Pairing your phone

Pairing bonds a phone to a Mac. It’s a one-time, QR-based exchange with no accounts and no key server — the encryption keys are derived directly between your two devices.

Steps

1. Click the TermBridge icon in your Mac’s menu bar. The popover shows a QR code.
2. Open TermBridge on your phone and tap Scan.
3. Point the camera at the QR. The two devices perform a key exchange.
4. A fingerprint appears on both screens. Confirm they match, then approve on your Mac.

That’s it — your phone and Mac are now bonded. Your live shells appear on the phone immediately.

What pairing actually does

The QR carries the information your phone needs to derive a shared secret with your Mac. From that point on:

• Both devices hold the derived key locally. It never leaves either device.
• The relay learns only an opaque room identifier — never the key.
• The fingerprint you confirm is an HMAC over both devices’ ephemeral keys. If a malicious relay tried to sit in the middle, the fingerprints wouldn’t match and you’d abort.

There’s no password to type and nothing to store on a server, which means there’s nothing central to breach. See Security model for the full picture.

Pairing more than one device

You can pair an iPhone and an iPad to the same Mac at once — each device derives its own key, and neither evicts the other. (On the Free plan, pairing is limited; see Plans & limits.)

Re-pairing

If you ever need to start over — new phone, reset, or you just want to revoke a device — generate a fresh QR from the menu-bar popover and scan again. The old bond stops working.

Next

Paired? Learn how to attach to a terminal.