());
+
+        HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(HostSecretCodec.Encode(host), out var document).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        document.ShouldNotBeNull();
+        document.Host.ShouldBe(host);
+        document.SchemaVersion.ShouldBe(HostSecretCodec.SpelunkSchemaVersion);
+        document.SchemaVersion.ShouldBe(HostSecretCodec.CurrentSchemaVersion);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AHostWithoutARoute_EncodesExactlyAsBefore()
+    {
+        // Not using the feature is not using the feature: no key in the JSON, and no version bump, so every
+        // existing host keeps its bytes and the first sync after the upgrade pushes nothing.
+        var bytes = HostSecretCodec.Encode(Host(username: null, notes: null));
+
+        Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes).ShouldBe(
+            """
+            {"schemaVersion":1,"label":"prod-db","hostname":"db.internal","port":22,"jumpHostIds":[],"options":{},"relayEnabled":false}
+            """);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void TheRoute_IsWrittenLastAndWhole()
+    {
+        var bytes = HostSecretCodec.Encode(Host(username: null, notes: null, spelunk: ThroughSpelunk()));
+
+        Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes).ShouldBe(
+            """
+            {"schemaVersion":9,"label":"prod-db","hostname":"db.internal","port":22,"jumpHostIds":[],"options":{},"relayEnabled":false,"spelunk":{"api":"https://api.spelunk.example.com","serverId":"0192f0c8-dddd-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0d","apiKeyCredentialId":"0192f0c8-cccc-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0c"}}
+            """);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AnOlderPayload_StillDecodes_AsAHostThatIsDialled()
+    {
+        var payload = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(
+            """
+            {"schemaVersion":7,"label":"prod-db","hostname":"db.internal","port":22,"pinnedPaths":["/var/log"]}
+            """);
+
+        HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(payload, out var document).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        document.ShouldNotBeNull().Host.Spelunk.ShouldBeNull();
+        document.IsReadOnly.ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AHalfWrittenRoute_MakesTheHostUnreadable_RatherThanDialled()
+    {
+        // The other reading — no route — would turn a damaged Spelunk host into one dialled directly.
+        var payload = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(
+            """
+            {"schemaVersion":9,"label":"prod-db","hostname":"db.internal","port":22,"spelunk":{"api":"https://api.spelunk.example.com"}}
+            """);
+
+        HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(payload, out _).ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ARouteWrittenByANewerClient_IsReadOnlyHere()
+    {
+        // The rule every version before this one relies on, checked from the far side: a build that knows
+        // version 9 reads a version 10 host, shows it, and refuses to re-encode what it cannot represent.
+        var payload = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(
+            """
+            {"schemaVersion":10,"label":"prod-db","hostname":"db.internal","port":22,"spelunk":{"api":"https://api.spelunk.example.com","serverId":"0192f0c8-dddd-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0d","apiKeyCredentialId":"0192f0c8-cccc-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0c"},"somethingNewer":true}
+            """);
+
+        HostSecretCodec.TryDecode(payload, out var document).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        document.ShouldNotBeNull().IsReadOnly.ShouldBeTrue();
+        document.Host.Spelunk.ShouldBe(ThroughSpelunk());
+    }
+
+    // ---- The merge ----
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void TheRoute_IsRoutedThroughTheMerge()
+    {
+        var ancestor = Host();
+        var local = ancestor with { Spelunk = ThroughSpelunk() };
+
+        var result = HostSecretMerge.Merge(ancestor, local, ancestor);
+
+        result.Merged.ShouldBe(local);
+        result.HasConflicts.ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void TwoDifferentRoutes_MergeAsOneValue_AndTheDiscardedOneIsReported()
+    {
+        // Whole, not per part: one side's API address with the other side's server id is a route nobody
+        // chose, to a server that may not exist on that Spelunk.
