Merge origin/main into claude/spelunk-api-key-tenant-6373cf

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Theme/Phone.axaml

@@ -843,6 +843,30 @@
     <Setter Property="TextInputOptions.ContentType" Value="Password" />
   </Style>
 
+  <!--
+    The Connections prompt's two lines, typed into the way a shell is: no fill and no border in any state, so
+    the text sits on the pane where its label leaves off and the caret is the only sign the line takes input.
+    44 tall all the same, which is this head's touch floor — the line has no box to aim at, so the whole
+    height of it has to be the target. See ConnectPrompt.axaml. Declared after .secret, which it combines with
+    on the password line and sets nothing in common with.
+  -->
+  <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt">
+    <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="44" />
+    <Setter Property="Padding" Value="0" />
+    <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
+    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource Text}" />
+    <Setter Property="CaretBrush" Value="{StaticResource AccentText}" />
+    <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
+    <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="14" />
+  </Style>
+  <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                   TextBox.prompt:pointerover /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                   TextBox.prompt:focus /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement">
+    <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
+    <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="Transparent" />
+    <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="0" />
+  </Style>
+
   <!--
     The live dot, and the class name is the same one the desktop sidebar uses so the two heads cannot
     drift on what green means: a terminal is open on this host right now. Deliberately not reachability —

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

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+<UserControl xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
+             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
+             xmlns:vm="using:DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels"
+             xmlns:views="using:DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views"
+             x:Class="DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views.ConnectPrompt"
+             x:DataType="vm:MainWindowViewModel">
+
+  <!--
+    The phone's half of the desktop's empty-terminal prompt, drawn on Connections while nothing is open: the
+    same two lines, over the same view-model state — MainWindowViewModel.PromptText and its siblings — so a
+    name or an address typed here is read, refused and dialled exactly as it is on the desktop. See the
+    desktop's ConnectPrompt.axaml for the reasoning; what is here is only what a phone changes.
+
+    THREE THINGS A PHONE CHANGES.
+
+    No Tab and no Escape. The matches under the first line are buttons sized for a thumb instead of a
+    completion list for a key, and a tap on one takes it outright — completing to a name and then pressing
+    CONNECT is two taps for what one already says. The way off the password line is BACK beside CONNECT,
+    and the system back gesture, which PhoneShell routes to the same command.
+
+    A CONNECT button, because the software keyboard's own return key may commit or may only close the
+    keyboard — that is the IME's choice, as the files screen's GO button already says. Enter is still bound,
+    for every keyboard that does send it.
+
+    The password's label on its own line. ssh's wording — "deploy@build.internal:2222's password:" — is a
+    third of a phone's width before anything is typed, so the box goes under it rather than beside it.
+  -->
+  <Border Background="{StaticResource Pane}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}" BorderThickness="1"
+          CornerRadius="12" Padding="14,12">
+    <StackPanel Spacing="6">
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                 Text="Type a saved host's name, or user@host[:port] for a machine that is not saved." />
+
+      <!-- ============ what to connect to ============ -->
+      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*" Margin="0,4,0,0">
+        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold"
+                   Foreground="{StaticResource AccentText}" Text="connect to:" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Target" Classes="prompt" Margin="8,0,0,0"
+                 AutomationProperties.Name="Connect to"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptText}" IsReadOnly="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}">
+          <TextBox.KeyBindings>
+            <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+          </TextBox.KeyBindings>
+        </TextBox>
+      </Grid>
+
+      <!-- The saved hosts that match so far, best first. A tap takes one: it connects, or asks its password. -->
+      <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding PromptMatches}" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsPromptMatches}">
+        <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+          <ItemsPanelTemplate>
+            <WrapPanel />
+          </ItemsPanelTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+        <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+          <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
+            <Button Classes="chiptoggle" MinHeight="44" Margin="0,0,6,6"
+                    Command="{Binding $parent[views:ConnectPrompt].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptMatchCommand}"
+                    CommandParameter="{Binding}">
+              <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Text="{Binding Label}" />
+            </Button>
+          </DataTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+      </ItemsControl>
+
+      <!-- ============ the password, when one is needed ============ -->
+      <StackPanel x:Name="PasswordLine" Spacing="0" IsVisible="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}">
+        <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                   Text="{Binding PromptPasswordLabel}" />
+        <!--
+          Classes="secret" for what it tells the software keyboard, not only for the dots: see Phone.axaml.
+        -->
+        <TextBox x:Name="Password" Classes="prompt secret" AutomationProperties.Name="Password"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptPassword}">
+          <TextBox.KeyBindings>
+            <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+          </TextBox.KeyBindings>
+        </TextBox>
+      </StackPanel>
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasPromptRefusal}" />
+
+      <!--
+        CONNECT always; BACK only on the password line, where there is a line to go back from. Side by side,
+        CONNECT on the right where the thumb ends up, the order the hosts screen's own panels use.
+      -->
+      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="*,8,*" Margin="0,6,0,0">
+        <Button Grid.Column="0" Classes="secondary" Height="44" Content="BACK"
+                Command="{Binding CancelPromptCommand}" IsVisible="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}" />
+        <Button Grid.Column="2" Classes="primary" Height="44" Content="CONNECT"
+                Command="{Binding SubmitPromptCommand}" />
+      </Grid>
+
+    </StackPanel>
+  </Border>
+
+</UserControl>

src/DodoSSH.Client.Android/Views/ConnectPrompt.axaml.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+using Avalonia;
+using Avalonia.Controls;
+using Avalonia.Input;
+using Avalonia.Markup.Xaml;
+using Avalonia.Threading;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.Android.Views;
+
+/// <summary>The phone's empty-terminal prompt: what to connect to, and its password when one is needed.</summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// <para>
+/// The one thing the code-behind does is move the keyboard onto the password line when it appears. Enter on a
+/// name is answered with a second question, and a keyboard left on the first line — read-only by then — would
+/// type nothing and look as though it should.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// It does not take the keyboard when the screen opens, unlike the desktop's prompt. On a phone that would
+/// raise the software keyboard over the recent connections underneath, which are the likelier tap.
+/// </para>
+/// <para>
+/// <c>FindControl</c> rather than the generated <c>x:Name</c> fields, for the reason
+/// <c>HostsScreen</c>'s constructor gives: no view on this head calls <c>InitializeComponent</c>, so those
+/// fields are null at run time.
+/// </para>
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed partial class ConnectPrompt : UserControl
+{
+    public ConnectPrompt()
+    {
+        AvaloniaXamlLoader.Load(this);
+
+        var line = this.FindControl<StackPanel>("PasswordLine")!;
+        var box = this.FindControl<TextBox>("Password")!;
+
+        line.PropertyChanged += (_, e) =>
+        {
+            if (e.Property == IsVisibleProperty && line.IsVisible)
+            {
+                // Posted at Loaded, as HostsScreen's own password sheet is: the box has no bounds on the turn
+                // its line becomes visible, and focusing a control with none raises no keyboard.
+                Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(() => box.Focus(NavigationMethod.Tab), DispatcherPriority.Loaded);
+            }
+        };
+    }
+}

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

@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
       <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*">
         <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="icon" Text="&#xE8B6;" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}"
                    FontSize="20" Margin="12,0,0,0" />
-        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding HostFilter}" PlaceholderText="Search hosts"
+        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding HostFilter}" PlaceholderText="Search hosts, or type user@host"
                  Padding="9,0" VerticalContentAlignment="Center"
                  Background="Transparent" BorderThickness="0"
                  Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" FontSize="14" />
@@ -82,6 +82,42 @@
     <!-- ============ sync + conflicts ============ -->
     <StackPanel Grid.Row="1" Margin="16,4,16,0" Spacing="7">
 
+      <!--
+        ◆ A MACHINE THAT IS NOT SAVED. When the search box holds user@host, this card offers to connect to it
+        with a password, and nothing is written to the keychain — the desktop palette's typed-address row, in
+        this screen's shape. The terminal screen's own box does the same but is drawn only while nothing is
+        open; this one is here whatever is running. See VaultViewModel.FilterAddress.
+
+        Above the list rather than over it, like the panels below: the hosts that also match what was typed
+        stay in view, and one of them may be the same machine with a key already bound to it.
+
+        Classes="field secret" on the password for the reason the terminal screen's box gives: the class is
+        what keeps the password out of the software keyboard's dictionary, not only off the screen.
+      -->
+      <Border IsVisible="{Binding HasFilterAddress}" Background="{StaticResource Panel}"
+              BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderMid}" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="12" Padding="13,11">
+        <StackPanel Spacing="9">
+          <Grid ColumnDefinitions="*,Auto">
+            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="{Binding FilterAddressText}" FontSize="13"
+                       Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"
+                       VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+            <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Classes="label" Text="NOT SAVED" Margin="10,0,0,0"
+                       VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+          </Grid>
+          <TextBox Classes="field secret" Text="{Binding FilterAddressPassword}" PlaceholderText="password">
+            <TextBox.KeyBindings>
+              <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding ConnectToFilterAddressCommand}" />
+            </TextBox.KeyBindings>
+          </TextBox>
+          <Button Classes="primary" Height="44" Content="CONNECT"
+                  Command="{Binding ConnectToFilterAddressCommand}" />
+        </StackPanel>
+      </Border>
+
+      <!-- Why what was typed is not an address yet, or why CONNECT refused — a sentence about the box. -->
+      <TextBlock Classes="detail" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                 Text="{Binding FilterAddressRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasFilterAddressRefusal}" />
+
       <TextBlock Classes="detail" Text="{Binding Status}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
 
       <!--

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

@@ -674,6 +674,16 @@ internal sealed partial class PhoneShell : UserControl
             return;
         }
 
+        // The Connections prompt's password line, which back steps off onto the name it asked about — the
+        // same thing its BACK button does, and the nearer of the two things back could mean here. Leaving the
+        // surface would throw the name away along with the question.
+        if (current is { IsConnectPromptShowing: true, IsPromptAskingForPassword: true })
+        {
+            current.CancelPromptCommand.Execute(null);
+            e.Handled = true;
+            return;
+        }
+
         if (!current.IsShowingPages)
         {
             current.ShowScreenCommand.Execute(current.Screen);

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

@@ -345,9 +345,11 @@
         running this surface is where a connection is made rather than a page apologising for having
         nothing on it. Two things are offered, in the order somebody reaches for them.
 
-        A box, because the case this application had no answer for is the address somebody has just been
-        given. Everything else here starts from a keychain item, which is right for a machine used twice and
-        is several screens of work for one used once.
+        A prompt, because a terminal with nothing in it should do what a terminal does, which is ask — the
+        same one the desktop draws in its empty terminal, over the same view-model state. It takes a saved
+        host's name or user@host for a machine that is not saved, and asks for a password only when one is
+        needed. See ConnectPrompt.axaml. It replaced a box that took addresses alone, which left a saved
+        machine several screens away from here.
 
