NeoServer Terminal Settings: Fonts, Themes, Gestures and Keyboard Bar

All terminal preferences live in one place: open the Settings tab, then tap Terminal Settings under Features. Changes apply right away to open sessions, so you can keep a terminal running, adjust a setting, and switch back to see the result.

Quick reference

Setting	Default	Range or options
Font Size	10	6 to 40, even sizes
Font	JetBrains Mono Nerd	6 built-in fonts, plus your own
Cursor Style	Block	Block, Bar, Underline
Cursor Blink	On	On, Off
Theme Dark / Theme Light	GitHub Dark / GitHub Light	17 built-in themes, plus custom themes
Recent Sessions	10	Off (0) to 50
Show Close Button	On	On, Off
Show Session Picker	On	On, Off
Open Workdir With	Auto	Auto, Herdr, zellij, tmux, Terminal
Connection Keep-Alive	8 Hours	10 Minutes to 8 Hours, or Always
Keepalive Interval	10 Seconds	10 Seconds to 5 Minutes
New Terminal Uses Current Directory	Off	On, Off
Open SFTP in Current Directory	On	On, Off

Font, size and cursor

• Font Size sets the text size for every terminal. Smaller sizes fit more columns, which helps with wide output such as htop or docker ps.
• Font opens the font list with a live preview drawn from the real font file. Built-in choices are JetBrains Mono Nerd, Fira Code Nerd, Ubuntu Mono, Hack, DejaVu Sans Mono and Source Code Pro. The two Nerd Fonts include the icon glyphs that prompts like Starship, Powerlevel10k and Oh My Posh expect.
• Import Font adds your own .ttf, .otf, .ttc or .otc file. Imported fonts stay on the device and are used by the terminal and Copy Mode. Touch and hold an imported font to delete it; if it was the active font, the terminal returns to JetBrains Mono Nerd.
• Cursor Style and Cursor Blink control how the cursor is drawn.

Choosing a font or importing one requires NeoServer Premium.

Themes

NeoServer keeps two theme slots so the terminal matches the rest of the app:

• Theme Dark is used when the app appears in dark mode.
• Theme Light is used when the app appears in light mode.

Which slot is active follows Settings → Color Scheme: System switches with iOS, while Dark or Light pins one slot. Each theme card previews a prompt line and its accent colors, so you can compare them before you pick one.

Built-in dark themes: GitHub Dark, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin Mocha, Dracula, One Dark, Nord, Gruvbox Dark, Rosé Pine, Kanagawa and Solarized Dark. Built-in light themes: GitHub Light, Catppuccin Latte, One Light, Tokyo Night Day, Gruvbox Light, Rosé Pine Dawn and Solarized Light. Either slot accepts any theme, so a light theme can be used in dark mode if you prefer it.

Custom themes

Tap Custom Theme, then + to build your own: give it a name and set the background, foreground, cursor and selection colors, plus the 8 ANSI colors and the 8 bright ANSI colors, while a live preview updates. Custom themes appear at the front of both theme slots; swipe left on one in the list to delete it.

To reuse a theme from a desktop terminal, tap Import and either paste the theme text or choose a theme file. NeoServer reads Ghostty, Warp and iTerm2 (.itermcolors) themes. If the colors cannot be parsed, the import screen says so and nothing is saved.

Selecting a theme requires NeoServer Premium.

Auto Completion

Auto Completion shows command suggestions as you type. Turn off Enable Auto Completion if you prefer a clean input line.

You can also add your own commands to the suggestion list, one per line. Text in square brackets is a note for you and is not sent: for ls -lah [dir], the suggestion inserts ls -lah .

Tap Indicator

The Tap Indicator draws a marker wherever your finger touches the terminal. It is on by default and makes screen recordings and demos much easier to follow.

• Display Mode: a colored ring (Color), your own Picture, or an Emoji (👆 by default).
• Follow Theme: on by default, picks black or white to contrast with the active theme. Turn it off to set your own Fill Color and Border Color.
• Size & Animation: Opacity (10% to 100%), Circle Size (12 to 80 pt, default 28), Border Width (0 to 10 pt, default 2), Release Scale (1× to 3×, default 1.45×) and Animation Duration (0.1 to 1 s, default 0.32 s).
• Movement Trail: on by default, draws a short trail while you drag.

