Quick connect: type user@host into Ctrl+K to open a terminal on a machine without saving it

The desktop had no way to reach a machine that was not in the keychain; the phone has had a manual
box on its terminal screen all along. The palette's query now reads as an address when it has an @
in it: a "not saved" row offers to dial it, Enter asks for the password in place, and a second Enter
connects. Escape on the password step goes back to the address.

It goes through the phone's own path, now split out as VaultViewModel.ConnectToEndpointAsync, so the
tab, the host-key question and the connection-log entry are the same on both heads and nothing is
written to the keychain. Password only, as on the phone: a key is the reason to save the host.

The typed row takes the highlight unless a saved host dials exactly that address, so typing a new
address cannot land on a saved machine whose address merely starts the same way.

Covered by eleven new QuickConnectTests; manual check 7.10a covers the real dial.

docs/design-import-gaps.md

@@ -510,7 +510,7 @@ field cannot be removed and stays as a permanently refused member; `SyncEndpoint
 | Org chip `dodotech / platform` | contracts + server | An *organisation* above teams, which does not exist — `VaultSummary.TeamId` is no longer always null since M3, but a team is not an org and there is exactly one tenant per deployment. | The vault's own name, and the account this machine is enrolled as. Team names are on the VAULTS screen, where they are about something. |
 | `SYNCED` dot, always green | client-app | Nothing — the design's claim is simply unconditional. | Green **only** when a connection is held, the last sync pass actually reached the server, and the outbox is empty; otherwise `UNREACHABLE`, the count of changes still waiting, or `OFFLINE`. Holding an `IVaultServer` proves a sign-in once succeeded and nothing more, so a laptop whose lid has been shut all afternoon still has one — reachability comes from the outcome of the last pass. A permanently green light is the same as no light. |
 | `VAULT SYNCED 11:02` | client-session | `StoredSyncState.LastPulledAt`/`LastPushedAt` are persisted, but `VaultSession` exposes the store as `internal`. A property away. | Omitted. The one honest sync fact — the outbox depth — is in the titlebar and the status bar. |
-| `⌘K` command palette running commands | client-domain | A snippet or saved-command item type (`SyncEntityType.Snippet = 8` is reserved). | Ctrl+K opens a real host search that connects on Enter. The box says "search hosts", not "search hosts · run command". |
+| `⌘K` command palette running commands | client-domain | A snippet or saved-command item type (`SyncEntityType.Snippet = 8` is reserved). | Ctrl+K opens a real host search that connects on Enter, and reads a typed `user@host[:port]` as a machine to connect to with a password, without saving it. The box says "search hosts, or type user@host", not "search hosts · run command". |
 | Status bar `· via bastion-eu` | client-ssh | Jump-host execution. See below. | Omitted. |
 | Status bar port forwards | client-ssh | — | **Shipped** on the session status bar as a count of listening forwards; the ports themselves are in the session sidebar. |
 | Status bar `sftp · 2 transfers` | client-app | Nothing now — file transfer is built. What is missing is the count reaching the status bar, which is a screen away from where the queue lives. | Omitted from the status bar. The queue itself is on the FILES screen, with a row per transfer. |

docs/manual-checks.md

@@ -1388,6 +1388,22 @@ Ctrl+K, then click a result with the mouse rather than pressing Enter.
 
 **Pass:** the palette closes and the connection starts.
 
+### 7.10a Connecting to a machine that is not saved
+
+Ctrl+K, type `user@host` for a reachable machine that is **not** on HOSTS, press Enter, type its password and
+press Enter again. Do it once against a machine whose host key this vault has never seen.
+
+**Pass:** the palette asks for the password in place, with the caret already in the box. On the second Enter
+it closes, a tab named `user@host` opens, and the fingerprint card asks about the key; approving it connects.
+Afterwards HOSTS has nothing new on it, and the connection log has an entry for `user@host:22`. Escape from
+the password box goes back to the address with what was typed still in it.
+
+**Failure means:** a new row on HOSTS is the palette saving what it promised not to. A tab that fails with
+"authentication failed" for a password known to be right is worth comparing against the phone's CONNECT TO A
+MACHINE box, which takes the same path — `VaultViewModel.ConnectToEndpointAsync` — so a difference between
+the two is in how the palette hands the password over, not in the connection. The headless half of this is
+`QuickConnectTests`; what it cannot do is dial.
+
 ### 7.11 A host or a bucket made now can be picked on FILES now
 
 With the files screen's picker open on an empty or short list, go to HOSTS and add a host — or to KEYS and

src/DodoSSH.Client.App/App.axaml

@@ -1342,6 +1342,19 @@
     <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/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
@@ -35,6 +36,8 @@
             BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="14">
       <StackPanel>
 
+        <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
@@ -46,12 +49,44 @@
               <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"
+                       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.
@@ -114,9 +149,13 @@
             </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."
-                   IsVisible="{Binding !HasSearchResults}" />
+                     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}"
@@ -124,6 +163,46 @@
           </Border>
 