         And the machines already connected to, under it, because that is the commoner half by far: the
         thing most likely to be wanted is the thing that was wanted yesterday. They come out of the vault's
@@ -359,44 +361,7 @@
 
           <TextBlock Classes="title" FontSize="13" Text="CONNECT TO A MACHINE" />
 
-          <!--
-            The manual target. One box in the grammar people already have — user@host, or user@host:port —
-            rather than three, because three boxes on a phone is three taps between three keyboards for
-            something that arrives as one string.
-          -->
-          <TextBox Classes="field" Text="{Binding Vault.ManualTarget}"
-                   PlaceholderText="user@host or user@host:port">
-            <TextBox.KeyBindings>
-              <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-            </TextBox.KeyBindings>
-          </TextBox>
-
-          <!--
-            A typed password and nothing else. Offering the keychain's keys here would be a second binding
-            resolution beside the one the connect path already has, and a key is the reason to save the
-            machine as a host rather than dial it from a box.
-
-            Classes="secret" and not merely PasswordChar: the class is what also tells the software keyboard
-            this is not prose, which is the difference between dots on screen and dots on screen with the
-            password in the IME's dictionary. See Theme/Phone.axaml.
-          -->
-          <TextBox Classes="field secret" Text="{Binding Vault.ManualPassword}"
-                   PlaceholderText="password">
-            <TextBox.KeyBindings>
-              <KeyBinding Gesture="Enter" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-            </TextBox.KeyBindings>
-          </TextBox>
-
-          <Button Classes="primary" Content="CONNECT" Command="{Binding Vault.ConnectManuallyCommand}" />
-
-          <!--
-            Beside the box rather than on the shell's status line. What fails here is about what was typed —
-            a missing account, a port that is not a number — and a sentence about a text box belongs under
-            the text box.
-          -->
-          <TextBlock Classes="detail" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
-                     Text="{Binding Vault.ManualStatus}"
-                     IsVisible="{Binding Vault.ManualStatus, Converter={x:Static StringConverters.IsNotNullOrEmpty}}" />
+          <views:ConnectPrompt />
 
           <TextBlock Classes="body"
                      Text="Nothing typed here is saved. A machine worth keeping belongs on HOSTS, where it can carry a key, a group's defaults and a name." />
@@ -410,14 +375,13 @@
               <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
                 <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:ConnectionLogRowViewModel">
                   <!--
-                    Tapping one does not connect, and that is deliberate rather than a missing step. A row
-                    that names a keychain host goes to that host with its connect bar — which is where its
-                    key, or its password box, or its refusal lives — and one that names only an address goes
-                    back into the box above, without the password, which was never stored. Either way what
-                    happens next is visible before anything is dialled. See ConnectToRecentCommand.
+                    A tap goes onto the prompt above and carries on as if it had been typed: a keychain host
+                    connects, or asks for its password there; an address asks for its password, which was
+                    never stored. Nothing is dialled before the prompt has asked whatever it needs to. See
+                    MainWindowViewModel.ChoosePromptRecentCommand.
                   -->
                   <Button Classes="row" MinHeight="52" Padding="12,8" CornerRadius="10"
-                          Command="{Binding $parent[views:TerminalScreen].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ConnectToRecentCommand}"
+                          Command="{Binding $parent[views:TerminalScreen].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptRecentCommand}"
                           CommandParameter="{Binding}">
                     <Grid ColumnDefinitions="*,Auto">
                       <StackPanel Grid.Column="0" Spacing="2" VerticalAlignment="Center">

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml

@@ -873,6 +873,29 @@
       <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="{StaticResource AccentSoft}" />
     </Style>
 
+    <!--
+      ◆ THE EMPTY TERMINAL'S PROMPT LINES, which are typed into the way a shell is: no fill, no border and no
+      padding in any state, so the text sits on the pane exactly where the label before it leaves off, and the
+      caret is the only sign the line takes input. A box drawn around it would turn a prompt back into a form.
+      See ConnectPrompt.axaml. After the base rules and .pathbox, for the reason this file keeps restating.
+    -->
+    <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt">
+      <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="{StaticResource MonoFont}" />
+      <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="13" />
+      <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource Text}" />
+      <Setter Property="CaretBrush" Value="{StaticResource AccentText}" />
+      <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="0" />
+      <Setter Property="Padding" Value="0" />
+      <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center" />
+    </Style>
+    <Style Selector="TextBox.prompt /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                     TextBox.prompt:pointerover /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement,
+                     TextBox.prompt:focus /template/ Border#PART_BorderElement">
+      <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
+      <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="Transparent" />
+      <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="0" />
+    </Style>
+
     <!--
       Lists. The rows in this design are drawn by their own templates and marked as selected with an accent
       strip down the left edge, so the theme's rounded blue selection block has to go — it would sit behind
@@ -1200,10 +1223,14 @@
       The two buttons in the drawer's header: the overflow menu and the arrow that puts the drawer away.
       Chrome rather than controls — they are the frame around whichever panel is showing, which is why they
       are flat and quiet until the pointer finds them.
+
+      No padding, because the box is fixed: Fluent's own 8,5,8,6 left a glyph ten pixels of width inside
+      twenty-six, and every 15px Material icon on the SFTP panes was drawn with its sides cut off.
     -->
     <Style Selector="Button.paneicon">
       <Setter Property="Width" Value="26" />
       <Setter Property="Height" Value="26" />
+      <Setter Property="Padding" Value="0" />
       <Setter Property="CornerRadius" Value="6" />
       <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="13" />
       <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
@@ -1342,6 +1369,19 @@
     <Style Selector="TextBlock.qcrow-subtext">
       <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
     </Style>
+    <!--
+      The palette's typed-address row, which sits above the list rather than in it and so has no ListBoxItem
+      to take :pointerover and :selected from. The same two states, on the row itself.
+    -->
+    <Style Selector="Border.qcrow.adhoc:pointerover">
+      <Setter Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource Hover}" />
+    </Style>
+    <Style Selector="Border.qcrow.adhoc.selected, Border.qcrow.adhoc.selected:pointerover">
+      <Setter Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource Accent}" />
+    </Style>
+    <Style Selector="Border.qcrow.adhoc.selected TextBlock.qcrow-text, Border.qcrow.adhoc.selected TextBlock.qcrow-subtext">
+      <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource AccentInk}" />
+    </Style>
     <Style Selector="ListBoxItem:selected TextBlock.qcrow-text, ListBoxItem:selected TextBlock.qcrow-subtext">
       <!--
         AccentInk rather than a literal white: it is v5's name for "the colour text sits in on top of the

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

@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+<UserControl xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
+             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
+             xmlns:vm="using:DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels"
+             xmlns:views="using:DodoSSH.Client.App.Views"
+             x:Class="DodoSSH.Client.App.Views.ConnectPrompt"
+             x:DataType="vm:MainWindowViewModel"
+             Background="{StaticResource Pane}">
+
+  <!--
+    What the terminal's rectangle holds when Terminal is pressed with nothing open: a prompt, because asking
+    is what a terminal with nothing in it does. It used to be an empty frame, with the tab row's "+" the only
+    thing on it that did anything.
+
+    Two lines, in the order ssh itself asks. The first takes a saved host's name — matched exactly, with the
+    names that match so far printed under it for Tab or a click to take — or user@host[:port] for a machine
+    that is not saved. The second appears only when a password is needed, worded as ssh words it, and is
+    never offered for a host whose keychain binding supplies its own credential.
+
+    Drawn by Avalonia in the WebView's own rectangle, which the occlusion rule allows only because the two
+    are exclusive: this shows while there are no tabs, and the WebView only for a selected tab with a
+    session. See MainWindowViewModel.IsConnectPromptShowing.
+
+    Everything it does goes through the vault's own connect paths — ConnectToHostAsync for a saved host,
+    ConnectToEndpointAsync for an address — so every refusal those make is made here too, and nothing typed
+    at this prompt is written to the keychain.
+  -->
+  <ScrollViewer HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
+    <StackPanel Margin="18,16" Spacing="3" TextElement.FontFamily="{StaticResource MonoFont}">
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" TextWrapping="Wrap"
+                 Text="No session open. Connect to a saved host by name, or to any machine as user@host[:port]." />
+
+      <!-- ============ what to connect to ============ -->
+      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*" Margin="0,14,0,0">
+        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" FontSize="13" FontWeight="Bold"
+                   Foreground="{StaticResource AccentText}" Text="connect to:" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Target" Classes="prompt" Margin="8,0,0,0"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptText}" IsReadOnly="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}" />
+      </Grid>
+
+      <!--
+        The saved hosts that match so far, best first, the first one Tab's. A wrapped row rather than a list,
+        because this is a shell's completion line and not a picker: a name and an address, nothing to scroll.
+      -->
+      <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding PromptMatches}" Margin="0,2,0,0"
+                    IsVisible="{Binding ShowsPromptMatches}">
+        <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+          <ItemsPanelTemplate>
+            <WrapPanel />
+          </ItemsPanelTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
+        <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+          <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
+            <Button Classes="flat" Focusable="False" Padding="6,2" Margin="0,0,6,0" CornerRadius="5"
+                    Cursor="Hand" ToolTip.Tip="{Binding Address}"
+                    Command="{Binding $parent[views:ConnectPrompt].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptMatchCommand}"
+                    CommandParameter="{Binding}">
+              <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource TextDim}"
+                         Text="{Binding Label}" />
+            </Button>
+          </DataTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+      </ItemsControl>
+
+      <!-- ============ the password, when one is needed ============ -->
+      <Grid x:Name="PasswordLine" ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*" IsVisible="{Binding IsPromptAskingForPassword}">
+        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" FontSize="13" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}"
+                   Text="{Binding PromptPasswordLabel}" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+        <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Password" Classes="prompt" Margin="8,0,0,0" PasswordChar="•"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptPassword}" />
+      </Grid>
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12.5" TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="0,4,0,0"
+                 Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                 Text="{Binding PromptRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasPromptRefusal}" />
+
+      <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="10.5" Margin="0,10,0,0" Foreground="{StaticResource TextGhost}"
+                 Text="ENTER to connect · TAB to complete · ESC to go back · CTRL+K to search hosts" />
+
+      <!--
+        ============ where you have been ============
+
+        The machines most recently connected to, newest first — the vault's own connection log, deduplicated
+        by address, so it survives a restart and arrives on a new machine with the keychain. A click puts the
+        row on the prompt line and carries on from there exactly as if it had been typed: a saved host
+        connects, or asks for its password; an address asks for its password.
+      -->
+      <StackPanel Margin="0,22,0,0" Spacing="1" IsVisible="{Binding HasRecentConnections}">
+        <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="11" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" Text="recent"
+                   Margin="0,0,0,4" />
+        <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding RecentConnections}">
+          <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+            <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:ConnectionLogRowViewModel">
+              <Button Classes="flat" Focusable="False" Padding="6,3" CornerRadius="5" Cursor="Hand"
+                      HorizontalAlignment="Left"
+                      Command="{Binding $parent[views:ConnectPrompt].((vm:MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ChoosePromptRecentCommand}"
+                      CommandParameter="{Binding}">
+                <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="14">
+                  <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12.5" Foreground="{StaticResource TextDim}"
+                             Text="{Binding Address}" />
+                  <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}"
+                             Text="{Binding HostLabel}" />
+                </StackPanel>
+              </Button>
+            </DataTemplate>
+          </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
+        </ItemsControl>
+      </StackPanel>
+
+    </StackPanel>
+  </ScrollViewer>
+
+</UserControl>

