Ask about a host key where the connection was made, not on the host list

The trust prompt was two banners at the top of the desktop's hosts screen, so the shell navigated there
before letting a handshake raise one: Screen = Hosts, Surface = Page, in OnVaultConnectionFailed and again in
the palette's own connect. The reason was sound — a connection can be started from Ctrl+K on any screen, and
a question behind whatever somebody is looking at is a question nobody can answer — and it was answered the
wrong way round. Rather than making the decision reachable from where the user is, it moved the user to where
the decision was, and charged every screen for it.

It is worst for the one connection that has no host at all. A machine typed into the phone's connect box is
deliberately in no keychain, so a first contact from there judged it on a list it does not appear on, after
taking the box that dialled it away.

So both heads now draw the decision over the surface. HostKeyCard is the desktop's, and is the counterpart of
the phone's HostKeySheet: a scrim with no press handler, because a question with two named answers must not be
answerable by missing; the unknown key offering TRUST AND CONNECT, because judging a fingerprint against what
an operator published is a decision a person is entitled to make and the only moment they can make it; and the
changed key offering no way forward at all, because a button beside that warning is "continue anyway" with two
clicks instead of one. The phone needed no new markup — its sheet was already a shell-level overlay, so
deleting the navigation is what puts it over the Connections screen.

IsHostKeyDecisionShowing is on the shell rather than on a screen because the answer decides an occlusion. A
second connection can be refused while a first one is open, so this card is routinely raised over a live
terminal, and that rectangle is a native child window: layered over it the card would be sliced at its left
edge with TRUST AND CONNECT taking no clicks, which for the most safety-critical question in the product is
the worst place for that class of bug to land. IsTerminalShowing gives the rectangle up instead.

The banners are gone rather than copied. One prompt in two markups is two copies of the most safety-critical
wording here, and the second is the one that goes stale.

TWO DEFECTS FOUND BEHIND IT.

VaultViewModel.RejectHostKey cleared only the pending key and never the mismatch, so the changed-key refusal
had no working exit. That was invisible for as long as it was a banner nothing was drawn over — nothing was
trapped, and the next attempt cleared it — and it was already live on the phone, where that refusal is an
opaque full-screen panel whose one button runs this command: pressing it left the panel up over every screen
the user went to next, including the host editor the panel tells them to open. TransfersViewModel.RejectHostKey
has always cleared both; the vault's was the outlier. Its button said BACK TO HOSTS, which was wrong twice
over, and now says BACK.

And an assertion written for this change could not fail: the palette test asserted the renderer was collapsed
in a scenario whose only tab had just been removed, so it was collapsed for want of a session whatever the
occlusion rule said. It is gone, with a note pointing at the test that can fail on it.

VERIFIED. 1580 tests, build clean, no new warnings, format clean. Three mutations each seen to fail and then
seen green again: dropping !IsHostKeyDecisionShowing from IsTerminalShowing, caught by
AChangedHostKey_CollapsesTheTerminalItIsRefusedOver; reverting RejectHostKey to clear one flag, caught by
RefusingAHostKeyDecision_TakesItOffTheScreen(false) and by that same test; and dropping the two host-key arms
from OnVaultPropertyChanged, caught by TheHostKeyDecision_IsAnnouncedToTheWindowWhenItArrivesAndWhenItGoes.

That last one is the first test in this repository to watch PropertyChanged, and it is worth being the first:
every other assertion about the flag reads it directly, and a direct read passes with the subscription
deleted — while the card would never go away.

The two layout tests moved with the prompts, from the hosts screen to the card. manual-checks gains 7.4a for
the occlusion, 7.4b for getting out of a refusal and 11.7a for the hand-typed case, none of which a test can
see; 1.5 and 7.4 are corrected rather than left describing a window that no longer moves.