         </StackPanel>
+
+        <!--
+          ============ the typed address's password ============
+
+          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.ConnectManuallyAsync for why a typed password is the only way in.
+        -->
+        <StackPanel x:Name="PasswordStep" IsVisible="{Binding IsAskingForAdHocPassword}">
+
+          <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>
+
+          <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" Foreground="{StaticResource WarnText}"
+                       Text="{Binding AdHocRefusal}" IsVisible="{Binding HasAdHocRefusal}" />
+
+            <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>
   </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);
         }
 
+        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.Shell/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs

@@ -2471,6 +2471,102 @@ 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 phone has had a manual box on its terminal screen all along. 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 phone's box's own parser, so
+    /// the two heads accept exactly the same addresses and refuse 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 phone's manual box
+    /// 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()
@@ -2496,11 +2592,174 @@ 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 phone's manual box'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>
@@ -2515,6 +2774,14 @@ 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;
@@ -2552,6 +2819,9 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
         if (Vault is not { } vault)
         {
             SelectedSearchResult = null;
+            IsAdHocSelected = false;
+            AdHocTarget = null;
+            AdHocRefusal = string.Empty;
             return;
         }
 
@@ -2571,9 +2841,29 @@ internal sealed partial class MainWindowViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDisp
             SearchResults.Add(host);
         }
 
-        SelectedSearchResult = SearchResults.FirstOrDefault();
+        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>Where one host places against what was typed, or <see cref="int.MaxValue"/> for no match.</summary>

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

@@ -11480,7 +11480,32 @@ internal sealed partial class VaultViewModel(
 
         ManualStatus = string.Empty;
 
-        await ConnectToAsync(
+        await ConnectToEndpointAsync(endpoint, ManualPassword, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(true);
+    }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Opens a terminal on a typed address with a typed password, saving neither.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The second half of <see cref="ConnectManuallyAsync(CancellationToken)"/>, split out for the desktop's
+    /// quick-connect palette. That head has no manual box for <see cref="ManualTarget"/> to be typed into —
+    /// the palette's own query is the box — so it parses with <see cref="TryParseManualTarget"/> and hands
+    /// over what it read rather than writing into the phone's fields to have them read back here.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// 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>
+    internal Task ConnectToEndpointAsync(
+        ManualEndpoint endpoint,
+        string password,
+        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(endpoint);
+
+        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.
@@ -11488,8 +11513,8 @@ 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>
@@ -11514,7 +11539,7 @@ 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)
@@ -11673,7 +11698,16 @@ 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>

tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/QuickConnectTests.cs

@@ -321,6 +321,263 @@ public sealed class QuickConnectTests : IAsyncLifetime
             Token);
     }
 