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

@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+using Avalonia;
+using Avalonia.Controls;
+using Avalonia.Input;
+using Avalonia.Interactivity;
+using Avalonia.Threading;
+using DodoSSH.Client.Shell.ViewModels;
+
+namespace DodoSSH.Client.App.Views;
+
+/// <summary>The empty terminal's prompt: what to connect to, and its password when one is needed.</summary>
+/// <remarks>
+/// The keys and the caret live here, as the palette's do in <see cref="QuickConnect"/> and for its reason: a
+/// <see cref="UserControl"/> hosts in a bare window under the headless harness, and the window itself cannot
+/// be shown there at all.
+/// </remarks>
+internal sealed partial class ConnectPrompt : UserControl
+{
+    public ConnectPrompt()
+    {
+        InitializeComponent();
+
+        // Tunnelled, for the reason QuickConnect gives: the prompt owns Enter, Escape and Tab while the caret is
+        // in it, and a text box on the route must not get to them first.
+        AddHandler(KeyDownEvent, OnPromptKey, RoutingStrategies.Tunnel);
+
+        // The password line appearing, or going, moves the caret with it: Enter on a name that needs a password
+        // should leave somebody typing the password, and Escape off it should leave them editing the name.
+        PasswordLine.PropertyChanged += OnLineChanged;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The first line's box, for the caret and for the tests.</summary>
+    internal TextBox TargetBox => Target;
+
+    /// <summary>The password line's box, for the caret and for the tests.</summary>
+    internal TextBox PasswordBox => Password;
+
+    private MainWindowViewModel? Shell => DataContext as MainWindowViewModel;
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    protected override void OnPropertyChanged(AvaloniaPropertyChangedEventArgs change)
+    {
+        base.OnPropertyChanged(change);
+
+        // Posted, for the reason QuickConnect.TakeKeyboard gives at length: at the instant this becomes
+        // visible its boxes are not in the visual tree yet, and focus is refused to anything that is not.
+        if (change.Property == IsVisibleProperty && change.GetNewValue<bool>())
+        {
+            Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(TakeKeyboard, DispatcherPriority.Loaded);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void OnLineChanged(object? sender, AvaloniaPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
+    {
+        if (e.Property == IsVisibleProperty && IsVisible)
+        {
+            Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(TakeKeyboard, DispatcherPriority.Loaded);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Puts the caret on whichever line is asking.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Both halves, for the reason <see cref="NativeKeyboardFocus"/> gives: the terminal's WebView can still
+    /// hold the native window's focus after it has been collapsed, and an Avalonia focus without the native
+    /// call is a caret that receives nothing.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private void TakeKeyboard()
+    {
+        if (!IsEffectivelyVisible)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (TopLevel.GetTopLevel(this) is Window window)
+        {
+            NativeKeyboardFocus.ReturnTo(window);
+        }
+
+        if (PasswordLine.IsVisible)
+        {
+            Password.Focus();
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            Target.Focus();
+            Target.CaretIndex = Target.Text?.Length ?? 0;
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void OnPromptKey(object? sender, KeyEventArgs e)
+    {
+        if (Shell is not { IsConnectPromptShowing: true } shell || e.KeyModifiers != KeyModifiers.None)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        switch (e.Key)
+        {
+            case Key.Enter:
+                // Fire-and-forget, as the palette's is: the command reports its own refusals on the prompt,
+                // and a connection's progress and failure in the tab it opens.
+                _ = shell.SubmitPromptCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+                e.Handled = true;
+                break;
+
+            case Key.Escape:
+                shell.CancelPromptCommand.Execute(null);
+                e.Handled = true;
+                break;
+
+            case Key.Tab:
+                // Only when there is something to complete to; otherwise Tab moves the focus, as it always does.
+                e.Handled = shell.CompletePrompt();
+
+                if (e.Handled)
+                {
+                    Target.CaretIndex = Target.Text?.Length ?? 0;
+                }
+
+                break;
+
+            default:
+                break;
+        }
+    }
+}

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

@@ -285,9 +285,8 @@
                 <!--
                   v5c-4: two rows rather than three, the same as the SFTP wrapper above and for the same
                   reason — the host header is gone and the terminal has its 60 pixels. The empty state it
-                  used to print ("no terminals open · press + or Ctrl+K…") went with it rather than moving:
-                  this Grid is only drawn on the terminal surface, and the surface with no tab open already
-                  answers for itself in the tab row's own "+" and in the connecting card below.
+                  used to print ("no terminals open · press + or Ctrl+K…") went with it, and the surface with
+                  no tab open is answered by the prompt below instead — see ConnectPrompt.axaml.
                 -->
                 <!--
                   Three rows since the disconnect strip arrived, where v5c-4 left two. The extra one is Auto
@@ -309,6 +308,16 @@
                     <views:ConnectingCard x:Name="ConnectingPane"
                                           IsVisible="{Binding IsConnectingShowing, FallbackValue=False}" />
 
+                    <!--
+                      The third: nothing open at all, which is what pressing Terminal on the rail with no
+                      session reaches. A prompt asking what to connect to, where an empty frame used to be.
+                      Exclusive with the WebView for the same reason the card above is — no tab, no session —
+                      and FallbackValue=False for the reason the WebView's own binding gives. See
+                      ConnectPrompt.axaml.
+                    -->
+                    <views:ConnectPrompt x:Name="PromptPane"
+                                         IsVisible="{Binding IsConnectPromptShowing, FallbackValue=False}" />
+
                     <!--
                       One WebView hosting every terminal. Not one per tab: each WebView2 is a separate
                       browser process tree, so twenty tabs would cost twenty of them.

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

@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
              x:DataType="vm:MainWindowViewModel">
 
   <!--
-    Ctrl+K: type a few characters of a host's name and press Enter to connect to it.
+    Ctrl+K: type a few characters of a host's name and press Enter to connect to it — or type user@host, press
+    Enter, and give a password, to connect to a machine that is not saved at all.
 
     The design's box promises "search hosts · run command". Only the first half is here, because there is no
     snippet or saved-command item type in the vault for the second half to run — see
@@ -35,93 +36,171 @@
             BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="14">
       <StackPanel>
 
-        <!--
-          ">_" rather than the bare ">" v4 drew: the mock's own prompt glyph, and the underscore is what
-          reads as a cursor waiting for the first keystroke rather than a stray angle bracket. There is
-          still no drawn caret in the field beside it, for the reason TextBox.address in this file gives —
-          it already has a real one.
-        -->
-        <Border Padding="16,14" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1">
-          <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*">
-            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="&gt;_" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold"
-                       Foreground="{StaticResource Accent}" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
-            <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Query" Text="{Binding SearchText}"
-                     PlaceholderText="search hosts" Margin="10,0,0,0"
-                     FontFamily="{StaticResource MonoFont}" FontSize="14"
-                     Background="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" />
-          </Grid>
-        </Border>
+        <StackPanel x:Name="QueryStep" IsVisible="{Binding IsAskingForSearchQuery}">
+
+          <!--
+            ">_" rather than the bare ">" v4 drew: the mock's own prompt glyph, and the underscore is what
+            reads as a cursor waiting for the first keystroke rather than a stray angle bracket. There is
+            still no drawn caret in the field beside it, for the reason TextBox.address in this file gives —
+            it already has a real one.
+          -->
+          <Border Padding="16,14" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1">
+            <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*">
+              <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="&gt;_" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold"
+                         Foreground="{StaticResource Accent}" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+              <TextBox Grid.Column="1" x:Name="Query" Text="{Binding SearchText}"
+                       PlaceholderText="search hosts, or type user@host" Margin="10,0,0,0"
+                       FontFamily="{StaticResource MonoFont}" FontSize="14"
+                       Background="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" />
+            </Grid>
+          </Border>
+
+          <!--
+            The typed address, above the saved hosts: what was typed was an address, so the row that dials it
+            is the one the query is most plainly about. It is lit by IsAdHocSelected rather than by the list's
+            own selection, because it is not a host and the list below holds hosts only — see the remark on
+            MainWindowViewModel.IsAdHocSelected. Classes="qcrow adhoc" shares the list rows' look; the
+            selected state is a class here because there is no ListBoxItem around it to carry :selected.
+
+            "not saved" in the corner, where a saved row says how it authenticates: that is this row's answer
+            to the same question, and the one thing worth knowing before choosing it.
+          -->
+          <Border x:Name="AdHocRow" Classes="qcrow adhoc" Classes.selected="{Binding IsAdHocSelected}"
+                  Height="44" CornerRadius="9" Padding="10,0" Margin="8,6,8,2"
+                  IsVisible="{Binding HasAdHocTarget}" Cursor="Hand">
+            <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*,Auto">
+              <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono qcrow-text" Text="&gt;_" FontSize="12"
+                         FontWeight="Bold" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+              <StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Spacing="1" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
+                <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-text" Text="{Binding AdHocAddress}" FontSize="13"
+                           FontWeight="Medium" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
+                <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="connect with a password" FontSize="11.5" />
+              </StackPanel>
+              <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="not saved" FontSize="11"
+                         Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+            </Grid>
+          </Border>
+
+          <!-- Why a query that looks like an address has no row to dial it — a missing port number, say. -->
+          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Margin="18,12,18,4"
+                     Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                     Text="{Binding AdHocRefusal}"
+                     IsVisible="{Binding HasAdHocRefusal}" />
+
+          <!--
+            Arrow keys move the selection and Enter takes it; the code-behind owns both, because a ListBox that
+            took focus would take the arrow keys away from the box being typed into.
+
+            A click connects rather than merely selecting, which is what a list of hosts under a search box
+            looks like it does — the keyboard route already treats choosing a row and connecting to it as one
+            act, and a pointer that only highlighted would leave the palette open over a choice already made.
+            The gesture is wired in the code-behind, as the sidebar's double-click is.
+
+            Classes="tiles" clears the theme's full-bleed hover and selection wash the way the hosts grid's own
+            cards do — see the remark on Border.qcrow in App.axaml, which is what paints every state here
+            instead. Rows rather than cards, but the same reason applies: a square wash behind a rounded shape
+            shows its corners.
+          -->
+          <ListBox x:Name="Results" Classes="tiles" MaxHeight="320" Focusable="False"
+                   ItemsSource="{Binding SearchResults}"
+                   SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedSearchResult}">
+            <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
+              <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
+                <Border Classes="qcrow" Height="44" CornerRadius="9" Padding="10,0" Margin="8,2">
+                  <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*,Auto">
+                    <!--
+                      Green when this host has a terminal open right now, grey otherwise — the same two-state
+                      dot the hosts grid draws, and the same reason: nothing here pings a machine, so a third
+                      colour would be a claim this application never checks. See Ellipse.dot in App.axaml.
+                    -->
+                    <Ellipse Grid.Column="0" Classes="dot" Classes.live="{Binding IsConnected}"
+                             Width="8" Height="8" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+                    <StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Spacing="1" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-text" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="13"
+                                 FontWeight="Medium" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding Address}" FontSize="11.5"
+                                 TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
+                    </StackPanel>
+                    <!--
+                      Two readings stacked against the two on the left, and in the same order: what this row
+                      IS above, how it is reached below.
+
+                      ◆ THE VAULT, and only when there is more than one to be in — HostRowViewModel.VaultBadge
+                      is empty otherwise, which collapses the line and leaves the kind word centred as it was.
+                      The palette searches every readable vault at once, so without it two hosts a team and a
+                      person both call "prod-db" are two identical rows, and Enter takes whichever the ranking
+                      happened to put first. Trimmed against a cap because the column is Auto-sized: a long
+                      vault name would otherwise take its width out of the host name beside it.
+
+                      credential / key / password — never the mock's SSH/SFTP kind column. Every palette
+                      connect here is SSH, so printing that word would be a constant dressed up as a reading;
+                      see hosts-v5-design-spec.md's deviations and HostRowViewModel.Authentication.
+                    -->
+                    <StackPanel Grid.Column="2" Spacing="1" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding VaultBadge}" FontSize="10"
+                                 HorizontalAlignment="Right" MaxWidth="150"
+                                 TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" IsVisible="{Binding HasVaultBadge}" />
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding Authentication}"
+                                 FontSize="11" HorizontalAlignment="Right" />
+                    </StackPanel>
+                  </Grid>
+                </Border>
+              </DataTemplate>
+            </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
+          </ListBox>
+
+          <!--
+            Names the other thing the box takes, at the moment somebody is most likely to want it: a name that
+            matches nothing is often a machine that was never saved.
+          -->
+          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Margin="18,16"
+                     Text="No host matches that. Type user@host to connect without saving it."
+                     IsVisible="{Binding HasNothingToOffer}" />
+
+          <Border Padding="16,10" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,1,0,0">
+            <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="10" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}"
+                       Text="↑ ↓ to choose · ENTER or click to connect · ESC to close" />
+          </Border>
+
+        </StackPanel>
 