Tap or drag inside the preview area to try the current configuration. Reset returns every indicator option to its default.

Key Triggers

Key Triggers assigns actions to gestures and hardware buttons inside the terminal.

Trigger	Default action
Single Tap	Focus Keyboard (shows the system keyboard)
Double Tap	Tab
Two-Finger Tap	Right Click
Two-Finger Double Tap, Three-Finger Tap, Three-Finger Double Tap	None
Volume Up, Volume Down	None

Each trigger can be set to None, Focus Keyboard, Tab, Esc, or Send Key, which sends any key or escape sequence you type (for example \t for Tab) or pick from the key list. Multi-finger taps can also send Right Click at the touched spot, which mouse-aware programs such as Vim, tmux and htop understand. Links, mouse input and text selection always take priority over the single-tap action.

Add an optional Hint Name to show a short label above the terminal when the trigger fires.

The first time you assign a volume button, NeoServer asks before reserving them. While the terminal is active, both volume buttons then control the terminal and other audio pauses. Set both volume triggers back to None to release the buttons.

Keyboard bar

The keyboard bar is the row of extra keys above the iOS keyboard. Three screens shape it:

• Keyboard Bar creates groups of the keys you use most and shows them in the bar. Touch and hold a group, then drag it to change the order.
• Fixed Keys changes the always-visible keys: Back, Reconnect, Chat, More, Esc, Clipboard, Arrow Pad and Hide. Tap a key to replace it with any key from the keyboard groups; touch and hold a changed key to restore it, or use Reset to Defaults to restore all of them.
• Keyboard Groups chooses which groups appear behind the MORE key and in what order.

Show Close Button adds a close button to each terminal session tab in the keyboard bar. Touch and hold a tab for more options, whether or not the button is shown.

Sessions and the session picker

• Recent Sessions sets how many recently opened sessions the terminal list remembers, from 1 to 50. Set it to Off to stop keeping the history.
• Show Session Picker: when on, tapping a server first offers your tmux, zellij and Herdr sessions and recent working directories. Turn it off to open a new terminal straight away.
• Open Workdir With (shown while the picker is on) decides how a working directory opens. Auto tries Herdr first, then zellij, then tmux, so the session survives a disconnect; Terminal opens a regular shell in that directory.
• Herdr Multi Server (shown when the workdir launcher can use Herdr) gives each working directory its own named Herdr session, an isolated background server with its own panes, tabs and workspaces, instead of sharing the default session. It is off by default.

Connection

• Connection Keep-Alive sets how long NeoServer keeps sessions connected after you switch to another app: 10 Minutes, 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours, 8 Hours (default) or Always. Longer durations keep long-running commands attached but use more battery while the app is in the background.
• Keepalive Interval sets how often an SSH heartbeat is sent: every 10 Seconds (default), 30 Seconds, 1 Minute, 2 Minutes or 5 Minutes. A short interval stops routers and firewalls from dropping idle connections; a longer one sends less traffic.

If your sessions still drop on a flaky network, consider switching the server’s connection type to Mosh, which survives network changes and roaming.

Terminal directory

Both options need the shell to report its current directory to the terminal.

• New Terminal Uses Current Directory: when on, a new terminal opened from an existing session starts in that session’s directory. It is off by default because new terminals open faster without the lookup.
• Open SFTP in Current Directory: when on (default), opening SFTP from a terminal jumps to the directory you are working in. Turn it off to open SFTP faster in the server’s default directory.

Troubleshooting

• Icons in my prompt show as boxes. Switch Font to JetBrains Mono Nerd or Fira Code Nerd, or import the Nerd Font your prompt was designed for.
• The terminal ignores my theme. Check which slot is active: with Color Scheme set to System, the iOS appearance decides whether Theme Dark or Theme Light is used.
• Volume buttons stopped changing the volume. A volume key trigger is assigned. Set Volume Up and Volume Down to None in Key Triggers.
• A single tap does not show the keyboard. Make sure Single Tap is set to Focus Keyboard, and that the tap did not land on a link or a program that captures mouse input.

For other issues, see the NeoServer FAQ.