Import sessions

If you’re coming from another tool or already track your hosts somewhere, you can bulk-import them into TermZ from a JSON file — no retyping.

Import a file

1. Open Settings (the gear in the activity rail, or ⌘/Ctrl+,).
2. Expand the Sessions section and click Import sessions….
3. Choose your .json file. TermZ parses it and shows a result summary — “Imported X, updated Y” — plus any per-row errors.

Note

Import reads a file you pick; it does not read the clipboard. Missing folders in a session’s folder_path are created automatically.

How duplicates are handled

• Same name + host as an existing session → that session is updated.
• Same name on a different host → added as a new session.

File format

TermZ accepts either an envelope or a bare array.

Envelope (recommended)

{
  "version": 1,
  "exported_at": "2026-07-09T12:00:00Z",
  "sessions": [
    { "name": "core-rtr-01", "host": "10.0.4.1", "kind": "ssh", "username": "netadmin" }
  ]
}

Bare array (also accepted)

[
  { "name": "core-rtr-01", "host": "10.0.4.1", "kind": "ssh", "username": "netadmin" }
]

Session fields

Only name is required. Everything else is optional.

Field	Type	Notes
name	string	Required. Display name (also used for dedup).
kind	string	ssh (default), telnet, raw, serial, or local. Case-insensitive.
host	string	Hostname or IP. Used with name for dedup.
port	number	Defaults per protocol (SSH 22, Telnet 23, …).
username	string	Login user.
auth_method	string	Password, PublicKey, or Agent.
aux	string	Key-file path (for PublicKey) or serial-config JSON (for serial).
folder_path	string	POSIX-style, e.g. /Datacenter/Core. Missing folders are auto-created.
equipment_type	string	Device type label (router, switch, …); custom types allowed.
tags	string[]	Freeform labels.
notes	string	Freeform notes.
password	string	Inline secret — encrypted into the vault on import and never re-exported.
credential	string	Name of an existing stored credential to link — a saved password or an SSH key. An unknown name makes that row error.

Two ways to attach a secret

• password — an inline secret. It’s written into the encrypted vault on import; it is never included when you export.
• credential — the name of a credential already in your vault (see Named credentials) — either a saved password or an imported SSH key. The session links to it by reference, so rotating that credential updates every session that uses it. If the name doesn’t exist yet, that row fails — create the credential first, or use password.

Example with everything

{
  "version": 1,
  "sessions": [
    {
      "name": "dist-sw-04",
      "host": "10.0.8.4",
      "kind": "ssh",
      "port": 22,
      "username": "netadmin",
      "auth_method": "PublicKey",
      "aux": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519",
      "folder_path": "/Datacenter/East",
      "equipment_type": "switch",
      "tags": ["prod", "core"],
      "notes": "Aggregation switch",
      "credential": "netadmin-prod"
    }
  ]
}

Generating the file from a spreadsheet

If your inventory lives in a CSV/spreadsheet, you don’t have to hand-write JSON — see Bulk import from a CSV for a helper that converts a device list into exactly this format.

Round-trip

To move sessions out of TermZ (metadata only, no secrets), see Export sessions.