         <!--
-          Arrow keys move the selection and Enter takes it; the code-behind owns both, because a ListBox that
-          took focus would take the arrow keys away from the box being typed into.
+          ============ the typed address's password ============
 
-          A click connects rather than merely selecting, which is what a list of hosts under a search box
-          looks like it does — the keyboard route already treats choosing a row and connecting to it as one
-          act, and a pointer that only highlighted would leave the palette open over a choice already made.
-          The gesture is wired in the code-behind, as the sidebar's double-click is.
-
-          Classes="tiles" clears the theme's full-bleed hover and selection wash the way the hosts grid's own
-          cards do — see the remark on Border.qcrow in App.axaml, which is what paints every state here
-          instead. Rows rather than cards, but the same reason applies: a square wash behind a rounded shape
-          shows its corners.
+          The second step, in the same card, so the keyboard never leaves the palette: Enter on the address
+          comes here, Enter here dials, Escape goes back to the address rather than closing. The box carries
+          PasswordChar and nothing is written anywhere — see MainWindowViewModel.IsAskingForAdHocPassword,
+          and VaultViewModel.ConnectToEndpointAsync for why a typed password is the only way in.
         -->
-        <ListBox x:Name="Results" Classes="tiles" MaxHeight="320" Focusable="False"
-                 ItemsSource="{Binding SearchResults}"
-                 SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedSearchResult}">
-          <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
-            <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
-              <Border Classes="qcrow" Height="44" CornerRadius="9" Padding="10,0" Margin="8,2">
-                <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*,Auto">
-                  <!--
-                    Green when this host has a terminal open right now, grey otherwise — the same two-state
-                    dot the hosts grid draws, and the same reason: nothing here pings a machine, so a third
-                    colour would be a claim this application never checks. See Ellipse.dot in App.axaml.
-                  -->
-                  <Ellipse Grid.Column="0" Classes="dot" Classes.live="{Binding IsConnected}"
-                           Width="8" Height="8" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
-                  <StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Spacing="1" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
-                    <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-text" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="13"
-                               FontWeight="Medium" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
-                    <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding Address}" FontSize="11.5"
-                               TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
-                  </StackPanel>
-                  <!--
-                    Two readings stacked against the two on the left, and in the same order: what this row
-                    IS above, how it is reached below.
+        <StackPanel x:Name="PasswordStep" IsVisible="{Binding IsAskingForAdHocPassword}">
 
-                    ◆ THE VAULT, and only when there is more than one to be in — HostRowViewModel.VaultBadge
-                    is empty otherwise, which collapses the line and leaves the kind word centred as it was.
-                    The palette searches every readable vault at once, so without it two hosts a team and a
-                    person both call "prod-db" are two identical rows, and Enter takes whichever the ranking
-                    happened to put first. Trimmed against a cap because the column is Auto-sized: a long
-                    vault name would otherwise take its width out of the host name beside it.
+          <Border Padding="16,14" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1">
+            <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*">
+              <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="&gt;_" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold"
+                         Foreground="{StaticResource Accent}" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+              <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Classes="mono" Text="{Binding AdHocAddress}" Margin="10,0,0,0"
+                         FontSize="14" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" VerticalAlignment="Center"
+                         TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
+            </Grid>
+          </Border>
 
-                    credential / key / password — never the mock's SSH/SFTP kind column. Every palette
-                    connect here is SSH, so printing that word would be a constant dressed up as a reading;
-                    see hosts-v5-design-spec.md's deviations and HostRowViewModel.Authentication.
-                  -->
-                  <StackPanel Grid.Column="2" Spacing="1" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center">
-                    <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding VaultBadge}" FontSize="10"
-                               HorizontalAlignment="Right" MaxWidth="150"
-                               TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" IsVisible="{Binding HasVaultBadge}" />
-                    <TextBlock Classes="mono qcrow-subtext" Text="{Binding Authentication}"
-                               FontSize="11" HorizontalAlignment="Right" />
-                  </StackPanel>
-                </Grid>
-              </Border>
-            </DataTemplate>
-          </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
-        </ListBox>
+          <StackPanel Margin="16,14" Spacing="8">
+            <TextBox x:Name="Password" Text="{Binding AdHocPassword}" PasswordChar="•"
+                     PlaceholderText="password" FontSize="14" Height="38" />
 
-        <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Margin="18,16"
-                   Text="No host matches that."
-                   IsVisible="{Binding !HasSearchResults}" />
+            <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                       Text="{Binding AdHocRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasAdHocRefusal}" />
 
-        <Border Padding="16,10" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,1,0,0">
-          <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="10" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}"
-                     Text="↑ ↓ to choose · ENTER or click to connect · ESC to close" />
-        </Border>
+            <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12"
+                       Text="Nothing here is saved. A machine worth keeping belongs on HOSTS, where it can carry a key." />
+          </StackPanel>
+
+          <Border Padding="16,10" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,1,0,0">
+            <TextBlock Classes="mono" FontSize="10" Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}"
+                       Text="ENTER to connect · ESC to go back" />
+          </Border>
+
+        </StackPanel>
 
       </StackPanel>
     </Border>

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

@@ -39,11 +39,25 @@ internal sealed partial class QuickConnect : UserControl
         // drag across the list — and the ListBox has moved its own selection by the time a tap completes,
         // which is what makes the handler below a matter of reading the selection rather than hit-testing.
         Results.Tapped += OnResultTapped;
+        AdHocRow.Tapped += OnAdHocRowTapped;
+
+        // The two steps swap in place, and whichever one has just appeared takes the caret: typing an address
+        // and pressing Enter should leave somebody typing a password, not looking for the box to click into.
+        // Watched on the steps themselves rather than on the view model, for the reason TakeKeyboard gives —
+        // the view model's change arrives ahead of the binding that reveals the step.
+        QueryStep.PropertyChanged += OnStepChanged;
+        PasswordStep.PropertyChanged += OnStepChanged;
     }
 
     /// <summary>The box, so the caret can be put in it the moment the palette opens.</summary>
     internal TextBox QueryBox => Query;
 
+    /// <summary>The typed address's password box, which takes the caret when the palette asks for it.</summary>
+    internal TextBox PasswordBox => Password;
+
+    /// <summary>The row offering to dial what was typed, when it reads as an address.</summary>
+    internal Control AdHocTargetRow => AdHocRow;
+
     private MainWindowViewModel? Shell => DataContext as MainWindowViewModel;
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -63,6 +77,29 @@ internal sealed partial class QuickConnect : UserControl
             return;
         }
 
+        // The password step answers only Enter and Escape, and Escape there goes back to the address: a
+        // mistyped address is the likeliest reason to want out of it, and closing would throw that away too.
+        if (shell.IsAskingForAdHocPassword)
+        {
+            switch (e.Key)
+            {
+                case Key.Escape:
+                    shell.BackToSearchQueryCommand.Execute(null);
+                    e.Handled = true;
+                    break;
+
+                case Key.Enter:
+                    _ = shell.ConnectToAdHocTargetCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+                    e.Handled = true;
+                    break;
+
+                default:
+                    break;
+            }
+
+            return;
+        }
+
         switch (e.Key)
         {
             case Key.Escape:
@@ -76,12 +113,12 @@ internal sealed partial class QuickConnect : UserControl
                 break;
 
             case Key.Down:
-                Move(shell, 1);
+                shell.MoveSearchSelection(1);
                 e.Handled = true;
                 break;
 
             case Key.Up:
-                Move(shell, -1);
+                shell.MoveSearchSelection(-1);
                 e.Handled = true;
                 break;
 
@@ -129,23 +166,38 @@ internal sealed partial class QuickConnect : UserControl
             NativeKeyboardFocus.ReturnTo(window);
         }
 
-        Query.Focus();
+        if (PasswordStep.IsVisible)
+        {
+            Password.Focus();
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            Query.Focus();
+        }
     }
 
-    /// <remarks>Clamped rather than wrapped: a list that jumps from the last row to the first loses people.</remarks>
-    private static void Move(MainWindowViewModel shell, int delta)
+    /// <summary>Hands the caret to whichever step has just been revealed.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>Posted, for the same reason the palette's own opening is: see <see cref="TakeKeyboard"/>.</remarks>
+    private void OnStepChanged(object? sender, AvaloniaPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
     {
-        if (shell.SearchResults.Count == 0)
+        if (e.Property == IsVisibleProperty && e.GetNewValue<bool>() && IsVisible)
+        {
+            Dispatcher.UIThread.Post(TakeKeyboard, DispatcherPriority.Loaded);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Takes the typed address, for a click on its row: the pointer's version of Enter on it.
+    /// </summary>
+    private void OnAdHocRowTapped(object? sender, TappedEventArgs e)
+    {
+        if (Shell is not { IsSearching: true, HasAdHocTarget: true } shell)
         {
             return;
         }
 
-        var current = shell.SelectedSearchResult is { } selected
-            ? shell.SearchResults.IndexOf(selected)
-            : -1;
-
-        shell.SelectedSearchResult =
-            shell.SearchResults[Math.Clamp(current + delta, 0, shell.SearchResults.Count - 1)];
+        e.Handled = true;
+        shell.ChooseAdHocTargetCommand.Execute(null);
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />

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

@@ -209,10 +209,9 @@
           design's, unlike HOST/BUCKET across the arrow column, which keeps its own words for a reason
           recorded where it is drawn.
 
-          UP is arrow_upward here and arrow_downward on the host/bucket pane below, matching the design's own
-          two glyphs exactly rather than picking one "up a directory" icon for both — both buttons do the same
-          thing (go to the parent directory), and the pair reading differently is the design's own choice
-          faithfully carried over rather than a functional difference invented to justify it.
+          UP is arrow_upward on both panes. The design drew arrow_downward on the host/bucket pane, and that
+          was carried over until it was reported as a wrong icon — which it is: both buttons go to the parent
+          directory, and a down arrow under the tooltip "Up one directory" says the opposite of what it does.
         -->
         <!--
           ◆ THE PATH SITS IN THE STAR COLUMN, ALONE, AND THAT PLACEMENT IS LOAD-BEARING.
@@ -398,8 +397,8 @@
           directory tree and a flat namespace with inferred folders — and that reason still holds, so only
           the style moves to the design's 10px tracked label, not the wording.
 
