Gandi Docs

You say that if I want to access SHH as a root user, I will never be able to use the Gandi AI anymore. Can't we have something in the middle?

I would like to be able to do little things like editing my php.ini, or uploading files outside of my main area…

You can make some changes to your pho.ini page by editing your .htaccess file either in your site's root or in the directory in question. As to uploading files, if you log in using SFTP as admin under SSH, you can definitely upload outside your www directory.

Here is a guide explaining sftp: http://wiki.gandi.net/en/glossary/sftp-file-manipulation