+        var ancestor = Host();
+        var local = ancestor with { Spelunk = ThroughSpelunk("https://spelunk.local.example") };
+        var remote = ancestor with { Spelunk = ThroughSpelunk() with { ServerId = Guid.CreateVersion7() } };
+
+        var result = HostSecretMerge.Merge(ancestor, local, remote);
+
+        result.Merged.Spelunk.ShouldBe(remote.Spelunk);
+        result.Conflicts.ShouldHaveSingleItem().Field.ShouldBe(nameof(HostSecret.Spelunk));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/FakeSpelunk.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/FakeSpelunk.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d624410
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/FakeSpelunk.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,224 @@
+using System.Net;
+using System.Net.Sockets;
+using System.Net.WebSockets;
+using System.Security.Cryptography;
+using System.Text;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Spelunk's two tunnel endpoints, as far as the wire is concerned: HTTP/1.1 over a real loopback socket.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Real sockets rather than a stubbed handler, because what is being tested is the client's own HTTP and
+/// WebSocket stack talking to something: the header the key goes in, the subprotocols the upgrade offers,
+/// a refused upgrade's status read back through <c>CollectHttpResponseDetails</c>, and a close code
+/// arriving through <see cref="Client.Ssh.RelayBridge"/>. A handler stub would skip exactly those.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// Hand-rolled rather than Kestrel, so this client suite takes no dependency on the ASP.NET Core framework
+/// for one fixture. It speaks only what the client sends: one request per connection, answered with
+/// <c>Connection: close</c>, and the one upgrade.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed class FakeSpelunk : IAsyncDisposable
+{
+    internal const string Ticket = "dGlja2V0LWZvci1hLXR1bm5lbA";
+
+    private readonly TcpListener listener = new(IPAddress.Loopback, 0);
+    private readonly CancellationTokenSource stopping = new();
+    private readonly Task accepting;
+
+    internal FakeSpelunk()
+    {
+        listener.Start();
+        accepting = AcceptAsync();
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The API base a client is given.</summary>
+    internal string ApiBase => $"http://127.0.0.1:{((IPEndPoint)listener.LocalEndpoint).Port}";
+
+    /// <summary>Every request that arrived, in order.</summary>
+    internal List<Request> Requests { get; } = [];
+
+    /// <summary>How the ticket endpoint answers. By default, with a ticket.</summary>
+    internal Func<Request, Answer> OnTicket { get; set; } = request => Answer.Json(
+        HttpStatusCode.OK,
+        $$"""
+        {"ticket":"{{Ticket}}","expiresAt":"2026-09-28T12:00:30Z","path":"{{request.Path.Replace("tunnel-tickets", "tunnel", StringComparison.Ordinal)}}","subprotocol":"spelunk.tunnel.v1"}
+        """);
+
+    /// <summary>How the upgrade is answered: null accepts it, anything else refuses it with that status.</summary>
+    internal Func<Request, HttpStatusCode?> OnUpgrade { get; set; } = _ => null;
+
+    /// <summary>What Spelunk does with an accepted tunnel — by default nothing, until the client closes.</summary>
+    internal Func<WebSocket, Task> OnTunnel { get; set; } = DrainAsync;
+
+    public async ValueTask DisposeAsync()
+    {
+        await stopping.CancelAsync();
+        listener.Stop();
+
+        try
+        {
+            await accepting;
+        }
+        catch (Exception exception) when (exception is OperationCanceledException or SocketException or ObjectDisposedException)
+        {
+            // Stopped.
+        }
+
+        stopping.Dispose();
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Reads until the client closes, and answers the close.</summary>
+    internal static async Task DrainAsync(WebSocket socket)
+    {
+        var buffer = new byte[4096];
+
+        while ((await socket.ReceiveAsync(buffer, CancellationToken.None)).MessageType != WebSocketMessageType.Close)
+        {
+        }
+
+        await socket.CloseOutputAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
+    }
+
+    private async Task AcceptAsync()
+    {
+        while (!stopping.IsCancellationRequested)
+        {
+            var client = await listener.AcceptTcpClientAsync(stopping.Token);
+            _ = ServeAsync(client);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private async Task ServeAsync(TcpClient client)
+    {
+        using (client)
+        {
+            var stream = client.GetStream();
+            var request = await ReadRequestAsync(stream);
+
+            lock (Requests)
+            {
+                Requests.Add(request);
+            }
+
+            if (request.Headers.TryGetValue("Upgrade", out var upgrade)
+                && upgrade.Equals("websocket", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+            {
+                await UpgradeAsync(stream, request);
+                return;
+            }
+
+            var answer = OnTicket(request);
+            var body = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(answer.Body);
+
+            await WriteAsync(
+                stream,
+                $"HTTP/1.1 {(int)answer.Status} {answer.Status}\r\nContent-Type: {answer.ContentType}\r\n"
+                + $"Content-Length: {body.Length}\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n");
+            await stream.WriteAsync(body);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private async Task UpgradeAsync(NetworkStream stream, Request request)
+    {
+        if (OnUpgrade(request) is { } refusal)
+        {
+            await WriteAsync(
+                stream,
+                $"HTTP/1.1 {(int)refusal} {refusal}\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n");
+            return;
+        }
+
+        await WriteAsync(
+            stream,
+            "HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols\r\nUpgrade: websocket\r\nConnection: Upgrade\r\n"
+            + $"Sec-WebSocket-Accept: {AcceptFor(request.Headers["Sec-WebSocket-Key"])}\r\n"
+            + "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: spelunk.tunnel.v1\r\n\r\n");
+
+        using var socket = WebSocket.CreateFromStream(
+            stream,
+            new WebSocketCreationOptions
+            {
+                IsServer = true,
+                SubProtocol = "spelunk.tunnel.v1",
+                KeepAliveInterval = TimeSpan.Zero,
+            });
+
+        try
+        {
+            await OnTunnel(socket);
+        }
+        catch (Exception exception) when (exception is WebSocketException or IOException)
+        {
+            // The client went away; nothing here is under test.
