Disconnect and reconnect
Connections drop: a laptop sleeps, a network changes, a server reboots. ShellCanvas is built so that losing one costs you the connection, not your work.
Prerequisites
A workspace with a host connection. Everything here applies whether the disconnection was deliberate or not.
Steps
Notice the loss
ShellCanvas checks the connection every few seconds and tells you when it goes: connection closed. Unsaved work remains available in this workspace.
A server that closes the connection properly is noticed immediately. A machine that vanishes silently — unplugged, suspended, network dropped — takes about a minute, because ShellCanvas waits for three keepalives twenty seconds apart before declaring it dead.
See what is still there
| Window | State after a disconnection |
|---|---|
| Files | Its last listing, marked Cached listing · file access unavailable |
| Editor | Your draft, intact, with a note that the connection closed |
| Terminal | The shell's output, with Connection closed · reconnect the host to open a new shell |
| Host details | The last values it read, with remote settings read-only |
Nothing is discarded, and the workspace stays in the switcher.
Reconnect
Choose Reconnect host from the heading or the desktop menu. The dialog reads Pick up where you left off. and keeps the host, port and user name fixed — reconnecting returns to the same machine, so you re-enter only your key passphrase or password.
After reconnecting:
- Windows, folders and drafts are exactly where they were.
- Files re-reads its folder.
- Terminals open fresh shells. A program you left running keeps running on the server, but it is no longer attached to your window.
- Any host key must match the one you trusted; a changed key is refused rather than re-prompted.
Disconnect on purpose
Disconnect at the bottom right releases the connection and keeps everything else, which is the graceful way to pause work. Close workspace discards the workspace after warning about unsaved work.
Both wait for busy windows: a running transfer, an open dialog or a save in flight blocks them until it finishes.
Cancel an attempt
Cancel connection stops a connection that is taking too long, and ShellCanvas confirms with Connection canceled. You can try again. A connection that completes after you cancelled is disconnected rather than adopted.
Expected result
A dropped connection is an interruption, not a loss. Reconnect, and the desktop is as you left it, except that shells are new.
Limitations
- No automatic reconnection. ShellCanvas never retries by itself, and never silently reconnects to something that might not be the same machine.
- A silently unreachable host takes about a minute to be recognised.
- Shells do not resume. Use
tmuxorscreenon the server for anything long-running. - State lives in memory. Quitting, or a crash, discards windows and unsaved drafts; there is no crash recovery yet.
- Detach local drives first. A workspace with an attached drive refuses to disconnect until it is detached.
- Teardown is bounded. If a server stops answering during disconnection, ShellCanvas gives up after fifteen seconds and reports that remote cleanup is unconfirmed.
Related guides
- Workspaces and profiles — disconnect versus close.
- Connection and host-key problems — when reconnecting fails.
- Terminal sessions — why shells restart.
- Edit and save remote files — what happens to a draft.