ONE ROUGH EDGE, DELIBERATELY LEFT. On the desktop, refusing a first contact whose tab was the only one leaves
the terminal surface with no tabs — a blank rectangle under the strip's "no terminals open · press + or
Ctrl+K", which is the one sentence near that rectangle Avalonia can draw. The alternative was falling back to
the page, and on the phone that means the host list, which is the bug this commit is about. A desktop connect
page would close it properly.

src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/HostKeySheet.axaml

@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@
     and the plan names presenting it as dismissible as the one design mistake that matters here. A phone
     makes this easy to get wrong, because a bottom sheet is swipe-to-dismiss by convention; this is not a
     sheet for that reason, it is a full-screen panel.
+
+    ◆ WHAT IS BEHIND IT IS NO LONGER ALWAYS THE HOST LIST. The shell used to move to HOSTS before letting a
+    handshake ask this, because the desktop head drew the question as a banner on that screen; both heads draw
+    it over the surface now, so this is raised over whatever the user was on — including the connect box on the
+    Connections surface, which is where a machine that is in no keychain at all is dialled from. Nothing here
+    changes for that, and that is the point: this control never knew which screen it was over. See
+    MainWindowViewModel.OnVaultConnectionFailed and HostKeyCard.axaml on the desktop.
   -->
 
   <Panel>
@@ -107,8 +114,15 @@
           <!--
             The only control on the screen, and it goes back rather than forward. Compare the sheet above,
             where the accent button connects.
+
+            ◆ IT SAID "BACK TO HOSTS", AND IT NEITHER WENT THERE NOR CAME BACK. Two things were wrong with
+            it at once. RejectHostKey cleared only the pending key, so pressing it left HasHostKeyMismatch
+            set and this opaque panel up over whatever the user navigated to next — including the host editor
+            the paragraph above sends them to. And the shell no longer moves to Hosts to ask the question, so
+            even fixed it does not land there: it lowers this panel and reveals the screen that was already
+            underneath. "BACK" is what that is. See VaultViewModel.RejectHostKey.
           -->
-          <Button Classes="secondary" Content="BACK TO HOSTS" Margin="0,24,0,0"
+          <Button Classes="secondary" Content="BACK" Margin="0,24,0,0"
                   Command="{Binding RejectHostKeyCommand}" />
 
         </StackPanel>

src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/PhoneShell.axaml

@@ -256,6 +256,12 @@
         ◆ The two host-key decisions, over everything. Outside the screen Panel deliberately: file transfer
         makes its own trust decision on the desktop, and the phone now has that screen — so a sheet nested
         inside the hosts screen would be one the files screen could not raise.
+
+        ◆ And that arrangement is what the shell now relies on rather than merely permits. It used to move to
+        HOSTS before letting a handshake ask the question, because the desktop head drew it as a banner on that
+        screen; it does not any more, so this sheet is what is over the Connections surface when a machine
+        typed into the connect box by hand turns out to be a first contact. Which is the case the navigation
+        was worst for — it took the box away. See MainWindowViewModel.OnVaultConnectionFailed.
       -->
       <Panel Grid.Row="1">
         <views:HostKeySheet DataContext="{Binding Vault}" />

