This article is for account-holders who have been given access to a Celigo-hosted SFTP file server. It contains everything you need to connect: the host, port, sign-in format, how to authenticate with a password or an SSH key, and how to verify the server's identity. It also explains what you can do once connected, which depends on the permissions the company hosting the server gave your account. You don't need a Celigo account — any standard SFTP client works, including OpenSSH, WinSCP, and FileZilla.
Connection details
Your business contact at the company hosting the server provides your username, the server's identifier, and either a password or confirmation that your SSH key is registered. Keep this article with those details; together they are your complete connection instructions.
- Host — Your contact provides a regional endpoint.
- Port — 22 (SFTP over SSH).
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Username —
<username>@<identifier>. Enter the full string, including the @ and the identifier, as your SFTP username. - Authentication — A password, an SSH key, or either, depending on what your contact set up. See the following section.
- Protocol — SFTP only. Plain FTP, FTPS, SCP, shell access, and port forwarding are not available.
If your network restricts outbound connections, add the server's IP addresses to your allow list.
Authenticate with a password or an SSH key
Your account can have a password, one or more SSH public keys, or both. If both are set, you can connect with either.
Password — Enter the password your contact gave you. If you lose it, your contact can replace it; the old password stops working as soon as they do.
SSH key — Generate a key pair on your side and give your contact only the public key. The server accepts Ed25519, ECDSA, and RSA keys of 2048 bits or longer; DSA and shorter RSA keys are rejected. For example, to generate an Ed25519 pair with OpenSSH:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/celigo-sftp -C "acme-inbound"
Send the contents of the .pub file to your contact, and keep the private key on the system that will connect. To let your contact confirm they registered the right key, also send its fingerprint: ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/celigo-sftp.pub. Once the key is registered, configure your client to use the private key — for OpenSSH, sftp -i ~/.ssh/celigo-sftp <username>@<identifier>@<host> (OpenSSH treats the last @ as the separator between username and host); for WinSCP or FileZilla, add the private key in the site's authentication settings. A newly registered key works immediately.
To rotate a key, send your contact the new public key before you stop using the old one. Both keys work until your contact removes the old one. Removing a key disconnects any session you have open at that moment, so switch to the new key and finish any transfer in progress before your contact removes the old one.
Verify the server's host key
The first time you connect, your SFTP client shows the server's host key fingerprint and asks you to confirm it. The host keys are long-lived and don't change when the server is updated; if your client ever warns that the host key has changed unexpectedly, stop and confirm with your contact before reconnecting.
What you can do once connected
You are signed in to your own folder and can't see anyone else's. What you can do inside it depends on the permissions your contact gave your account:
- Read — List the folder and its subfolders, and download files.
- Create — Upload new files and create folders. You can also rename and overwrite files you uploaded yourself, so clients that upload to a temporary name and then rename work normally.
- Modify — Overwrite and rename files you didn't upload, and rename folders.
- Delete — Delete files and folders.
If an operation isn't permitted, your client shows a permission-denied error. For example, a write-only drop box account can upload but can't list the folder, and a read-only pickup account can download but can't delete what it downloaded. Ask your contact if you need a permission you don't have.
Behavior worth knowing before you script transfers:
- Interrupted uploads restart from the beginning — The server doesn't support resuming a transfer from an offset. If a transfer is interrupted, send the whole file again. A partial upload is never left visible.
- Uploading to an existing file name replaces the file — If you uploaded the original, Create is enough. Overwriting a file someone else created requires Modify; without it, you must upload with a new file name.
- Deleting a folder deletes its contents — Directory delete removes the folder and everything inside it, unlike servers that refuse to delete a non-empty directory.
- Maximum file size is 10 GB.
If you can't connect
Check that you entered the full username including @<identifier>, the right regional host, and port 22. If you're using a key, confirm your client is presenting the right private key and that your contact registered the matching public key — compare fingerprints. Repeated failed sign-in attempts are throttled and can lock you out temporarily; wait before retrying. If you still can't connect, contact the company that gave you access — they can confirm your account is enabled, reset your password, or re-register your key.