-          UP is arrow_downward here, matching arrow_upward on the local pane above per the design's own two
-          distinct glyphs; see that pane's own remark on why the pair differs without the actions differing.
+          UP is arrow_upward, the same as the local pane's; see that pane's own remark for why it is no longer
+          the design's arrow_downward.
         -->
         <!--
           ◆ THE PATH IS TYPED HERE, and that is what the star column is now holding.
@@ -446,7 +445,7 @@
             <StackPanel Grid.Column="2" Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="4" Margin="8,0,0,0">
               <Button Classes="paneicon" Command="{Binding RemoteUpCommand}"
                       IsEnabled="{Binding IsConnected}" ToolTip.Tip="Up one directory">
-                <TextBlock FontFamily="{StaticResource IconFont}" FontSize="16" Text="&#xE5DB;" />
+                <TextBlock FontFamily="{StaticResource IconFont}" FontSize="16" Text="&#xE5D8;" />
               </Button>
               <Button Classes="paneicon" Command="{Binding RefreshRemoteCommand}"
                       IsEnabled="{Binding IsConnected}" ToolTip.Tip="Refresh">
@@ -546,7 +545,7 @@
               </Button>
               <Button Classes="paneicon" Command="{Binding RenameRemoteCommand}"
                       IsEnabled="{Binding CanRenameRemote}" ToolTip.Tip="Rename on the host">
-                <TextBlock FontFamily="{StaticResource IconFont}" FontSize="15" Text="&#xE9AD;" />
+                <TextBlock FontFamily="{StaticResource IconFont}" FontSize="15" Text="&#xE9A2;" />
               </Button>
               <Button Classes="paneicon" Command="{Binding MoveRemoteCommand}"
                       IsEnabled="{Binding CanMoveRemote}" ToolTip.Tip="Move to another directory">

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

@@ -68,9 +68,9 @@ internal sealed class ConnectionLogRowViewModel(VaultItem<ConnectionLogSecret> e
     /// <summary>The keychain host this was, if it was one.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// Null for a connection made to a typed address, and that is a real distinction rather than missing
-    /// data — see <c>VaultViewModel.ConnectManuallyAsync</c>. It is what lets the Connections screen offer
-    /// the right thing when one of these rows is tapped: a keychain host has a connect bar with its own
-    /// authentication behind it, and an address has only the box it was typed into.
+    /// data — see <c>VaultViewModel.ConnectToEndpointAsync</c>. It is what lets the connect prompt offer the
+    /// right thing when one of these rows is tapped: a keychain host has its own authentication behind it, and
+    /// an address has only the password typed for it — see <c>MainWindowViewModel.ChoosePromptRecentAsync</c>.
     /// </remarks>
     internal Guid? HostId => entry.Secret.HostId;
 

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

@@ -1529,10 +1529,10 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// to the same value.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
-    /// <b>Not gated on there being a tab.</b> Closing the last tab returns <see cref="Surface"/> to
-    /// <see cref="ShellSurface.Page"/> instead, so the empty case never arises — and gating here as well
-    /// would be a second answer to one question. The empty-state sentence lives in the tab strip, which
-    /// Avalonia draws and nothing occludes.
+    /// <b>Not gated on there being a tab, because the last clause already is.</b> A selected tab with a
+    /// session is what this needs, so the surface with nothing open — which the rail's Terminal entry reaches
+    /// deliberately — has the WebView collapsed, and that is the rectangle <see cref="IsConnectPromptShowing"/>
+    /// draws its prompt in.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
     /// <b>Revealing and focusing now happen in the same turn, routinely.</b> Opening a terminal from the
@@ -1860,16 +1860,14 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// <summary>Switches to the terminal surface.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// <para>
-    /// The other half of <see cref="ShowScreenCommand"/>, and it exists because the phone's bottom bar
-    /// names the terminal beside the pages. The desktop reaches this surface only implicitly — opening a
-    /// session or clicking a tab — because its tab strip is always on screen and is itself the way back.
-    /// A phone has no room for a permanent strip beside a full-height screen, so the destination needs a
-    /// button, and a button needs a command.
+    /// The other half of <see cref="ShowScreenCommand"/>: the phone's bottom bar and the desktop rail's
+    /// Terminal entry both name the terminal beside the pages, so the destination needs a button, and a
+    /// button needs a command.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
-    /// Not gated on there being a tab, for the same reason <see cref="IsTerminalShowing"/> is not: closing
-    /// the last tab returns the surface to a page, so the empty case does not arise here — and the terminal
-    /// screen carries an empty state anyway, which is worth being able to reach deliberately.
+    /// Not gated on there being a tab. With nothing open the surface is where a connection is made — both
+    /// heads draw the connect prompt there; see <see cref="IsConnectPromptShowing"/> — which is worth being
+    /// able to reach deliberately.
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     [RelayCommand]
@@ -1956,57 +1954,6 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasRecentConnections));
     }
 
-    /// <summary>Goes back to a machine that has been connected to before.</summary>
-    /// <remarks>
-    /// <para>
-    /// <b>Two destinations, because a recent row is one of two different things.</b> One that names a
-    /// keychain host goes to that host on the hosts screen, with whatever that head uses to ask about one
-    /// machine raised over it — the desktop's drawer, the phone's action bar — carrying whatever
-    /// authentication the keychain resolves for it. Connecting from here instead would be a third connect
-    /// path that had to answer all of that again.
-    /// </para>
-    /// <para>
-    /// ◆ <b>It raises that rather than merely selecting the row, and on the phone it has to.</b> Nothing on
-    /// that list means "selected" any more — a tap connects and a long press ticks — so arriving with the
-    /// host selected and nothing else would be arriving at a screen with nothing to press. Asking to go back
-    /// to a machine is exactly the deliberate act those flags exist to distinguish from browsing. See
-    /// <c>VaultViewModel.AskAboutHost</c>, which is where the two heads' answers are raised together.
-    /// </para>
-    /// <para>
-    /// One that names no item was typed into the manual box, and the log stored exactly what was dialled —
-    /// <c>user@host:port</c>, which is the grammar that box takes. So it goes back into the box, and what
-    /// is deliberately not restored is the password: it was never stored, which is the whole point of the
-    /// manual path, and a field that filled itself in would be claiming otherwise.
-    /// </para>
-    /// <para>
-    /// A host deleted since it was connected to falls through to the address, which is the honest answer:
-    /// the machine is still there and the keychain no longer knows about it. So does a host in a vault the
-    /// user has switched off, and for the same reason rather than by accident: selecting it would point the
-    /// hosts screen at a row that screen is not drawing, and the grid would null the selection straight back
-    /// out — arriving at the hosts screen with nothing selected and no explanation.
-    /// </para>
-    /// </remarks>
-    [RelayCommand]
-    private void ConnectToRecent(ConnectionLogRowViewModel row)
-    {
-        if (row is null || Vault is not { } vault)
-        {
-            return;
-        }
-
-        if (row.HostId is { } hostId
-            && vault.Hosts.FirstOrDefault(host => host.EntityId == hostId) is { } known
-            && vault.IsVaultShown(known.VaultId))
-        {
-            vault.AskAboutHostCommand.Execute(known);
-            ShowScreen(ShellScreen.Hosts);
-            return;
-        }
-
-        vault.ManualTarget = row.Address;
-        vault.ManualStatus = string.Empty;
-    }
-
     // ---- The rail's own page grouping ----
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -2373,7 +2320,11 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
 
     internal bool HasTabs => Tabs.Count > 0;
 
-    private void RaiseTabState() => OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasTabs));
+    private void RaiseTabState()
+    {
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasTabs));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsConnectPromptShowing));
+    }
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Closes one terminal, ending its shell.
@@ -2444,6 +2395,343 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         await workspace.CloseSessionAsync(tab.SessionId).ConfigureAwait(true);
     }
 
+    // ---- The empty terminal's prompt ----
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether the terminal's rectangle is asking what to connect to: the terminal surface, with nothing open.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>The desktop's answer to pressing Terminal with no session.</b> The surface used to draw an empty
+    /// frame there — the tab row's "+" was the only thing on it that did anything. A terminal with nothing in
+    /// it should do what a terminal does, which is ask: so the frame holds a prompt that takes a saved host's
+    /// name, or <c>user@host</c> for a machine that is not saved, and asks for a password when one is needed.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Exclusive with the renderer by construction: the WebView shows only for a selected tab with a session,
+    /// and this only while there are no tabs at all. That is what lets Avalonia draw it in the WebView's
+    /// rectangle, the way <c>ConnectingCard</c> already is. See <see cref="IsTerminalShowing"/>.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal bool IsConnectPromptShowing => IsTerminalSurface && !HasTabs;
+
+    /// <summary>What was typed at the prompt: a saved host's name, or <c>user@host[:port]</c>.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string promptText = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>The password typed at the prompt's second line.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Cleared the moment it is used or abandoned. It is never written into the vault's own password box
+    /// either: that box carries a remember-this tick the prompt never offered — see
+    /// <c>VaultViewModel.ConnectToHostAsync</c>.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string promptPassword = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the prompt has moved on to asking for a password.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(IsPromptAskingForTarget))]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(ShowsPromptMatches))]
+    private bool isPromptAskingForPassword;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the prompt is still asking what to connect to.</summary>
+    internal bool IsPromptAskingForTarget => !IsPromptAskingForPassword;
+
+    /// <summary>The second line's prompt, in <c>ssh</c>'s own words: whose password it is.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string promptPasswordLabel = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>Why the prompt refused what was typed, or empty.</summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasPromptRefusal))]
+    private string promptRefusal = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether there is a refusal to print under the prompt.</summary>
+    internal bool HasPromptRefusal => PromptRefusal.Length > 0;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Saved hosts whose name or address matches what has been typed so far, best first; Tab takes the first.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Empty for a query with an <c>@</c> in it, which is an address rather than a name, and for an empty
+    /// one: a list of every host under a prompt nobody has typed into yet is the hosts screen, drawn worse.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal ObservableCollection<HostRowViewModel> PromptMatches { get; } = [];
+
+    /// <summary>Whether there are matches to print under the prompt.</summary>
+    internal bool HasPromptMatches => PromptMatches.Count > 0;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the matches are drawn: only while the name is being asked for, not under its password.</summary>
+    internal bool ShowsPromptMatches => HasPromptMatches && !IsPromptAskingForPassword;
+
+    /// <summary>The saved host the password line is for, when it is for one.</summary>
+    private HostRowViewModel? promptHost;
+
+    /// <summary>The typed address the password line is for, when it is for one.</summary>
+    private VaultViewModel.ManualEndpoint? promptEndpoint;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Enter at the prompt: takes what was typed, or — on the password line — connects.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A name is matched exactly, ignoring case, because Enter on a name is a decision and not a search: the
+    /// matches printed under the prompt are how a partial name becomes a whole one, by Tab or by a click.
+    /// Two hosts with the same name in two vaults are refused rather than guessed between, and pointed at
+    /// the palette, which shows which vault each came from.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Concurrent executions allowed, for the reason <see cref="ConnectToAdHocTargetAsync"/> gives.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
+    private async Task SubmitPromptAsync()
+    {
+        if (Vault is not { } vault)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (IsPromptAskingForPassword)
+        {
+            await ConnectFromPromptAsync(vault).ConfigureAwait(true);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var typed = PromptText.Trim();
+
+        if (typed.Length == 0)
+        {
+            PromptRefusal = "Type the name of a saved host, or user@host for a machine that is not saved.";
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (typed.Contains('@', StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            if (!VaultViewModel.TryParseManualTarget(typed, out var endpoint, out var reason))
+            {
+                PromptRefusal = reason;
+                return;
+            }
+
+            AskForPromptPassword(endpoint);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var named = vault.Hosts
+            .Where(host => string.Equals(host.Label, typed, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+            .Take(2)
+            .ToList();
+
+        switch (named.Count)
+        {
+            case 0:
+                PromptRefusal = PromptMatches.Count > 0
+                    ? $"No saved host is called \"{typed}\". Press Tab for {PromptMatches[0].Label}, or type user@host."
+                    : $"No saved host is called \"{typed}\". Type user@host to reach a machine that is not saved.";
+                return;
+
+            case > 1:
+                PromptRefusal =
+                    $"More than one saved host is called \"{typed}\". Press Ctrl+K to choose between them.";
+                return;
+
+            default:
+                await TakePromptHostAsync(vault, named[0]).ConfigureAwait(true);
+                return;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>A click on one of the matches printed under the prompt.</summary>
+    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
+    private async Task ChoosePromptMatchAsync(HostRowViewModel? host)
+    {
+        if (Vault is not { } vault || host is null)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        PromptText = host.Label;
+        await TakePromptHostAsync(vault, host).ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// A click on one of the recent connections printed under the prompt.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>Two answers, because a recent row is one of two different things.</b> A row naming a host still in
+    /// the keychain goes to that host, with whatever the keychain knows about it — its key, its saved
+    /// password, its refusals — exactly as typing its name would. One that names none was typed in as an
+    /// address, and the log stored exactly what was dialled, <c>user@host:port</c>, which is the grammar the
+    /// prompt takes. So it goes back onto the prompt and asks for its password the way a typed one does; the
+    /// password was never stored, which is the whole point of that path.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A host deleted since it was connected to falls through to the address, which is the honest answer:
+    /// the machine is still there and the keychain no longer knows about it. So does a host in a vault the
+    /// user has switched off, and for the same reason rather than by accident: taking it would reach a host
+    /// the rest of the application is deliberately not showing.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
+    private async Task ChoosePromptRecentAsync(ConnectionLogRowViewModel? row)
+    {
+        if (Vault is not { } vault || row is null)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (row.HostId is { } hostId
+            && vault.Hosts.FirstOrDefault(host => host.EntityId == hostId) is { } known
+            && vault.IsVaultShown(known.VaultId))
+        {
+            PromptText = known.Label;
+            await TakePromptHostAsync(vault, known).ConfigureAwait(true);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        PromptText = row.Address;
+
+        if (VaultViewModel.TryParseManualTarget(row.Address, out var endpoint, out var reason))
+        {
+            AskForPromptPassword(endpoint);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            PromptRefusal = reason;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Escape at the prompt: off the password line back to the name, or clears the name.
+    /// </summary>
+    [RelayCommand]
+    private void CancelPrompt()
+    {
+        if (IsPromptAskingForPassword)
+        {
+            IsPromptAskingForPassword = false;
+            PromptPassword = string.Empty;
+            PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+            promptHost = null;
+            promptEndpoint = null;
+            return;
+        }
+
+        PromptText = string.Empty;
+        PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Tab at the prompt: completes to the best match, if there is one.</summary>
+    /// <returns>Whether anything was completed, so the key can move the focus as usual when it was not.</returns>
+    internal bool CompletePrompt()
+    {
+        if (IsPromptAskingForPassword || PromptMatches.Count == 0)
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        PromptText = PromptMatches[0].Label;
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Connects to a saved host, or asks for its password first if it needs one.</summary>
+    private async Task TakePromptHostAsync(VaultViewModel vault, HostRowViewModel host)
+    {
+        if (VaultViewModel.AsksForAPassword(host))
+        {
+            promptHost = host;
+            promptEndpoint = null;
+            PromptPasswordLabel = $"{host.Address}'s password:";
+            PromptPassword = string.Empty;
+            PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+            IsPromptAskingForPassword = true;
+            return;
+        }
+
+        ResetPrompt();
+
+        // No password to offer and nothing to remember: the binding supplies the credential. Any refusal —
+        // a key deleted on another machine, a host with no username — lands on the status line, as it does
+        // for the palette.
+        await vault.ConnectToHostAsync(host, string.Empty, mayRememberPassword: false, CancellationToken.None)
+            .ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Moves the prompt on to the password for a typed address.</summary>
+    private void AskForPromptPassword(VaultViewModel.ManualEndpoint endpoint)
+    {
+        promptHost = null;
+        promptEndpoint = endpoint;
+        PromptPasswordLabel = $"{endpoint.Address}'s password:";
+        PromptPassword = string.Empty;
+        PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+        IsPromptAskingForPassword = true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The password line's Enter: dials whichever of the two the line is for.</summary>
+    private async Task ConnectFromPromptAsync(VaultViewModel vault)
+    {
+        if (PromptPassword.Length == 0)
+        {
+            PromptRefusal = "Type the password, or press Esc to go back.";
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var password = PromptPassword;
+        var host = promptHost;
+        var endpoint = promptEndpoint;
+
+        // Before the dial, so the password does not wait in the box for the length of a handshake. The tab the
+        // connection opens replaces the prompt anyway; this is what is there the next time nothing is open.
+        ResetPrompt();
+
+        if (host is not null)
+        {
+            await vault.ConnectToHostAsync(host, password, mayRememberPassword: false, CancellationToken.None)
+                .ConfigureAwait(true);
+        }
+        else if (endpoint is not null)
+        {
+            await vault.ConnectToEndpointAsync(endpoint, password, CancellationToken.None).ConfigureAwait(true);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Puts the prompt back to an empty first line.</summary>
+    private void ResetPrompt()
+    {
+        IsPromptAskingForPassword = false;
+        PromptPassword = string.Empty;
+        PromptText = string.Empty;
+        PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+        promptHost = null;
+        promptEndpoint = null;
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A refusal is about what was typed, so typing again clears it; the matches follow every keystroke.
+    /// </remarks>
+    partial void OnPromptTextChanged(string value)
+    {
+        PromptRefusal = string.Empty;
+
+        PromptMatches.Clear();
+
+        var query = value.Trim();
+
+        if (Vault is { } vault && query.Length > 0 && !query.Contains('@', StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            foreach (var host in HostsMatching(vault, query).Take(5))
+            {
+                PromptMatches.Add(host);
+            }
+        }
+
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasPromptMatches));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(ShowsPromptMatches));
+    }
+
     // ---- Quick connect ----
 