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostKeyCard.axaml

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+<UserControl xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
+             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
+             xmlns:vm="using:DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels"
+             x:Class="DodoSSH.Client.App.Views.HostKeyCard"
+             x:DataType="vm:VaultViewModel">
+
+  <!--
+    The two host-key decisions, over whatever the window happens to be showing. The desktop counterpart of
+    the phone's HostKeySheet, and one control for both answers for the same reason: they are one decision
+    point, the view models make them mutually exclusive, and the shell must not be able to show both.
+
+    ── IT WAS TWO BANNERS AT THE TOP OF THE HOSTS SCREEN. ───────────────────────────────────────────────
+    Which is why the shell used to navigate there before letting the vault raise the question: a connection
+    can be started from the palette on any screen, and a prompt behind the screen somebody is looking at is a
+    prompt nobody can answer. The navigation covered that, and paid for it everywhere else — it took the user
+    off the screen they were working on, and for the one connection that has no host at all it judged a
+    machine typed in by hand on the list it is deliberately not on. See MainWindowViewModel's own note on
+    OnVaultConnectionFailed.
+
+    Drawn over the surface instead, so nothing has to move and the palette's case needs no special one.
+
+    ── THE OCCLUSION RULE, AND THIS IS THE CONTROL THAT MOST NEEDS IT. ──────────────────────────────────
+    A second connection can be made while a first one is open, so this card is routinely raised over a live
+    terminal — and that rectangle is a native child window which composites above everything Avalonia draws.
+    A card layered over it would be sliced at its left edge with TRUST AND CONNECT unreachable, which for the
+    most safety-critical question in the product is the worst place for that class of bug to land. The shell
+    collapses the WebView while this is up; see MainWindowViewModel.IsHostKeyDecisionShowing.
+
+    ── ◆ WHAT IS DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE TWO HALVES. ─────────────────────────────────────────
+    First contact offers TRUST AND CONNECT, because deciding whether a fingerprint is the one the operator
+    published is a judgement a person is entitled to make and is the only moment they can make it.
+
+    A changed key offers no way forward at all: no continue, no "connect anyway", and nothing that turns
+    dismissing it into a connection. The only way past it is FORGET HOST KEY in the host's own editor, which
+    is a deliberate act performed somewhere else — a button next to this warning would be "continue anyway"
+    with two clicks instead of one. The phone's sheet carries the same note, and calls presenting this as
+    dismissible the one design mistake here that matters.
+  -->
+
+  <!--
+    A wash with no press handler, and the omission is the point: every other overlay in this window closes by
+    clicking away from it, and a question with two named answers must not be answerable by missing. The
+    palette's own backdrop is the control to compare with — see QuickConnect.
+
+    80% of Canvas, written out because a scrim is a brush with an alpha and the palette holds no alpha
+    variant of a surface; the pre-multiplied ones there are accent washes.
+  -->
+  <Border Background="#CC0E1220">
+    <Panel>
+
+      <!-- ============ UNKNOWN HOST KEY ============ -->
+      <Border Classes="card" IsVisible="{Binding HasPendingHostKey}"
+              BorderBrush="{StaticResource WarnSoft}">
+        <StackPanel Spacing="10">
+
+          <TextBlock Classes="label" Text="UNKNOWN HOST KEY" Foreground="{StaticResource Warn}" />
+
+          <TextBlock Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}" TextWrapping="Wrap">
+            <Run Text="First contact with" />
+            <Run Text="{Binding PendingHostKey.Host}" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" />
+            <Run Text="·" />
+            <Run Text="{Binding PendingHostKey.Port}" />
+            <Run Text=". Nothing in this keychain has approved this key." />
+          </TextBlock>
+
+          <TextBlock Classes="label" FontSize="10" Text="{Binding PendingHostKey.Algorithm}" />
+
+          <!--
+            In full, wrapping rather than trimmed, and selectable. A fingerprint exists to be compared
+            character by character against one an operator published, and the two things that ruin that are
+            an ellipsis in the middle and a line you cannot copy.
+          -->
+          <Border Background="{StaticResource Field}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderMid}"
+                  BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="4" Padding="10,8">
+            <SelectableTextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource Warn}"
+                                 Text="{Binding PendingHostKey.Fingerprint}" />
+          </Border>
+
+          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12"
+                     Text="Compare it with the fingerprint the server's operator published before trusting it. Trusting pins it for this keychain, on every machine." />
+
+          <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="6">
+            <Button Classes="accent" Content="TRUST AND CONNECT"
+                    Command="{Binding TrustHostKeyCommand}" />
+            <Button Classes="ghost" Content="CANCEL" Command="{Binding RejectHostKeyCommand}" />
+          </StackPanel>
+
+        </StackPanel>
+      </Border>
+
+      <!-- ============ CHANGED HOST KEY ============ -->
+      <Border Classes="card" IsVisible="{Binding HasHostKeyMismatch}"
+              BorderBrush="{StaticResource DangerSoft}">
+        <StackPanel Spacing="10">
+
+          <TextBlock Classes="label" Text="HOST KEY CHANGED" Foreground="{StaticResource Danger}" />
+
+          <TextBlock Foreground="{StaticResource Danger}" FontWeight="SemiBold" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                     Text="The host key changed and the connection was refused." />
+
+          <!--
+            The whole explanation comes from the view model, which already composes it — which host, both
+            fingerprints, and which of them this keychain has pinned. Rewriting it here would be a second
+            copy of the most safety-critical sentence in the product, in a second place to forget.
+          -->
+          <Border Background="{StaticResource Field}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderMid}"
+                  BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="4" Padding="10,8">
+            <SelectableTextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource DangerText}"
+                                 Text="{Binding HostKeyMismatch}" />
+          </Border>
+
+          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                     Text="If this server was rebuilt on purpose, edit the host and choose FORGET HOST KEY, then connect again. There is deliberately no way to continue from here." />
+
+          <!--
+            One button, and it goes nowhere. It puts the refusal away so the host's editor can be reached; it
+            is not an answer, because this half of the control has none to give. Compare the accent button
+            above, which connects.
+          -->
+          <Button Classes="ghost" Content="CLOSE" HorizontalAlignment="Left"
+                  Command="{Binding RejectHostKeyCommand}" />
+
+        </StackPanel>
+      </Border>
+
+    </Panel>
+  </Border>
+
+</UserControl>