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The handshake's accept value, as RFC 6455 section 4.2.2 defines it.</summary>
+    private static string AcceptFor(string key)
+    {
+#pragma warning disable RS0030, CA5350 // RFC 6455 fixes SHA-1 for this value. It authenticates nothing; it proves the peer read the key.
+        return Convert.ToBase64String(SHA1.HashData(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(key + "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11")));
+#pragma warning restore RS0030, CA5350
+    }
+
+    private static async Task<Request> ReadRequestAsync(NetworkStream stream)
+    {
+        var head = new List<byte>();
+        var one = new byte[1];
+
+        while (!(head.Count >= 4 && head[^4] == '\r' && head[^3] == '\n' && head[^2] == '\r' && head[^1] == '\n'))
+        {
+            if (await stream.ReadAsync(one) == 0)
+            {
+                break;
+            }
+
+            head.Add(one[0]);
+        }
+
+        var lines = Encoding.ASCII.GetString([.. head]).Split("\r\n", StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
+        var requestLine = lines[0].Split(' ');
+        var headers = new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+
+        foreach (var line in lines.Skip(1))
+        {
+            var colon = line.IndexOf(':', StringComparison.Ordinal);
+            headers[line[..colon].Trim()] = line[(colon + 1)..].Trim();
+        }
+
+        var body = string.Empty;
+
+        if (headers.TryGetValue("Content-Length", out var length) && int.Parse(length, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) is > 0 and var count)
+        {
+            var bytes = new byte[count];
+            await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(bytes);
+            body = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes);
+        }
+
+        return new Request(requestLine[0], requestLine[1], headers, body);
+    }
+
+    private static Task WriteAsync(NetworkStream stream, string text) =>
+        stream.WriteAsync(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(text)).AsTask();
+
+    /// <summary>One request as it arrived.</summary>
+    internal sealed record Request(string Method, string Path, Dictionary<string, string> Headers, string Body);
+
+    /// <summary>What the ticket endpoint says back.</summary>
+    internal sealed record Answer(HttpStatusCode Status, string ContentType, string Body)
+    {
+        internal static Answer Json(HttpStatusCode status, string body) => new(status, "application/json", body);
+
+        internal static Answer Problem(HttpStatusCode status, string title, string? detail = null) => new(
+            status,
+            "application/problem+json",
+            detail is null
+                ? $$"""{"type":"about:blank","title":"{{title}}","status":{{(int)status}}}"""
+                : $$"""{"type":"about:blank","title":"{{title}}","status":{{(int)status}},"detail":"{{detail}}"}""");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkLinkTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkLinkTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b12cb0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkLinkTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Reading a <c>dodossh://spelunk/connect</c> link, which anything on the machine can hand the application.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// A link is data to check, never an instruction. The refusals below are the part that matters: each is a
+/// link that is nearly right, and "nearly right" is the shape a crafted one takes.
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkLinkTests
+{
+    private const string Server = "0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b";
+
+    private const string Link =
+        "dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.spelunk.example.com&server=" + Server
+        + "&name=web%2001&host=203.0.113.10";
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ALinkFromSpelunk_IsRead()
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link, out var link).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        link.ShouldBe(new SpelunkLink("https://api.spelunk.example.com", Guid.Parse(Server), "web 01", "203.0.113.10"));
+        link.Hostname.ShouldBe("203.0.113.10");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ALinkWithNoHost_NamesTheHostAfterTheServer()
+    {
+        // The name the host key is pinned under, so it has to be stable and this server's alone.
