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You can access your Zo Computer using our built-in ways to interact with Zo, but sometimes it’s useful to connect to your Zo server directly. This guide will walk you through connecting to your Zo server over SSH. One powerful use case SSH enables is using your Zo as a remote development environment, allowing you to use Zo from your favorite IDE running on your computer.
Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is like a secure phone line to another computer.The secure connection is established using a pair of keys: a public key (which can be shared with others), and a private key (which is kept secret). Only computers with a known public key registered on your Zo server will be allowed to connect.
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is an application that programmers use to develop software and operate servers. Once you’ve connected an IDE to your Zo server, you can use it to write code (or edit any text file) on your Zo and run commands.If you don’t have a favorite IDE already, we recommend Cursor, the best choice for AI-assisted coding.

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1. Generate an SSH key on your computer

Open the Terminal application on your computer. Run the command below, replacing the email used in the example with your own email address. 
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
When you’re prompted to “Enter a file in which to save the key”, you can press Enter to accept the default file location. When you’re prompted to “Enter a passphrase”, you can press Enter to leave it empty, or choose a passphrase.
For an additional layer of security, you can add a passphrase to your SSH key. In order to avoid entering the passphrase every time you connect, you can securely cache the key in the SSH agent. GitHub has a helpful guide that you can follow to set this up.
Run the command below to view your public key: 
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
You’ll see something like this: ssh-ed25519 YOUR_ECDSA_PUBLIC_KEY [email protected]

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2. Register your public key on your Zo

Open the Terminal in your Zo application. Run the command below to edit your authorized keys file: 
nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Paste your public key in the editor. Save and exit the editor by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and finally Enter.

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3. Set up a SSH service on your Zo

Open the System page in your Zo. Click “Add service” to create a new service and fill in the details below:
Labelssh
Local port2222
Typetcp
Entrypoint/usr/sbin/sshd -D -p 2222
Working directoryLeave empty
Environment variablesNone
When your SSH service is up and running, take note of the Host and Port.
How to set up an SSH service to connect to your server

An SSH service with port 10872 and host ts1.zocomputer.io

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4. Connect to your Zo

Open the Terminal on your computer. Run the command below, replacing the port and host with your service’s port and host. 
ssh -p <port> root@<host>
# example: ssh -p 10000 [email protected]
If all is well, you should find yourself inside your Zo. You can exit the SSH session by typing exit or Ctrl + D.

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Create a shortcut to connect

In your computer’s terminal, run the command below to edit your SSH configuration file: 
nano ~/.ssh/config
Paste the following configuration, replacing the Port and HostName with your service’s port and host: 
Host zo
   HostName ts1.zocomputer.io
   Port 10872
   User root
   ServerAliveInterval 30
   ServerAliveCountMax 3
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Save and exit the editor by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and finally Enter. Now, you can run ssh zo to connect to your Zo from your computer’s terminal.

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5. Connect your IDE

Different IDEs have different ways to connect to remote servers. In this guide, we’ll show you how to connect Cursor to Zo, but other IDEs can be connected in a similar way. First, install Cursor’s official Remote SSH extension. In the extension’s settings, enter your SSH config file path:
How to connect Cursor to a remote development server, step 1
Also in the extension’s settings, enable Remote Command Execution:
How to connect Cursor to a remote development server, step 2
In the command palette, find Remote-SSH: Connect to Host... and select zo.
How to connect Cursor to a remote development server, step 3
Another Cursor window will open, connected to your Zo. In this new window, open the /home/workspace folder on your Zo.
The files you can see in the Zo application are in /home/workspace on your Zo Computer.
How to connect Cursor to a remote development server using SSH
That’s it! Now you can use your Zo from Cursor.
How to connect Cursor to a remote development server – Done!