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostKeyCard.axaml.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+using Avalonia.Controls;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Views;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// The two host-key decisions, drawn over whatever the window is showing.
+/// </summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// Its data context is the <c>VaultViewModel</c>, so every binding in the markup is a property of the vault;
+/// which of the two halves draws is decided there and the two are mutually exclusive. Whether it is on screen
+/// at all is the shell's business — see <c>MainWindowViewModel.IsHostKeyDecisionShowing</c>, which is also
+/// what collapses the terminal's WebView underneath it.
+///
+/// In its own file rather than in the window, like every other card here, because nothing inside that window
+/// can be laid out by a test: WebView2's adapter refuses the headless session's thread.
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed partial class HostKeyCard : UserControl
+{
+    public HostKeyCard() => InitializeComponent();
+}

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/HostsScreen.axaml

@@ -89,39 +89,19 @@
       <StackPanel Grid.Row="2">
 
         <!--
-          Host key prompts. Unknown and changed look deliberately different: one is a decision, the other is
-          a refusal. Presenting a changed key with a "continue" button is how users are taught to click
-          through the one warning that matters.
-        -->
-        <Border Padding="16,10" Background="{StaticResource WarnWash}"
-                BorderBrush="{StaticResource WarnSoft}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1"
-                IsVisible="{Binding HasPendingHostKey}">
-          <StackPanel Spacing="6">
-            <TextBlock Text="This host has not been seen before. Check the fingerprint against what the server's operator published."
-                       Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
-            <SelectableTextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding PendingHostKey.Fingerprint}"
-                                 Foreground="{StaticResource Warn}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
-            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="8">
-              <Button Classes="accent" Content="TRUST AND CONNECT"
-                      Command="{Binding TrustHostKeyCommand}" />
-              <Button Classes="ghost" Content="CANCEL"
-                      Command="{Binding RejectHostKeyCommand}" />
-            </StackPanel>
-          </StackPanel>
-        </Border>
+          ◆ THE TWO HOST KEY PROMPTS WERE HERE, and they are now drawn over the window instead.
 
-        <Border Padding="16,10" Background="{StaticResource DangerWash}"
-                BorderBrush="{StaticResource DangerSoft}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1"
-                IsVisible="{Binding HasHostKeyMismatch}">
-          <StackPanel Spacing="6">
-            <TextBlock Text="The host key changed and the connection was refused."
-                       Foreground="{StaticResource Danger}" FontWeight="SemiBold" />
-            <SelectableTextBlock Text="{Binding HostKeyMismatch}"
-                                 Foreground="{StaticResource Danger}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
-            <TextBlock Text="If the server was legitimately rebuilt, edit the host and choose &quot;Forget host key&quot; first. There is deliberately no way to continue from here."
-                       Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
-          </StackPanel>
-        </Border>
+          They were banners on this screen, so the shell navigated to this screen before letting the vault
+          raise one — because a connection can be started from the palette on any screen, and a question
+          behind whatever somebody is looking at is a question nobody can answer. That covered the palette
+          and charged everybody else for it: it took the user off the screen they were working on, and for a
+          machine typed into the phone's connect box by hand it asked about it on the list it is deliberately
+          not on. The decision is over the surface now, both heads, and nothing has to move. See
+          HostKeyCard.axaml and MainWindowViewModel.OnVaultConnectionFailed.
+
+          Not copied into both places, deliberately. One prompt in two markups is two copies of the most
+          safety-critical wording in the product, and the second is the one that goes stale.
+        -->
 