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link.Replace("&host=203.0.113.10", string.Empty, StringComparison.Ordinal), out var link)
+            .ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        link.Host.ShouldBeNull();
+        link.Hostname.ShouldBe($"spelunk-{Server}");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ALink_WritesOutAsItReadsBack()
+    {
+        // What a second launch sends the running instance: the one spelling this build writes.
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link, out var link).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(link.ToString(), out var again).ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        again.ShouldBe(link);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ANameFormEncoded_AndOneWithControlCharacters_AreCleanedForDisplay()
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link.Replace("web%2001", "web+01%0A%1B%5B31m", StringComparison.Ordinal), out var link)
+            .ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        link.Name.ShouldNotContain('\n');
+        link.Name.ShouldNotContain('\u001b');
+        link.Name.ShouldStartWith("web 01");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AnUnknownParameter_IsIgnored()
+    {
+        // So a newer Spelunk can add one without every DodoSSH already installed refusing its links.
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link + "&port=22", out _).ShouldBeTrue();
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("https://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://elsewhere/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/disconnect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://user@spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk:8080/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server + "#x")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=not-a-guid")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fu%3Ap%40api.example.com&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&api=https%3A%2F%2Fevil.example&server=" + Server)]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server + "&host=bad%20host")]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect?api=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.example.com&server=" + Server + "&name=a b")]
+    [InlineData("")]
+    public void ALinkThatIsNotExactlyThis_IsRefused(string text)
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(text, out var link).ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        link.ShouldBeNull();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AnOverlongLink_IsRefusedBeforeItIsParsed()
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link + "&name=" + new string('a', SpelunkLink.MaxLength), out _).ShouldBeFalse();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void ANameThatRunsOn_IsCut()
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.TryParse(Link.Replace("web%2001", new string('a', 500), StringComparison.Ordinal), out var link)
+            .ShouldBeTrue();
+
+        link.Name.Length.ShouldBe(SpelunkLink.MaxNameLength);
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("dodossh://spelunk/connect", true)]
+    [InlineData("DODOSSH://anything", true)]
+    [InlineData("--veloapp-install", false)]
+    [InlineData(null, false)]
+    public void TheLauncher_TellsALinkFromAnotherArgument(string? argument, bool looksLikeOne)
+    {
+        SpelunkLink.LooksLikeOne(argument).ShouldBe(looksLikeOne);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkTunnelTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkTunnelTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e3d459
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests/SpelunkTunnelTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,283 @@
+using System.Net;
+using System.Net.Sockets;
+using System.Net.WebSockets;
+using System.Text;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Session.Tests;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// The Spelunk tunnel client against Spelunk's contract, over real sockets.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// Every test here uses the application's own <see cref="SpelunkTunnel"/> — its shared transport and its
+/// real WebSocket dialler — against <see cref="FakeSpelunk"/>. What is asserted is what the contract fixes:
+/// the ticket request, the two subprotocols, bytes both ways once the tunnel is up, and a sentence for every
+/// way Spelunk says no.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// The bytes are not SSH here. The bridge is the relay's, and a real SSH connection through it is
+/// <c>RelayBridgeTests</c>' job; this suite holds the half that is Spelunk's.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+public sealed class SpelunkTunnelTests : IAsyncLifetime
+{
+    private const string ApiKey = "spelunk_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG";
+
+    private static readonly Guid ServerId = Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b");
+
+    private static readonly TimeSpan Settles = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20);
+
+    private readonly FakeSpelunk spelunk = new();
+
+    private static CancellationToken Token => TestContext.Current.CancellationToken;
+
+    public ValueTask InitializeAsync() => ValueTask.CompletedTask;
+
+    public ValueTask DisposeAsync() => spelunk.DisposeAsync();
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ATicket_IsAskedForWithTheKey_AndSpentAsTheSecondSubprotocol()
+    {
+        await using var route = await OpenAsync();
+
+        var ticket = spelunk.Requests[0];
+        ticket.Method.ShouldBe("POST");
+        ticket.Path.ShouldBe($"/api/servers/{ServerId}/tunnel-tickets");
+        ticket.Headers["Authorization"].ShouldBe($"Bearer {ApiKey}");
+        ticket.Body.ShouldBe("""{"port":22}""");
+
+        var upgrade = spelunk.Requests[1];
+        upgrade.Path.ShouldBe($"/api/servers/{ServerId}/tunnel");
+        upgrade.Headers["Sec-WebSocket-Protocol"].ShouldBe($"spelunk.tunnel.v1, ticket.{FakeSpelunk.Ticket}");
+
+        // The key opened the ticket and went nowhere else: the socket carries the ticket alone.