     /// <summary>Whether the quick-connect palette is open over the window.</summary>
@@ -2479,6 +2767,102 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     /// </remarks>
     internal bool HasSearchResults => SearchResults.Count > 0;
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The machine the palette's query names, when what was typed reads as <c>user@host[:port]</c>.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>The palette's answer to a machine that is not in the keychain.</b> Every other row it offers is a
+    /// saved host, and a box somebody has just been given the address of had no way in on this head short of
+    /// saving it first. The query already is a box, and <c>user@host</c> is the grammar people type into
+    /// one, so the palette reads it rather than growing a second field.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Read with <see cref="VaultViewModel.TryParseManualTarget"/>, which is the connect prompt's parser and
+    /// the phone's hosts search's too, so every box accepts exactly the same addresses and refuses the rest
+    /// with the same sentences.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Only a query with an <c>@</c> in it is read at all. Without one, everything typed is a search, and a
+    /// row offering to dial whatever three letters were typed so far would be noise on every keystroke.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasAdHocTarget))]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(AdHocAddress))]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasNothingToOffer))]
+    private VaultViewModel.ManualEndpoint? adHocTarget;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the palette is offering to connect to a typed address.</summary>
+    internal bool HasAdHocTarget => AdHocTarget is not null;
+
+    /// <summary>The typed address as it will be dialled, port and all.</summary>
+    internal string AdHocAddress => AdHocTarget?.Address ?? string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Why a query with an <c>@</c> in it is not an address yet, or empty.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Said under the box rather than swallowed, because a query that looks like an address and produces no
+    /// row to connect to is otherwise a palette that silently ignored the one thing it was asked. It doubles
+    /// as the password step's own refusal line.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasAdHocRefusal))]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasNothingToOffer))]
+    private string adHocRefusal = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether there is a refusal to show under the box.</summary>
+    internal bool HasAdHocRefusal => AdHocRefusal.Length > 0;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether the highlight is on the typed address rather than on a saved host.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A flag beside <see cref="SelectedSearchResult"/> rather than a row in <see cref="SearchResults"/>,
+    /// because that list is the vault's own host rows and every reader of it — the ranking, the clicks, the
+    /// tests — is entitled to find a host in each. At most one of the two is ever set; see
+    /// <see cref="OnIsAdHocSelectedChanged"/> and <see cref="OnSelectedSearchResultChanged"/>.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private bool isAdHocSelected;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether the palette has moved on from the query to asking for the typed address's password.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>A typed password and nothing else</b>, which is the manual path's own rule and for its reason: a
+    /// key is the reason to save the machine as a host, and offering the keychain's keys here would be a
+    /// second binding resolution beside the one saved hosts already go through.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// A second step inside the palette rather than a dialog, so the whole thing stays on the keyboard:
+    /// type the address, Enter, type the password, Enter. Escape goes back to the query rather than closing,
+    /// because a mistyped address is the likeliest reason to want out of this step.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(IsAskingForSearchQuery))]
+    private bool isAskingForAdHocPassword;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether the palette is showing its query box and results, rather than the password step.</summary>
+    internal bool IsAskingForSearchQuery => !IsAskingForAdHocPassword;
+
+    /// <summary>The password typed for <see cref="AdHocTarget"/>.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Cleared whenever the palette closes or goes back to the query, on the same terms the connect prompt
+    /// clears its own: it is a secret nobody asked to keep, and the next address typed must not arrive with the
+    /// last one's password already in the box.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private string adHocPassword = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether the palette has nothing to offer at all — no host, no typed address and no reason why not.
+    /// </summary>
+    internal bool HasNothingToOffer => !HasSearchResults && !HasAdHocTarget && !HasAdHocRefusal;
+
     /// <summary>Opens the palette, or closes it if it is already open.</summary>
     [RelayCommand]
     private void ToggleSearch()
@@ -2504,11 +2888,174 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     private void CloseSearch()
     {
         IsSearching = false;
+        IsAskingForAdHocPassword = false;
+        AdHocPassword = string.Empty;
         SearchText = string.Empty;
         SearchResults.Clear();
         SelectedSearchResult = null;
+        IsAdHocSelected = false;
+        AdHocTarget = null;
+        AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
 
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasSearchResults));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasNothingToOffer));
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Moves the palette's highlight by one row, the typed address first when there is one.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Clamped rather than wrapped: a list that jumps from the last row to the first loses people. Here
+    /// rather than in the palette's code-behind because the typed address is a row that is not in
+    /// <see cref="SearchResults"/>, and which of the two highlights to set is the view model's to know.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal void MoveSearchSelection(int delta)
+    {
+        var offset = HasAdHocTarget ? 1 : 0;
+        var count = offset + SearchResults.Count;
+
+        if (count == 0 || IsAskingForAdHocPassword)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var current = IsAdHocSelected
+            ? 0
+            : SelectedSearchResult is { } selected
+                ? offset + SearchResults.IndexOf(selected)
+                : -1;
+
+        var next = Math.Clamp(current + delta, 0, count - 1);
+
+        if (offset == 1 && next == 0)
+        {
+            IsAdHocSelected = true;
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            SelectedSearchResult = SearchResults[next - offset];
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Takes the typed address, for a click on its row: the pointer's version of Enter.
+    /// </summary>
+    [RelayCommand]
+    private void ChooseAdHocTarget()
+    {
+        if (!HasAdHocTarget)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        IsAdHocSelected = true;
+        AskForAdHocPassword();
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Puts the palette back on its query, leaving what was typed there and dropping the password.
+    /// </summary>
+    [RelayCommand]
+    private void BackToSearchQuery()
+    {
+        IsAskingForAdHocPassword = false;
+        AdHocPassword = string.Empty;
+        AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Connects to the typed address with the typed password, saving neither.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Through <see cref="VaultViewModel.ConnectToEndpointAsync"/>, which is the connect prompt's own path,
+    /// so a machine reached from here gets the same tab, the same host-key question and the same
+    /// connection-log entry. What is written, if the user answers the host-key question, is a pin — the trust
+    /// decision belongs to the endpoint rather than to a keychain item, and a machine reached this way is
+    /// exactly the one whose key nobody has seen before.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The palette closes before the dial rather than after it, as it does for a saved host: the tab the
+    /// connection opens is where its progress and its failure are drawn, and a palette left up for the length
+    /// of a handshake would sit over the very card that reports it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Concurrent executions allowed, for the reason <c>VaultViewModel.ConnectAsync</c> gives: this command is
+    /// still running for as long as the handshake takes, and without the flag a second address typed into the
+    /// palette meanwhile would be refused as a silent no-op.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
+    private async Task ConnectToAdHocTargetAsync()
+    {
+        if (Vault is not { } vault || AdHocTarget is not { } endpoint)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (AdHocPassword.Length == 0)
+        {
+            AdHocRefusal = $"Type the password for {endpoint.Address}.";
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var password = AdHocPassword;
+
+        CloseSearch();
+
+        // No token, for the reason VaultViewModel.ConnectAsync gives at length: a connection is abandoned by
+        // closing its tab, not by anything here.
+        await vault.ConnectToEndpointAsync(endpoint, password, CancellationToken.None).ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Moves the palette on to asking for the typed address's password.</summary>
+    private void AskForAdHocPassword()
+    {
+        AdHocPassword = string.Empty;
+        AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
+        IsAskingForAdHocPassword = true;
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Reads the query as an address, if it has an <c>@</c> in it, and says why not if it cannot be one.
+    /// </summary>
+    private void RefreshAdHocTarget(string query)
+    {
+        if (!query.Contains('@', StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            AdHocTarget = null;
+            AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (VaultViewModel.TryParseManualTarget(query, out var endpoint, out var reason))
+        {
+            AdHocTarget = endpoint;
+            AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            AdHocTarget = null;
+            AdHocRefusal = reason;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>Clears the other half of the highlight, so at most one row is ever lit.</remarks>
+    partial void OnIsAdHocSelectedChanged(bool value)
+    {
+        if (value)
+        {
+            SelectedSearchResult = null;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc cref="OnIsAdHocSelectedChanged" />
+    partial void OnSelectedSearchResultChanged(HostRowViewModel? value)
+    {
+        if (value is not null)
+        {
+            IsAdHocSelected = false;
+        }
     }
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -2523,6 +3070,14 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
     [RelayCommand]
     private async Task ConnectToSearchResultAsync()
     {
+        // The typed address has no keychain item behind it, so nothing can be resolved for it: the password
+        // it needs has to be asked for first. See IsAskingForAdHocPassword.
+        if (IsAdHocSelected && HasAdHocTarget)
+        {
+            AskForAdHocPassword();
+            return;
+        }
+
         if (Vault is not { } vault || SelectedSearchResult is not { } row)
         {
             return;
@@ -2560,13 +3115,52 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         if (Vault is not { } vault)
         {
             SelectedSearchResult = null;
+            IsAdHocSelected = false;
+            AdHocTarget = null;
+            AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
             return;
         }
 