         <!--
           The conflict log. The merge is only allowed to pick a winner because the value it overrode is kept

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/MainWindow.axaml

@@ -348,6 +348,22 @@
       -->
       <views:QuickConnect x:Name="Palette" IsVisible="{Binding IsSearching}" />
 
+      <!--
+        ◆ Later still, and the order between these two is a ranking rather than an accident: the palette is
+        something the user opened and can close, and a host-key decision is a connection waiting on them. It
+        used to be two banners at the top of the hosts screen, which is why the shell navigated there before
+        the question could be asked — see HostKeyCard.axaml, and MainWindowViewModel.OnVaultConnectionFailed
+        for what that cost every other screen.
+
+        Wrapped, like every other child here whose data context is the vault: the visibility is the shell's
+        business — it is the flag that also collapses the WebView — and IsHostKeyDecisionShowing does not
+        exist on a VaultViewModel, which with compiled bindings is a build error rather than a card that
+        silently never appears.
+      -->
+      <Panel IsVisible="{Binding IsHostKeyDecisionShowing, FallbackValue=False}">
+        <views:HostKeyCard x:Name="HostKeyPane" DataContext="{Binding Vault}" />
+      </Panel>
+
     </Panel>
 
     <!--

src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs

@@ -947,7 +947,14 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// same rectangle is drawn underneath it and its buttons cannot be clicked. Anything that covers the
     /// terminal's area has to collapse the terminal instead, and that is every one of the conditions here: a
     /// locked vault (the unlock card), the page area (every screen uses the full width), the quick-connect
-    /// palette, and the phone's connect sheet.
+    /// palette, the phone's connect sheet, and the host-key decision.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>The host-key decision is the newest of them, and the one that made it a rule rather than a list.</b>
+    /// It is drawn over whatever is on screen at the moment a handshake asks the question — including an open
+    /// terminal, because a second connection can be being made while a first one is being typed into. Without
+    /// this condition the two buttons that answer the most safety-critical question in the product would be
+    /// sliced at the WebView's left edge and take no clicks. See <see cref="IsHostKeyDecisionShowing"/>.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
     /// <b>The sheet is here rather than in <see cref="IsTerminalSurface"/>, and the palette is not.</b> The
@@ -984,7 +991,36 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     internal bool IsTerminalShowing =>
-        IsTerminalSurface && !IsConnectSheetOpen && SelectedTab is { HasSession: true };
+        IsTerminalSurface
+        && !IsConnectSheetOpen
+        && !IsHostKeyDecisionShowing
+        && SelectedTab is { HasSession: true };
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether a host key is waiting to be judged, over whatever the user is looking at.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>It is asked of the shell rather than of a screen because the answer decides an occlusion, and
+    /// because the question is no longer tied to a screen.</b> The prompt used to be a banner at the top of
+    /// the hosts screen, and the shell navigated there before letting the vault raise it — which is how a
+    /// machine typed into the phone's own connect box came to be judged on a list it is deliberately not on.
+    /// Both heads now draw the decision over whichever surface was showing when the handshake stopped, so
+    /// there is nowhere it can be asked from that it cannot be answered on, and nothing has to move.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Two states, one flag, and the views keep them apart: an unknown key is a decision with two buttons and
+    /// a changed one is a refusal with no way forward. What they share is that both cover the rectangle the
+    /// terminal would be in. See <c>HostKeyCard.axaml</c> on the desktop and <c>HostKeySheet.axaml</c> on the
+    /// phone.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The transfers screen's own copy of this question is not here, and that is not an omission: file
+    /// transfer's prompt is drawn inside that screen, which is a page, so it occludes nothing.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal bool IsHostKeyDecisionShowing =>
+        IsUnlocked && Vault is { HasPendingHostKey: true } or { HasHostKeyMismatch: true };
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Whether the terminal half of the window is the half being shown, pane or no pane.
@@ -1623,13 +1659,15 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
 
