Connecting
Open the connection form from either the + button on the Files sidebar's CONNECTIONS header or the pinned Open Connection button at the bottom. On macOS and Windows it opens as a dedicated window.
The form, field by field
Section titled “The form, field by field”The first control is the Protocol dropdown. The rest of the fields change to match the protocol you pick.
SFTP · FTP · FTPS
Section titled “SFTP · FTP · FTPS”| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Server | Hostname or IP of the file server. |
| Port | Prefilled with the protocol default — 22 for SFTP, 21 for FTP and FTPS. Change it only for non-standard ports. |
| Username | The login user. |
| Password | The login password. SFTP signs in with a password only; key-based login isn't supported. Stored in the Keychain when Save to Keychain is on. |
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Access Key | Your S3 access key id. |
| Secret Key | The matching secret. This is the value stored in the Keychain. |
| Bucket | The bucket to browse. |
| Region | The bucket's region, e.g. ap-northeast-1. |
| Endpoint | Optional. Leave blank for AWS S3. Set it to point at an S3-compatible store — MinIO, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, or any custom S3 endpoint. |
WebDAV
Section titled “WebDAV”| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Base URL | The full DAV endpoint, including any path prefix — e.g. https://files.example.com/remote.php/dav. Nextcloud and ownCloud serve DAV under a long path prefix; paste the whole URL and Probe handles the rest. |
| Username | Your DAV login. |
| Password | Your DAV password (or app password). Stored in the Keychain. |
Credentials and security
Section titled “Credentials and security”Credentials are also transient in the engine: they cross into Probe's Rust core once, at connect time, to open the session, and are not persisted there. This is why the automation surface has no connect endpoint — see Automation.
If you leave Save to Keychain unchecked, the connection still opens, but nothing is remembered — you'll re-enter the secret next time.
Bookmarks
Section titled “Bookmarks”Connecting saves a bookmark — a named entry that appears both as a card in the Open Connection form and as a row in the sidebar CONNECTIONS list. The bookmark name is derived from the most identifying field: the bucket for S3, the base URL for WebDAV, the host otherwise.
- Reconnect by clicking the bookmark row (sidebar) or card (form). If a session for it is already open, the click focuses that tab instead of opening a second one.
- Delete a bookmark from the trash icon on its card, or by right-clicking its sidebar row. Deleting a bookmark also removes its stored secret from the Keychain, and disconnects the session first if it's live.
Managing a live connection
Section titled “Managing a live connection”Right-click a CONNECTIONS row for a live session to Disconnect it. Disconnecting cancels that connection's unfinished transfers; your other connections keep working while it closes. A connection opened without saving a bookmark still gets a row while it's live, and offers only Disconnect — there's nothing persistent to delete.