Accessing remote host that needs a proxy command fails

[lkohleick]

System details:

Positron and OS details:

Mac OS 15.4
Positron Version: 2025.10.1 build 4
Code - OSS Version: 1.103.0
Commit: b13dd1c
Date: 2025-10-14T21:43:42.876Z (1 wk ago)
Electron: 37.2.3
Chromium: 138.0.7204.100
Node.js: 22.17.0
V8: 13.8.500258-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.4.0

Session details:

-- no session ---

Describe the issue:

When I try to access my assigned node on an HPC via a proxy command in the .ssh/config file the connection fails. Accessing a node that does not need a proxycommand in the ssh configs works normally.
This was never an issue with VSCode

Steps to reproduce the issue:

Have access to a HPC that has a login node and multiple nodes behind it, try to access it with the proxy command in the .ssh/config that routes your access via the login node.

simple example in the .ssh/config:

> Host positron_node
>     Hostname <your node>
>     proxycommand ssh -x -a -q <frontend_node>
> 

Expected or desired behavior:

As in VScode, this should connect to the desired node seamlessly.

Were there any error messages in the UI, Output panel, or Developer Tools console?

no

no, just could not connect

[austin3dickey]

Hey @lkohleick, thanks for the issue. We use a lightly modified fork of https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh to connect to remote hosts instead of Microsoft's proprietary extension for VS Code, so that's why the behavior differs. In particular, I've seen it be more sensitive to things like casing in the config file.

Would you be able to try something like this?

> Host positron_node
>     HostName <your node>
>     ProxyCommand ssh -x -a -q <frontend_node>
>