         CloseSearch();
 
-        // The hosts page, because that is where this connection's questions get asked. An unknown or changed
-        // host key is answered by a prompt drawn on that page and the palette opens from any screen, so
-        // connecting from the files screen without this would leave the question behind the screen that asked
-        // it. The surface does not stay here — the tab that appears for the attempt takes it — and it does not
-        // need to: a refusal that needs an answer puts the page back, which is where this leaves the screen.
-        Screen = ShellScreen.Hosts;
-        Surface = ShellSurface.Page;
+        // ◆ IT USED TO GO TO THE HOSTS PAGE FIRST, and the reason it did no longer exists. An unknown or
+        // changed host key was answered by a prompt drawn on that page, and the palette opens from any screen,
+        // so connecting from the files screen without the jump would have left the question behind the screen
+        // that asked it. Both heads draw the decision over the surface now — see IsHostKeyDecisionShowing —
+        // and the other thing this connection can say before it dials, a refusal on Vault.Status, is in the
+        // status bar, which is a row of the window rather than part of a screen.
+        //
+        // So the palette leaves the user where they were, which is the whole point of a palette: Ctrl+K over a
+        // transfer that is still running should not cost the transfer's screen.
         vault.SelectedHost = vault.Hosts.FirstOrDefault(host => host.EntityId == row.EntityId);
 
         // Null, not the token. A [RelayCommand] over a method whose only parameter is a CancellationToken
@@ -2815,12 +2853,27 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasRecentConnections));
 
         RaiseSyncState();
+
+        // The host-key decision is a property of the vault, so swapping the vault out is one of the ways it
+        // stops being on screen — locking with a question still up is the case, and it is reachable: a
+        // handshake that stopped on an unknown key does not hold the window, so the lock button is live
+        // behind the card asking about it.
+        RaiseTerminalState();
     }
 
     /// <remarks>
-    /// One property is watched rather than all of them: the titlebar's sync state is the vault's outbox
-    /// depth, which lives on the vault, and re-raising the shell's two derived properties on every
-    /// notification a busy vault produces would repaint the titlebar on every keystroke in an editor.
+    /// <para>
+    /// Named properties are watched rather than all of them: the titlebar's sync state is the vault's outbox
+    /// depth, which lives on the vault, and re-raising the shell's derived properties on every notification a
+    /// busy vault produces would repaint the titlebar on every keystroke in an editor.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The two host-key flags are here because the decision the vault raises collapses this shell's WebView —
+    /// see <see cref="IsHostKeyDecisionShowing"/>. It is a property rather than an event because it is a
+    /// state the vault is in and not a moment: it is entered by a refused handshake, left by either answer,
+    /// and cleared outright by forgetting a pin from a host's editor, which is a third caller that has
+    /// nothing to do with connecting.
+    /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     private void OnVaultPropertyChanged(object? sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
     {
@@ -2829,6 +2882,14 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         {
             RaiseSyncState();
         }
+
+        if (string.Equals(
+                e.PropertyName, nameof(VaultViewModel.HasPendingHostKey), StringComparison.Ordinal)
+            || string.Equals(
+                e.PropertyName, nameof(VaultViewModel.HasHostKeyMismatch), StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            RaiseTerminalState();
+        }
     }
 
