Applications

An application in Cyolo is how you give users secure remote access to an asset — for example, an RDP desktop, an SSH server, a web application, or a database. Instead of opening firewall ports or setting up a VPN, you publish the asset as an application in Cyolo. Cyolo controls who can connect, and how.

Users see their permitted applications in the Applications Portal and connect from there. You manage applications from the Admin Portal.

What you set up on an application

When you create an application, you configure the following:

Protocol and connection details — the type of connection (RDP, SSH, VNC, HTTP/HTTPS, database) and the asset hostname and port.
Rules — who can access the application and under what conditions. You can add multiple rules to a single application, each targeting different users or groups and applying different policies. Each rule has two parts:
- A Condition Policy — the requirements a user must meet before access is granted, such as MFA or device posture.
- An Action Policy — what Cyolo applies during the session, such as recording or time limits.
For example, you can give contractors read-only access with MFA required, while giving internal admins full access with session recording enabled — all on the same application.
Categories — optional labels that group applications in the Applications Portal to help users find what they need.
Access Groups — a way to apply the same rules to multiple applications at once. Any rule you set on an access group is automatically inherited by all applications in the group.

In this section

Creating a New Application — add your first application
Configuring Applications — reference for all application settings
Managing Applications — edit, clone, enable, or disable applications
Working with Application Categories — organize how applications appear in the portal
Working with Access Groups — manage shared rules across multiple applications