         var query = SearchText.Trim();
 
-        var matches = query.Length == 0
-            ? vault.Hosts.AsEnumerable()
+        foreach (var host in HostsMatching(vault, query).Take(8))
+        {
+            SearchResults.Add(host);
+        }
+
+        RefreshAdHocTarget(query);
+
+        // The typed address is highlighted when there is one, unless a saved host dials exactly that address:
+        // that host is the same machine with whatever the keychain knows about it — a key, a saved password —
+        // and Enter should reach it the way it was set up to be reached. The typed row is still one arrow
+        // away for somebody who wants the password prompt instead.
+        var saved = AdHocTarget is { } typed
+            ? SearchResults.FirstOrDefault(host =>
+                string.Equals(host.Address, typed.Address, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+            : null;
+
+        if (HasAdHocTarget && saved is null)
+        {
+            IsAdHocSelected = true;
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            IsAdHocSelected = false;
+            SelectedSearchResult = saved ?? SearchResults.FirstOrDefault();
+        }
+
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasSearchResults));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasNothingToOffer));
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>The vault's hosts that match what was typed, best first; every host for an empty query.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Shared by the palette and the empty terminal's prompt, so a name typed into either finds the same
+    /// machines in the same order.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static IEnumerable<HostRowViewModel> HostsMatching(VaultViewModel vault, string query) =>
+        query.Length == 0
+            ? vault.Hosts
             : vault.Hosts
                 .Select(host => (host, rank: Rank(host, query)))
                 .Where(candidate => candidate.rank < int.MaxValue)
@@ -2574,16 +3168,6 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
                 .ThenBy(candidate => candidate.host.Label, StringComparer.CurrentCulture)
                 .Select(candidate => candidate.host);
 
-        foreach (var host in matches.Take(8))
-        {
-            SearchResults.Add(host);
-        }
-
-        SelectedSearchResult = SearchResults.FirstOrDefault();
-
-        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(HasSearchResults));
-    }
-
     /// <summary>Where one host places against what was typed, or <see cref="int.MaxValue"/> for no match.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// <para>
@@ -5656,6 +6240,7 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsTerminalShowing));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsConnectingShowing));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsHostKeyDecisionShowing));
+        OnPropertyChanged(nameof(IsConnectPromptShowing));
 
         // ShowsQuickAccessSidebar and the session shell's own facts read IsTerminalSurface too, so anything
         // that moves the terminal state has to repaint them — otherwise the sidebar could stay drawn over a

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

@@ -4250,32 +4250,52 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(ShowsAddButton))]
     private bool isAskingForConnectPassword;
 
-    /// <summary>What was typed into the manual connect box, as <c>user@host</c> or <c>user@host:port</c>.</summary>
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The machine the hosts search box names, when what was typed into it reads as <c>user@host[:port]</c>.
+    /// </summary>
     /// <remarks>
-    /// One box rather than four, because this is the form of an address people already have: it is what a
-    /// colleague pastes into a chat window and what `ssh` itself takes. Splitting it into user, host and port
-    /// would make the ordinary case three taps between three keyboards on a phone.
+    /// <para>
+    /// <b>The phone's version of the desktop palette's typed-address row.</b> The connect prompt on the
+    /// terminal screen is the other way in, and it is only drawn while nothing is open — a second machine
+    /// reached while a first one's session is up had no box at all. The search well at the top of HOSTS is
+    /// always there, the design already calls it "Search or connect…", and <c>user@host</c> is what people
+    /// type into a box, so it reads the address rather than the screen growing a second field.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Read with <see cref="TryParseManualTarget"/>, the prompt's and the palette's parser too, and only for a
+    /// filter with an <c>@</c> in it: without one, everything typed is a search, and a card offering to dial
+    /// three letters would arrive on every keystroke.
+    /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     [ObservableProperty]
-    private string manualTarget = string.Empty;
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasFilterAddress))]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(FilterAddressText))]
+    private ManualEndpoint? filterAddress;
 
-    /// <inheritdoc cref="ConnectPassword" />
-    /// <remarks>
-    /// Its own box rather than <see cref="ConnectPassword"/>, for the reason <c>TryBuildConnectionRequest</c>
-    /// takes the typed password as a parameter: these are different screens, and a password typed on one is
-    /// not a password offered on the other.
-    /// </remarks>
-    [ObservableProperty]
-    private string manualPassword = string.Empty;
+    /// <summary>Whether the search box holds an address that can be connected to.</summary>
+    internal bool HasFilterAddress => FilterAddress is not null;
 
-    /// <summary>Why the manual box refused, if it did.</summary>
+    /// <summary>The typed address as it will be dialled, port and all.</summary>
+    internal string FilterAddressText => FilterAddress?.Address ?? string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Why a search with an <c>@</c> in it is not an address, or why its CONNECT was refused; empty otherwise.
+    /// </summary>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    [NotifyPropertyChangedFor(nameof(HasFilterAddressRefusal))]
+    private string filterAddressRefusal = string.Empty;
+
+    /// <summary>Whether there is a refusal to show under the search box.</summary>
+    internal bool HasFilterAddressRefusal => FilterAddressRefusal.Length > 0;
+
+    /// <summary>The password typed for <see cref="FilterAddress"/>.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
-    /// Beside that box rather than only on <see cref="Status"/>. The refusals here are about what was typed
-    /// — a missing account, a port that is not a number — and a sentence about a text box belongs next to
-    /// the text box, not on a status line that also carries what the sync engine is doing.
+    /// Its own box rather than <see cref="ConnectPassword"/>: these are different screens, and a password
+    /// typed on one is not a password offered on the other. Cleared when the address changes, so the next
+    /// machine typed never arrives with the last one's password already in the box.
     /// </remarks>
     [ObservableProperty]
-    private string manualStatus = string.Empty;
+    private string filterAddressPassword = string.Empty;
 
     /// <summary>
     /// The attempt an unanswered host-key question belongs to, so that trusting the key can replay it.
@@ -4329,9 +4349,21 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
     internal bool SelectedHostAsksForAPassword =>
-        SelectedHost is null
-        || (!SelectedHost.Host.SignsInThroughSpelunk
-            && SelectedHost.Resolved.Binding.Kind is ResolvedBindingKind.TypedPassword);
+        SelectedHost is null || AsksForAPassword(SelectedHost);
+
+    /// <summary>Whether connecting to this host needs a password typed for it.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The per-row half of <see cref="SelectedHostAsksForAPassword"/>, and the same reading for the same
+    /// reasons: the resolved binding rather than the host's own ids, and never for a host Spelunk signs in to.
+    /// The desktop's terminal prompt asks it of a host named there, which is not the selected one.
+    /// </remarks>
+    internal static bool AsksForAPassword(HostRowViewModel row)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(row);
+
+        return !row.Host.SignsInThroughSpelunk
+            && row.Resolved.Binding.Kind is ResolvedBindingKind.TypedPassword;
+    }
 
     /// <summary>
     /// What the terminal column says in place of the password box, or nothing when the box is showing.
@@ -7756,40 +7788,6 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         IsHostPaneOpen = true;
     }
 
-    /// <summary>
-    /// Raises whatever the head in front of the user uses to ask about one host.
-    /// </summary>
-    /// <param name="row">The machine, which the caller is holding.</param>
-    /// <remarks>
-    /// <para>
-    /// ◆ <b>One command, two pieces of furniture, and it exists because the phone's has changed.</b> The
-    /// desktop's answer is the drawer beside the grid and the phone's used to be the connect bar — one flag
-    /// served both. The bar is gone: the phone's answer is now a tick and the action bar across the top, and
-    /// that is a different piece of state, so a caller that only opened the pane would leave this head
-    /// arriving at a list with nothing on it to press.
-    /// </para>
-    /// <para>
-    /// Both are set rather than branching on which head is running, because neither view model knows and
-    /// neither should have to. The one the head does not draw is inert: the desktop draws no ticks, and the
-    /// phone has no drawer.
-    /// </para>
-    /// <para>
-    /// The one caller is <c>MainWindowViewModel.ConnectToRecent</c>, and what it is doing is the deliberate
-    /// act both flags exist to tell apart from browsing.
-    /// </para>
-    /// </remarks>
-    [RelayCommand]
-    private void AskAboutHost(HostRowViewModel? row)
-    {
-        if (row is null)
-        {
-            return;
-        }
-
-        OpenHostPane(row);
-        ChooseHost(row);
-    }
-
     /// <summary>
     /// Puts the drawer away, whichever of the three panels is in it.
     /// </summary>
@@ -11404,11 +11402,41 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
             return;
         }
 
+        await ConnectToHostAsync(row, ConnectPassword, mayRememberPassword: true, cancellationToken)
+            .ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens a terminal on a keychain host, with a password typed for it if it needs one.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The body of <see cref="ConnectToSelectedHostAsync"/>, taking the host and the password as arguments so
+    /// the desktop's terminal prompt can name a host without selecting it and type a password without writing
+    /// it into <see cref="ConnectPassword"/> — which is the drawer's box, and would carry a remember-this
+    /// choice the prompt never offered. Every refusal is still made here, once.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The password is ignored for a host whose binding supplies its own credential, as the drawer's box is.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    /// <param name="row">The host to connect to.</param>
+    /// <param name="password">The password typed for it, or empty.</param>
+    /// <param name="mayRememberPassword">See <see cref="ConnectionTarget.MayRememberPassword"/>.</param>
+    /// <param name="cancellationToken">Whatever the caller's own lifetime is.</param>
+    internal async Task ConnectToHostAsync(
+        HostRowViewModel row,
+        string password,
+        bool mayRememberPassword,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(row);
+
         // Refused rather than quietly falling back to the password box. A host set up for key-only access
         // that silently starts offering a password is the failure worth ruling out — the user asked for one
         // thing and got another, and the host is the last place that would say so.
         if (!TryBuildAuthentication(
-            row.Host, row.Resolved, ConnectPassword, out var authentication, out var refusal))
+            row.Host, row.Resolved, password, out var authentication, out var refusal))
         {
             Status = refusal;
             return;
@@ -11421,13 +11449,89 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         IsAskingForConnectPassword = false;
 
         await ConnectToAsync(
-            new ConnectionTarget(row.Label, row.Host.Hostname, row.Resolved.Port.Value, row),
+            new ConnectionTarget(
+                row.Label,
+                row.Host.Hostname,
+                row.Resolved.Port.Value,
+                row,
+                mayRememberPassword),
             authentication,
             cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
     }
 
