Settings

Namespace settings apply to everything inside the namespace. They are split into sections: General (name, tenant ID, leaving or deleting the namespace), SSH (the settings below) and, on Cloud, Billing. Provisioning keys live in Add Device → Fleet.

Session recording

Whether the server records new sessions in this namespace. A new namespace starts with it on.

Community records the web terminal in the browser regardless — this setting is about the server-side recording available on Cloud and Enterprise. See Sessions.

Connection announcement

A message shown in the terminal when somebody connects, labelled Login banner in the SSH section and edited in a dialog from its Edit button.

Its most useful job is telling people recording is on. Somewhere between courtesy and a legal requirement depending on where you operate, and it costs one sentence:

Sessions on this namespace are recorded.

It is also a reasonable place for an environment warning — anything that makes somebody pause before typing on the wrong machine.

Device signature enforcement

Whether the namespace refuses an agent that cannot prove it holds its device key. Since 0.27 the agent signs a challenge from the server with its device key on every connection. Older agents cannot sign, so with this on they stop connecting, devices already registered included, until you update the agent.

A namespace created after this setting was introduced starts with it on, unless the instance sets SHELLHUB_NAMESPACE_REQUIRE_VERIFIED_DEVICE_KEY=false (see Environment Variables). A namespace that already existed when the server was updated starts with it off, so the update itself cuts no agent off.

While it is off, the setting warns how many accepted or pending devices have never signed. Turning it on applies at once when there are none, and otherwise asks you to confirm that those devices stop connecting. Turning it off applies at once, and a refused agent lands pending on its next attempt.

The device list API reports whether each device has signed as key_verified, and filters on it.

A device that has signed once is never accepted unsigned again, whatever this setting says, until it is removed.

An agent refused for not signing shows up at Pending devices with the reason when its device is not in the namespace, or was removed from it. A device already in the list is refused without a line there. See Device Not Appearing.

Legacy or new

Shows whether the namespace is legacy or new, and offers a legacy namespace a one-way upgrade to the new model.

Namespaces created today are new and stay that way. A namespace that predates identity-based access is legacy, and this page offers it one Upgrade to the new model. The upgrade asks for the namespace’s name, because it cannot be undone.

Upgrading with no policies seeds the Owner access policy so default deny does not lock the owner out. Everyone else starts with no access, password and public-key logins stop, and new devices enroll by pairing or a provisioning key.

Do not upgrade without preparing. See Upgrading a Legacy Namespace.

MFA requirements

On Cloud and Enterprise, whether members must have MFA enabled. See Multi-Factor Authentication.

Instance-wide settings

Some things are not namespace settings but deployment configuration, set on the server rather than here. See Environment Variables.

Where to go next

• Namespaces — Name, tenant ID, deletion.
• Sessions — What recording captures.