Connectors that update themselves, and database backups

Two things that used to need a hand now take care of themselves: your Connectors update on their own, and your backups can carry your databases alongside your files. This release also brings a one-line Linux install and a round of fixes to the desktop app.

Connectors update themselves

Until now, a new Connector version meant running the install command again on each server. From Connector 0.2.0 that happens on its own. Each Connector reports its version, and the cabinet shows update available or up to date for every one, along with an Update automatically switch (on by default) and an Update now button.

A Connector is careful about what it installs: it checks the signed version list, the download’s size and checksum, and the binary’s own signature, then does a trial run before switching over. A routine update waits up to an hour for your open sessions to finish first. And if a new version can’t connect within 10 minutes, the Connector rolls back to the one that worked by itself — that version is then skipped for 7 days, so a bad build can’t loop.

Connectors installed before this release need one manual update to pick up the new mechanism; the cabinet shows the one-line command. Until you run it, they keep working exactly as before.

Back up your databases, not just your files

A backup job can now dump PostgreSQL and MySQL/MariaDB into the same encrypted archive as your files — on the server or inside a Docker container, one database or all of them — with a README inside on how to restore it.

No database password is stored at Termalin. The backup signs in with the server’s own local trust: as the local database user, through a credentials file on the server (.pgpass or my.cnf), or with the container’s own settings. Database backups run on Linux and macOS servers (on Windows, backups stay files-only for now), and a dump needs free disk on the server about its own size while it runs.

Everything else about backups is unchanged: the archive is encrypted with a key only you hold, and it goes to Termalin storage, your own S3 bucket, or another of your servers over a Connector. The server backups page has the full picture.

Let an AI app draft a backup job

Ask a connected assistant to set up backups for a server and it can now do the legwork with a new MCP tool, backup_job_create — 22 hosted tools in all. It drafts the job for you: which files and databases, how often, how many copies to keep, and where to store them.

A draft never runs on its own. You confirm it in the cabinet with one click — that’s where the encryption key is made, in your browser, as it is for any backup — and only then does it start. A draft expires after 7 days and counts toward your plan’s job limit, and the tool needs full access on the Connector. The MCP tools reference lists it in full.

Background jobs now run on Windows servers

The background-job tools — job_start, job_status, job_stop and job_list — now work on Windows Connectors too, running in PowerShell. As on Linux and macOS, a job keeps running after the session that started it closes, so a long build or migration finishes on its own.

Delete an account that has no password

Accounts created with Google, GitHub or Apple sign-in — or from an AI app’s connect page — have no password, and that left them unable to delete themselves. Now a confirmation link sent by email deletes any account, from the cabinet or the desktop app.

A one-line install for Linux

Linux now has the same quick path the other platforms have had:

curl -fsSL https://termal.in/install.sh | bash

It installs to your home folder without root, adds a menu and KRunner entry and a termalin command. Run it again to update, or pass --uninstall to remove it. See the download page for every option.

Fixes across the desktop app

• OpenSSH keys exported from Termius and similar apps import. Keys that came back with “length invalid” — they pad the key a little differently — now load, the same way OpenSSH accepts them.
• Windows: installing with Scoop works again. A Scoop install hadn’t been able to start since 0.1.47. An existing one updates with scoop update termalin --force.
• Linux: in-app updates no longer fail with “Text file busy”, and a downloaded update is kept for a retry rather than fetched again.
• Linux: you stay signed in when the keyring is locked or slow to start. With KWallet or GNOME Keyring unavailable, the app no longer loses its local data. Sessions now renew themselves instead of expiring after 30 days — on every platform.
• Linux: SSH through your ssh-agent finds the desktop’s agent even when the app is started from the menu, and the error explains why when it can’t.
• Full-screen terminal apps leave your shell intact. btop and the like restore the shell’s colours and screen when you quit them.
• The terminal tab closes when you exit the shell (a setting). A dropped connection keeps the tab, with a Reconnect button.

Smaller things

The backup form is tidier — fields line up, it works at phone width, and it’s translated into all 9 languages. The host form now says a private address like 192.168.1.10 or localhost can’t be reached from termal.in, and points you to installing a Connector on the server for an AI to work with it. The trial line spells out that your account moves to Free afterwards — free forever, nothing charged — and a lifetime licence now reads Pro · Lifetime. Invitation emails for internal sites are rate-limited so the form can’t be used to send spam.

As always, the desktop app offers the update when you next open it, and the full list is in the changelog.

— The Termalin team