+        upgrade.Headers.ContainsKey("Authorization").ShouldBeFalse();
+        upgrade.Path.ShouldNotContain(FakeSpelunk.Ticket);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task BytesCross_BothWays_ThroughTheBridge()
+    {
+        var received = new TaskCompletionSource<string>();
+
+        spelunk.OnTunnel = async socket =>
+        {
+            // What the agent's end does: read what the client sent, answer with the server's own bytes.
+            var buffer = new byte[64];
+            var read = await socket.ReceiveAsync(buffer, CancellationToken.None);
+            received.TrySetResult(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, 0, read.Count));
+
+            await socket.SendAsync(
+                Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.9\r\n"),
+                WebSocketMessageType.Binary,
+                endOfMessage: true,
+                CancellationToken.None);
+
+            await FakeSpelunk.DrainAsync(socket);
+        };
+
+        await using var route = await OpenAsync();
+        using var client = await ThroughSocksAsync(route.Proxy.Port);
+        var stream = client.GetStream();
+
+        await stream.WriteAsync(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("SSH-2.0-DodoSSH\r\n"), Token);
+        (await received.Task.WaitAsync(Settles, Token)).ShouldBe("SSH-2.0-DodoSSH\r\n");
+
+        var answer = new byte["SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.9\r\n".Length];
+        await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(answer, Token);
+        Encoding.ASCII.GetString(answer).ShouldBe("SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.9\r\n");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ThePortAsked_IsTheHostsPort()
+    {
+        await using var route = await spelunk.ApiBase.OpenAsync(port: 2222);
+
+        spelunk.Requests[0].Body.ShouldBe("""{"port":2222}""");
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized, "did not accept the API key")]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "does not know this server")]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable, "agent on this server is not connected")]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, "HTTP 500")]
+    public async Task ARefusedTicket_IsExplained_AndNoSocketIsOpened(HttpStatusCode status, string explanation)
+    {
+        spelunk.OnTicket = _ => FakeSpelunk.Answer.Problem(status, "refused");
+
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(OpenAsync);
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain(explanation);
+        refusal.StatusCode.ShouldBe(status);
+        spelunk.Requests.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AKeyWithTooLowARole_IsToldWhatSpelunkSaid()
+    {
+        // Spelunk's detail says which role the key has and which it needs, and it is the useful half.
+        spelunk.OnTicket = _ => FakeSpelunk.Answer.Problem(
+            HttpStatusCode.Forbidden,
+            "Forbidden",
+            "This API key has the Viewer role; opening a tunnel needs Admin.");
+
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(OpenAsync);
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain("not allowed to open a terminal");
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain("needs Admin");
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized, "refused the tunnel ticket")]
+    [InlineData(HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable, "agent on this server is not connected")]
+    public async Task ARefusedUpgrade_IsExplained(HttpStatusCode status, string explanation)
+    {
+        spelunk.OnUpgrade = _ => status;
+
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(OpenAsync);
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain(explanation);
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("//evil.example/api/servers/x/tunnel")]
+    [InlineData("@evil.example/api/servers/x/tunnel")]
+    [InlineData("api/servers/x/tunnel")]
+    [InlineData("/api/servers/x/tunnel?elsewhere=1")]
+    public async Task ATicketNamingAnythingButAPath_IsRefused_AndNothingIsDialled(string path)
+    {
+        // The path is appended to the API's own origin. Anything that would move it to another host — and
+        // take the ticket with it — is not a path.
