When SSH exec's `step ssh check-host ...` under the hood, it only accepts the host's full FQDN as a valid input. 

$ step ssh check-host 1234 ; echo $?
1

$ step ssh check-host 1234.box.hosts.smallstep.com ; echo $?
0


If you want to shorten these FQDNs, you can use the `CanonicalizeHostname` and `CanonicalDomains` options in your ssh_config settings. For example, the following configuration would allow users to SSH directly to box 1234.box.hosts.smallstep.com by only typing `ssh 1234`":

##### Contents of .ssh/config #####

# autogenerated by step @ 2022-05-19T22:02:11Z
Host *
  CanonicalizeHostname yes
  CanonicalDomains box.hosts.smallstep.com
  Include "/home/<user>/.step/ssh/config"
  PreferredAuthentications publickey,password
# end

SSHing to host 1234 will then succeed:

$ ssh 1234 -vvv

debug1: Reading configuration data /home/<user>/.step/ssh/config
debug2: checking match for 'exec "step ssh check-host %h"' host 1234.box.hosts.smallstep.com originally 1234
debug1: Executing command: 'step ssh check-host 1234.box.hosts.smallstep.com'
debug3: command returned status 0
debug3: /home/<user>/.step/ssh/config line 1: matched 'exec "step ssh check-host 1234.box.hosts.smallstep.com"' 
debug2: match found
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config