     /// <summary>
-    /// Opens a terminal on somewhere that is not in the keychain.
+    /// Connects to the address typed into the hosts search box, with the password typed under it.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Through <see cref="ConnectToEndpointAsync"/>, so the tab, the host-key question and the connection-log
+    /// entry are the ones the connect prompt and the desktop palette produce, and nothing is written to the
+    /// keychain.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The search box and the password are cleared before the dial, from copies taken first. The list left
+    /// filtered to an address would be a list of nothing to come back to, and the password is a secret nobody
+    /// asked to keep.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// It takes no cancellation token and allows concurrent executions, for the two reasons
+    /// <see cref="ConnectAsync"/> carries.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
+    private async Task ConnectToFilterAddressAsync()
+    {
+        if (FilterAddress is not { } endpoint)
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (FilterAddressPassword.Length == 0)
+        {
+            FilterAddressRefusal = $"Type the password for {endpoint.Address}.";
+            return;
+        }
+
+        var password = FilterAddressPassword;
+
+        // In this order: clearing the filter clears the address and the password with it — see
+        // OnHostFilterChanged — and the endpoint and password above are what is dialled.
+        HostFilter = string.Empty;
+
+        await ConnectToEndpointAsync(endpoint, password, CancellationToken.None).ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>Reads the hosts search box as an address, if it has an <c>@</c> in it.</summary>
+    private void RefreshFilterAddress(string filter)
+    {
+        var previous = FilterAddress;
+        var trimmed = filter.Trim();
+
+        if (!trimmed.Contains('@', StringComparison.Ordinal))
+        {
+            FilterAddress = null;
+            FilterAddressRefusal = string.Empty;
+        }
+        else if (TryParseManualTarget(trimmed, out var endpoint, out var reason))
+        {
+            FilterAddress = endpoint;
+            FilterAddressRefusal = string.Empty;
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            FilterAddress = null;
+            FilterAddressRefusal = reason;
+        }
+
+        // A different machine, or none, is a different question: the password typed for the last one goes.
+        if (FilterAddress != previous)
+        {
+            FilterAddressPassword = string.Empty;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens a terminal on a typed address with a typed password, saving neither.
     /// </summary>
     /// <remarks>
     /// <para>
@@ -11448,31 +11552,20 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// a machine reached this way is exactly the one whose key nobody has seen before.
     /// </para>
     /// <para>
-    /// It takes no cancellation token and allows concurrent executions, for the two reasons
-    /// <see cref="ConnectAsync"/> carries.
+    /// Every box an address is typed into — the connect prompt, the desktop's palette, the phone's hosts
+    /// search — parses it with <see cref="TryParseManualTarget"/> and hands over what it read. The caller has
+    /// already refused an unreadable address and an empty password, which is why neither is checked again:
+    /// both refusals are sentences about a box, and only the caller knows which box.
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
-    [RelayCommand(AllowConcurrentExecutions = true)]
-    private Task ConnectManuallyAsync() => ConnectManuallyAsync(CancellationToken.None);
-
-    /// <inheritdoc cref="ConnectManuallyAsync()" />
-    private async Task ConnectManuallyAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    internal Task ConnectToEndpointAsync(
+        ManualEndpoint endpoint,
+        string password,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        if (!TryParseManualTarget(ManualTarget, out var endpoint, out var refusal))
-        {
-            ManualStatus = refusal;
-            return;
-        }
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(endpoint);
 
-        if (ManualPassword.Length == 0)
-        {
-            ManualStatus = "A password is needed. Save this machine as a host to reach it with a key.";
-            return;
-        }
-
-        ManualStatus = string.Empty;
-
-        await ConnectToAsync(
+        return ConnectToAsync(
             // Labelled by what was typed rather than by the hostname alone. Two accounts on one box are two
             // different connections, and a strip showing the same name twice would be the tab equivalent of
             // the log entry this also names.
@@ -11480,8 +11573,8 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
                 $"{endpoint.Username}@{endpoint.Hostname}",
                 endpoint.Hostname,
                 endpoint.Port),
-            new HostAuthentication(endpoint.Username, new SshPasswordCredential(ManualPassword)),
-            cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
+            new HostAuthentication(endpoint.Username, new SshPasswordCredential(password)),
+            cancellationToken);
     }
 
     /// <summary>
@@ -11506,7 +11599,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// would make this the only field in the product with its own address grammar.
     /// </para>
     /// </remarks>
-    private static bool TryParseManualTarget(
+    internal static bool TryParseManualTarget(
         string typed,
         [NotNullWhen(true)] out ManualEndpoint? endpoint,
         [NotNullWhen(false)] out string? reason)
@@ -11665,7 +11758,16 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// credential rather than from the host — so a username on the shared record would be a field that is
     /// null for every connection but this one.
     /// </remarks>
-    private sealed record ManualEndpoint(string Username, string Hostname, int Port);
+    internal sealed record ManualEndpoint(string Username, string Hostname, int Port)
+    {
+        /// <summary>The address as it will be dialled, in the grammar it was typed in.</summary>
+        /// <remarks>
+        /// The same shape as <see cref="HostRowViewModel.Address"/> and the connection log's own entries, so
+        /// the palette can compare what was typed against a saved host's address with a plain string match.
+        /// </remarks>
+        public string Address =>
+            string.Create(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, $"{Username}@{Hostname}:{Port}");
+    }
 
     /// <summary>Everything both connect paths share, from the tab appearing to the session opening.</summary>
     /// <remarks>
@@ -12167,10 +12269,10 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         // Last, and after the tab exists: keeping the password is a favour, and the session the user asked
         // for must not wait on a vault write to appear.
         //
-        // Only for a target that came from a keychain host. A machine typed into the manual box has nothing
+        // Only for a target that came from a keychain host. A machine typed in as an address has nothing
         // to bind a credential to and nothing to bind it *on* — that path saves nothing by design, and the
         // screen it is typed on says so.
-        if (target.Row is { } row)
+        if (target is { Row: { } row, MayRememberPassword: true })
         {
             await RememberTypedPasswordAsync(row, authentication, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
         }
@@ -12457,6 +12559,12 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// <param name="Row">
     /// The keychain host this came from, or null for a machine that is not in the keychain.
     /// </param>
+    /// <param name="MayRememberPassword">
+    /// Whether <see cref="RemembersConnectPassword"/> applies to this attempt. That tick belongs to the
+    /// drawer's password box, so only an attempt whose password came out of that box may act on it — a
+    /// password typed into the desktop's terminal prompt, which offers no such choice, must not be saved
+    /// because the tick happened to be left on in a drawer that is not even open.
+    /// </param>
     /// <remarks>
     /// <para>
     /// This exists so the connect path stops being shaped like <see cref="HostRowViewModel"/>. Everything
@@ -12477,7 +12585,8 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         string Label,
         string Hostname,
         int Port,
-        HostRowViewModel? Row = null)
+        HostRowViewModel? Row = null,
+        bool MayRememberPassword = true)
     {
         /// <summary>The keychain item, or null for a machine that is not in it.</summary>
         internal Guid? HostId => Row?.EntityId;
@@ -12487,7 +12596,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
         /// </summary>
         /// <remarks>
         /// 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.
+        /// reached with a key the item names, and a machine typed in as an address has neither.
         /// </remarks>
         internal bool Routed => Row?.Host is { } host && (host.RelayEnabled || host.Spelunk is not null);
     }
@@ -13462,6 +13571,7 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
     /// </remarks>
     partial void OnHostFilterChanged(string value)
     {
+        RefreshFilterAddress(value);
         RebuildVisibleHosts();
         RebuildHostSections();
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(NoHostBoardMessage));

src/DodoSSH.Client.Ssh/SshNetConnectionFactory.cs

@@ -139,20 +139,41 @@ public sealed class SshNetConnectionFactory(IKnownHostStore knownHosts)
         IAsyncDisposable? lifetime,
         CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
+        var info = BuildConnectionInfo(request);
+
         // Keep-alive here for the reason it is on the shell client: a transfer connection left open while
         // somebody browses is idle in exactly the same way, and a file listing against a machine that has
         // since rebooted would otherwise wait on a socket nothing will ever answer.
-        var client = new SftpClient(BuildConnectionInfo(request))
+        //
+        // ◆ The operation timeout is the connect timeout for the handshake, and nothing afterwards. SSH.NET's
+        // default is to wait for ever, and its ConnectAsync runs the SFTP handshake — the version exchange
+        // and the home directory lookup — synchronously after the login, where the cancellation token is not
+        // read. A host whose login prints anything into the channel (an echo in .bashrc is the classic) sends
+        // text SSH.NET reads as the length of a packet a gigabyte long, and the file browser then said
+        // "Connecting…" for ever. Reset once connected, so a slow write on a slow link is not cut off.
+        var client = new SftpClient(info)
         {
             BufferSize = SftpBufferSize,
             KeepAliveInterval = KeepAliveInterval,
+            OperationTimeout = info.Timeout,
         };
 
         // No progress for the file-transfer path. The screen that waits on one is the file browser, which
         // reports itself, and a second connection opened behind an already-open shell has nothing the user
         // is watching a step list for.
-        var gate = await ConnectThroughHostKeyGateAsync(client, request, progress: null, cancellationToken)
-            .ConfigureAwait(false);
+        HostKeyGate gate;
+
+        try
+        {
+            gate = await ConnectThroughHostKeyGateAsync(client, request, progress: null, cancellationToken)
+                .ConfigureAwait(false);
+        }
+        catch (SshOperationTimeoutException exception) when (info.IsAuthenticated)
+        {
+            throw SftpHandshakeTimedOut(request, info, exception);
+        }
+
+        client.OperationTimeout = Timeout.InfiniteTimeSpan;
 
         // Read once, here, rather than per call. SftpClient.WorkingDirectory canonicalises against the server
         // on first read, so leaving it to the property would put a round trip behind something that reads
@@ -172,6 +193,24 @@ public sealed class SshNetConnectionFactory(IKnownHostStore knownHosts)
         return new SshNetSftpSession(client, gate.Presented!, home, lifetime);
     }
 
+    /// <summary>Says what a timeout after the login means for a file-transfer connection.</summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Only after the login: a timeout before it is the network's or the server's, and SSH.NET's own words
+    /// for it are left alone. One after it is the SFTP handshake's — the host let this account in and then
+    /// never answered as a file server — and SSH.NET's "Operation has timed out" would send somebody looking
+    /// at the network for what is nearly always a line of text in a login script on the host.
+    /// </remarks>
+    private static TimeoutException SftpHandshakeTimedOut(
+        SshConnectionRequest request,
+        ConnectionInfo info,
+        SshOperationTimeoutException exception) =>
+        new(
+            $"{request.Host} accepted the login, but its SFTP service did not answer within "
+            + $"{info.Timeout.TotalSeconds:0} seconds. This is usually a login script on the host that "
+            + "prints text (an echo in .bashrc, say): SFTP needs the remote shell to stay silent when "
+            + "it is not interactive.",
+            exception);
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Runs the handshake with host key trust attached, and translates a refusal this factory caused.
     /// </summary>