     private void OnVaultHostsChanged(object? sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e) =>
@@ -2913,11 +2974,27 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// Answers a connection that did not become a session.
     /// </summary>
     /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
     /// Two outcomes, because there are two kinds of not-connecting. A refusal stays in the strip as a tab
     /// carrying its reason — connecting no longer holds the window, so the user may be three screens away by
-    /// now, and the status line they are not looking at is not where a failure should end. A host key
-    /// question is not a refusal: it is a prompt on the hosts screen, so the tab goes and the window is put
-    /// back where the question is being asked.
+    /// now, and the status line they are not looking at is not where a failure should end. A host key question
+    /// is not a refusal: nothing has gone wrong and there is nothing to report, so the tab goes and the
+    /// decision takes its place until it is answered.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>It used to move the window, and that was the wrong half of the problem to solve.</b> The prompt was
+    /// a banner on the hosts screen, so this navigated there — <c>Screen = Hosts</c>, <c>Surface = Page</c> —
+    /// on the reasoning that a connection can be started from the palette on any screen and a question behind
+    /// the screen somebody is looking at is a question nobody can answer. True, and answered the wrong way
+    /// round: what it did to the one connection that has no host at all was to judge a machine typed into the
+    /// phone's connect box on a list it is deliberately not on, after taking the box away.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Both heads now draw the decision over whatever is showing, so nothing has to move and the palette's
+    /// case is covered without a special one. What is left here is the tab, and the surface it was on stays as
+    /// it is — for the phone that surface <em>is</em> the connect box, and it is what the user comes back to
+    /// whichever way they answer.
+    /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     private void OnVaultConnectionFailed(object? sender, ConnectionFailedEventArgs e)
     {
@@ -2945,11 +3022,11 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
                 : Tabs[Math.Clamp(index - 1, 0, Tabs.Count - 1)];
         }
 
-        // The screen the question is drawn on, and the page rather than a terminal. A connection can be
-        // started from the palette on any screen, so without this the prompt would be behind whatever the
-        // user was looking at, with the connection waiting on an answer they cannot reach.
-        Screen = ShellScreen.Hosts;
-        Surface = ShellSurface.Page;
+        // Nothing else. The decision is drawn over the surface the user is on rather than on a screen they
+        // have to be taken to — see the remark — and the neighbour selected above is what that surface shows
+        // once the question is answered. Its WebView is collapsed while the card is up, which is the one
+        // thing a card in that rectangle cannot do for itself; see IsHostKeyDecisionShowing.
+        RaiseTerminalState();
     }
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -3344,6 +3421,7 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsTerminalSurface));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsTerminalShowing));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsConnectingShowing));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsHostKeyDecisionShowing));
 
         // The tabs themselves, and not only the window's own flags. A tab that stayed lit after the user
         // navigated to preferences would be a second "you are here" mark pointing at a terminal that is not

src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/VaultViewModel.cs

@@ -9849,12 +9849,37 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         await AutoSyncAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
     }
 
-    /// <summary>Dismisses the trust prompt without pinning anything.</summary>
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Dismisses whichever host-key decision is showing, without pinning or forgetting anything.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// One command for both, because both are dismissals and the two states are mutually exclusive — which is
+    /// what <c>TransfersViewModel.RejectHostKey</c> has always done for the same pair of cards. The mismatch
+    /// has nothing else it may offer: withdrawing a pin is a deliberate act performed in the host's editor,
+    /// away from the moment of connecting, and a button here would be "continue anyway" with two clicks
+    /// instead of one.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>It used to clear only the pending key, which left the mismatch with no working exit.</b> That was
+    /// invisible for as long as the refusal was a banner at the top of a screen — nothing was drawn over, so
+    /// nothing was trapped, and the next connection attempt cleared it. It is not invisible now: both heads
+    /// draw the refusal over the surface, and the phone's is an opaque full-screen panel whose one button runs
+    /// this command. Leaving <see cref="HostKeyMismatch"/> set would have kept that panel up over every screen
+    /// the user went to afterwards, including the host editor they were being sent to.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
     [RelayCommand]
     private void RejectHostKey()
     {
+        var wasOffered = PendingHostKey is not null;
+
         PendingHostKey = null;
-        Status = "The host key was not trusted, so nothing was connected.";
+        HostKeyMismatch = null;
+
+        Status = wasOffered
+            ? "The host key was not trusted, so nothing was connected."
+            : "Nothing was connected.";
     }
 
     /// <summary>