shellman

Easily manage and connect to SSH servers from a small, focused CLI.

shellman stores a small registry of server entries and provides simple subcommands to list, add, remove and connect (SSH or SFTP).

Currently a work-in-progress with core features implemented. Tested only on Linux.

Features

• List saved servers in a neat table
• Add and remove server entries
• Connect to a server by entry ID using SSH or SFTP
• Simple JSON-backed registry (servers.json)

Repository

• Main CLI entry: src/main.rs
• Command handlers: src/commands.rs
• Registry and SSH helpers: src/ssh/mod.rs

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (stable) and Cargo
• A working SSH environment (ssh, sftp) on your machine

Build & Install

Build locally (debug):

cargo build
./target/debug/shellman <SUBCOMMAND>
# run directly
cargo run -- <SUBCOMMAND>

Build and run the release binary:

cargo build --release
./target/release/shellman <SUBCOMMAND>

Install into your Cargo bin (optional):

cargo install --path .
# then you can run
shellman <SUBCOMMAND>

Usage

The CLI provides four main subcommands. See --help for more details.

• List entries

shellman ls

• Add an entry

shellman add <user> <host> [--name "entry-name", --existing-ssh-key "/path/ to/key"]
# example
shellman add alice example.com --name "Alice's Server"

• Connect to an entry (SSH)

shellman use <id>
# example: connect to entry with id 1
shellman use 1

• Connect to an entry using SFTP

shellman use 1 --sftp

• Remove an entry

shellman rm <id>
# example
shellman rm 2

Notes: IDs start at 1 and are shown by shellman ls.

Configuration & Data

The registry is stored in servers.json in the project working directory. The registry entries include id, name, user, host, and an optional existing_ssh_key field used when connecting.

If an entry does not specify existing_ssh_key, the code currently falls back to id_rsa_shellman.pub.

Implementation details & TODOs

• Command definitions live in src/main.rs and handlers in src/commands.rs.
• handle_add currently records entries but has a TODO to generate an SSH keypair and copy it to the remote server.

Testing / Development

During development you can iterate quickly with:

cargo run -- ls
cargo run -- add alice 192.0.2.1 --name alice-test
cargo run -- use 1

Contributing

Contributions welcome — open an issue or PR. If you plan to add features, please document intended changes and update tests (if any).

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0-or-later). See the LICENSE file for full license text.

SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later