+        spelunk.OnTicket = _ => FakeSpelunk.Answer.Json(
+            HttpStatusCode.OK,
+            $$"""{"ticket":"{{FakeSpelunk.Ticket}}","path":"{{path}}","subprotocol":"spelunk.tunnel.v1"}""");
+
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(OpenAsync);
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain("does not understand");
+        spelunk.Requests.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+    }
+
+    [Theory]
+    [InlineData("connection refused", "could not connect to port 22 on the server itself (connection refused)")]
+    [InlineData("Unknown stream kind: tunnel", "too old to open a terminal")]
+    public async Task AnAgentThatCouldNotReachThePort_SaysSo(string reason, string explanation)
+    {
+        spelunk.OnTunnel = socket =>
+            socket.CloseOutputAsync((WebSocketCloseStatus)4502, reason, CancellationToken.None);
+
+        var route = await OpenAsync();
+
+        await EndOfStreamAsync(route);
+
+        route.Failure.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain(explanation);
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnAgentThatDisconnected_SaysSo()
+    {
+        spelunk.OnTunnel = socket =>
+            socket.CloseOutputAsync((WebSocketCloseStatus)4503, "agent gone", CancellationToken.None);
+
+        var route = await OpenAsync();
+
+        await EndOfStreamAsync(route);
+
+        route.Failure.ShouldNotBeNull().ShouldContain("disconnected from Spelunk");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ANormalClose_IsNotReworded()
+    {
+        // 1000 is the SSH server hanging up, and SSH.NET's own account of that is the accurate one.
+        spelunk.OnTunnel = socket =>
+            socket.CloseOutputAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
+
+        var route = await OpenAsync();
+
+        await EndOfStreamAsync(route);
+
+        route.Failure.ShouldBeNull();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AKeyWithALineBreakInTheMiddle_IsRefusedBeforeAnythingIsSent()
+    {
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(
+            new SpelunkTunnel().OpenAsync(spelunk.ApiBase, ServerId, "spelunk_abc\ndef", 22, Token));
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain("does not hold one");
+        spelunk.Requests.ShouldBeEmpty();
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AKeyPastedWithANewline_IsTrimmed()
+    {
+        await using var route = await new SpelunkTunnel()
+            .OpenAsync(spelunk.ApiBase, ServerId, ApiKey + "\r\n", 22, Token);
+
+        spelunk.Requests[0].Headers["Authorization"].ShouldBe($"Bearer {ApiKey}");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnUnreachableSpelunk_SaysWhere()
+    {
+        // A port that was listening a moment ago and is not any more.
+        var closed = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Loopback, 0);
+        closed.Start();
+        var port = ((IPEndPoint)closed.LocalEndpoint).Port;
+        closed.Stop();
+
+        var refusal = await Should.ThrowAsync<SpelunkTunnelException>(
+            new SpelunkTunnel().OpenAsync($"http://127.0.0.1:{port}", ServerId, ApiKey, 22, Token));
+
+        refusal.Message.ShouldContain($"could not be reached at http://127.0.0.1:{port}");
+    }
+
+    private Task<SpelunkTunnelRoute> OpenAsync() => spelunk.ApiBase.OpenAsync(port: 22);
+
+    /// <summary>Speaks SOCKS5 to the bridge as SSH.NET would, and hands back the open stream.</summary>
+    private static async Task<TcpClient> ThroughSocksAsync(int port)
+    {
+        var client = new TcpClient();
+        await client.ConnectAsync(IPAddress.Loopback, port, Token);
+
+        var stream = client.GetStream();
+        var name = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("203.0.113.10");
+
+        await stream.WriteAsync(new byte[] { 5, 1, 0 }, Token);
+        await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(new byte[2], Token);
+
+        await stream.WriteAsync((byte[])[5, 1, 0, 3, (byte)name.Length, .. name, 0, 22], Token);
+        await stream.ReadExactlyAsync(new byte[10], Token);
+
+        return client;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Arrives at the bridge and reads until it closes the stream, which it does once Spelunk has.</summary>
+    private static async Task EndOfStreamAsync(SpelunkTunnelRoute route)
+    {
+        using var client = await ThroughSocksAsync(route.Proxy.Port);
+        var stream = client.GetStream();
+        var rest = new byte[256];
+
+        while (await stream.ReadAsync(rest, Token).AsTask().WaitAsync(Settles, Token) > 0)
+        {
+        }
+
+        await route.DisposeAsync();
+    }
+}
+
+/// <summary>Opens a tunnel to the test server with the one key and server the suite uses.</summary>
+file static class Opening
+{
+    internal static Task<SpelunkTunnelRoute> OpenAsync(this string apiBase, int port) =>
+        new SpelunkTunnel().OpenAsync(
+            apiBase,
+            Guid.Parse("0192f0c8-bbbb-7c3d-8e4f-5a6b7c8d9e0b"),
+            "spelunk_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFG",
+            port,
+            TestContext.Current.CancellationToken);
+}