+    // ---- A machine that is not saved ----
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The palette's answer to an address somebody has just been given: the query reads as one, a row offers
+    /// to dial it, and that row is the one Enter takes — nothing saved answers an address nobody has saved.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TypingAnAddressOffersToConnectWithoutSavingIt()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5:2222";
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            shell.HasAdHocTarget.ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeTrue("the typed address is what the query is plainly about");
+            shell.SelectedSearchResult.ShouldBeNull("exactly one row is lit");
+
+            palette.AdHocTargetRow.IsEffectivelyVisible.ShouldBeTrue();
+            VisibleTexts(palette.AdHocTargetRow).ShouldContain("root@10.0.0.5:2222", StringComparer.Ordinal);
+            VisibleTexts(palette.AdHocTargetRow).ShouldContain("not saved", StringComparer.Ordinal);
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The default port is printed rather than implied, because it is what will be dialled — and it is what
+    /// makes the row comparable with a saved host's address, which always carries one.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnAddressWithNoPortIsOfferedOnTwentyTwo()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((_, _) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "root@box";
+
+            shell.AdHocAddress.ShouldBe("root@box:22");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A query with no <c>@</c> is a search and nothing else, so a name that matches no host offers no row to
+    /// dial — but it does say what the box would take instead, because a name that matches nothing is often a
+    /// machine that was never saved.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ANameThatMatchesNothingSaysHowToReachAnUnsavedMachine()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "nothing-is-called-this";
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            shell.HasAdHocTarget.ShouldBeFalse();
+            palette.AdHocTargetRow.IsEffectivelyVisible.ShouldBeFalse();
+            VisibleTexts(palette).ShouldContain(
+                text => text.Contains("user@host", StringComparison.Ordinal),
+                "the hint names the other thing the box takes");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// A query that looks like an address and cannot be one says why under the box, rather than producing no
+    /// row and no reason — which would read as a palette that ignored the one thing it was asked.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnAddressThatCannotBeReadSaysWhy()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "root@box:99999";
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            shell.HasAdHocTarget.ShouldBeFalse();
+            VisibleTexts(palette).ShouldContain(
+                text => text.Contains("port", StringComparison.Ordinal),
+                "the refusal is the manual parser's own sentence");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The password is asked for in the palette itself, and the caret goes with the question: typing an
+    /// address and pressing Enter has to leave somebody typing a password, not hunting for the box.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task EnterOnTheAddressAsksForItsPasswordInThePalette()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            palette.QueryBox.Focus().ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            shell.IsSearching.ShouldBeTrue("nothing has been dialled yet");
+            shell.IsAskingForAdHocPassword.ShouldBeTrue();
+            palette.PasswordBox.IsEffectivelyVisible.ShouldBeTrue();
+            palette.QueryBox.IsEffectivelyVisible.ShouldBeFalse();
+            palette.PasswordBox.IsFocused.ShouldBeTrue("the caret follows the question");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Escape from the password goes back to the address with what was typed intact, because a mistyped
+    /// address is the likeliest reason to want out — and drops the password, which is a secret nobody asked
+    /// to keep.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task EscapeFromThePasswordGoesBackToTheAddress()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            palette.QueryBox.Focus().ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            Relayout(window);
+            shell.AdHocPassword = "hunter2";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Escape, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            shell.IsSearching.ShouldBeTrue("Escape here steps back rather than closing");
+            shell.IsAskingForAdHocPassword.ShouldBeFalse();
+            shell.SearchText.ShouldBe("root@10.0.0.5");
+            shell.AdHocPassword.ShouldBeEmpty();
+            palette.QueryBox.IsFocused.ShouldBeTrue("the caret goes back to the address");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Enter with no password typed is refused in the palette rather than dialled: an SSH server asked for a
+    /// password with an empty one answers "authentication failed", which is a sentence about the machine
+    /// when the problem is the box.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnEmptyPasswordIsRefusedRatherThanDialled()
+    {
+        var started = new List<ConnectionAttemptEventArgs>();
+        vault.ConnectionStarting += (_, attempt) => started.Add(attempt);
+
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            palette.QueryBox.Focus().ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            Relayout(window);
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+
+            shell.IsSearching.ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.HasAdHocRefusal.ShouldBeTrue();
+            started.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The whole path: an address, a password, and a tab for that address — with nothing added to the
+    /// keychain. The dial itself fails in this suite, as every connect here does, and inside the vault's own
+    /// handling; what the palette promises is the attempt and the closing.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ThePasswordConnectsToTheAddressAndSavesNothing()
+    {
+        var started = new List<ConnectionAttemptEventArgs>();
+        vault.ConnectionStarting += (_, attempt) => started.Add(attempt);
+        var hostsBefore = vault.Hosts.Count;
+
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            palette.QueryBox.Focus().ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5:2222";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            Relayout(window);
+            shell.AdHocPassword = "hunter2";
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.Enter, RawInputModifiers.None);
+
+            shell.IsSearching.ShouldBeFalse("connecting closes the palette, as it does for a saved host");
+            shell.AdHocPassword.ShouldBeEmpty("the password does not outlive the palette");
+
+            var attempt = started.ShouldHaveSingleItem();
+            attempt.Address.ShouldBe("root@10.0.0.5:2222");
+            attempt.HostId.ShouldBeNull("nothing in the keychain stands behind this tab");
+        });
+
+        vault.Hosts.Count.ShouldBe(hostsBefore, "connecting without saving saves nothing");
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The one time the typed address does not take the highlight: a saved host dials exactly that address,
+    /// so it is the same machine with whatever the keychain knows about it, and Enter should reach it the way
+    /// it was set up to be reached. The typed row is still offered, one arrow away.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task AnAddressASavedHostDialsHighlightsThatHost()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((_, _) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "deploy@host-3.internal";
+
+            shell.HasAdHocTarget.ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeFalse();
+            shell.SelectedSearchResult.ShouldNotBeNull().Label.ShouldBe("host-3");
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The typed row sits above the list and the arrows treat it as the list's first row, clamped as the rest
+    /// are — and the caret stays in the box throughout, for the reason the plain arrows test gives.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheArrowsMoveBetweenTheAddressAndTheSavedHosts()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            palette.QueryBox.Focus().ShouldBeTrue();
+
+            // Every seeded host's address starts with this, and none of them is exactly it.
+            shell.SearchText = "deploy@host";
+            shell.SearchResults.Count.ShouldBeGreaterThan(1, "an empty list would prove nothing");
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeTrue();
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.ArrowDown, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeFalse();
+            shell.SelectedSearchResult.ShouldBe(shell.SearchResults[0]);
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.ArrowUp, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.SelectedSearchResult.ShouldBeNull();
+
+            window.KeyPressQwerty(PhysicalKey.ArrowUp, RawInputModifiers.None);
+            shell.IsAdHocSelected.ShouldBeTrue("clamped rather than wrapped");
+
+            palette.QueryBox.IsFocused.ShouldBeTrue();
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>The pointer's version of Enter on the typed row: straight to its password.</remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task ClickingTheAddressAsksForItsPassword()
+    {
+        await OnThePaletteAsync((palette, window) =>
+        {
+            shell.SearchText = "root@10.0.0.5";
+            Relayout(window);
+
+            var row = palette.AdHocTargetRow;
+            window.MouseDown(Centre(row, window), MouseButton.Left);
+            window.MouseUp(Centre(row, window), MouseButton.Left);
+
+            shell.IsAskingForAdHocPassword.ShouldBeTrue();
+            shell.IsSearching.ShouldBeTrue();
+        });
+    }
+
     // ---- Helpers ----
 
     /// <summary>Opens the palette in a window the size the application's is, and runs one body against it.</summary>