ipmitui

Small operator-side CLI + TUI for driving a rack of IPMI BMCs. One TOML config of machines, one shell-out per call to ipmitool, parallel scans for the live power-state table. Power, Serial-over-LAN, sanity checks, and an interactive table with add / edit / delete.

Sibling to bty: bty owns image catalogs, PXE plans and deploys; ipmitui owns power state and console access. They stay separate so each stays small and operator-readable.

Install

pipx install .                          # from a checkout
pipx install git+https://github.com/safl/ipmitui

Requires ipmitool on $PATH (apt install ipmitool on Debian / Ubuntu).

Config

Default path: ~/.config/ipmitui/machines.toml (override with --config or $IPMITUI_CONFIG). The file is written 0600 because passwords may be plaintext.

[defaults]
user = "ADMIN"
pass_cmd = "pass show lab/{name}-bmc"   # {name} is the machine's name

[[machine]]
name = "lab-01"
host = "10.20.30.10"
description = "headend BMC, warp rack"

[[machine]]
name = "lab-02"
host = "10.20.30.11"
user = "OTHER"               # overrides the default user
password = "inline-secret"   # plaintext; for lab-only / quick start

[ui]
glyphs = true                # Nerd Font icons in the TUI (toggle live with "g")

Per machine, give either password (inline) or pass_cmd (a shell command whose first stdout line is the password); pass_cmd keeps the file plaintext-free with pass / gopass / op / sops. --config may be repeated to merge several files, a simple way to group hosts:

ipmitui --config warp.toml --config wave.toml      # both racks in one view

Commands

Running ipmitui with no subcommand opens the interactive TUI.

ipmitui                       # interactive TUI (default)
ipmitui tui                   # same, explicit
ipmitui status                # one-shot parallel scan, print table, exit
ipmitui check                 # exit non-zero if any machine is unreachable / auth-fails

ipmitui sol   lab-01          # exec into `ipmitool sol activate`
ipmitui on    lab-01          # power on
ipmitui off   lab-01          # power off (hard)
ipmitui soft  lab-01          # graceful shutdown (ACPI)
ipmitui cycle lab-01          # power cycle
ipmitui reset lab-01          # power reset
ipmitui ipmitool lab-01 mc info   # raw passthrough with the auth prefix filled in

Flags: --config PATH (repeatable), --workers N (parallel scan width, default 8), --interval S (TUI refresh seconds, default 5), --version.

TUI keys

f or /     focus the filter (matches name / host / note)
i or Enter open the action picker for the selected machine
           (picker: j/k or arrows to move, Enter to act, Esc/q to cancel)
a / e / d  add / edit / delete a machine
r          refresh now
g          toggle Nerd Font glyphs
h or Space help
q          quit
j / k      move the cursor (alongside the arrow keys)
Esc        clear the filter / close a popup

The action picker offers serial console (SoL) and the power ops. Edits are saved back to the primary config file.

Development

make hooks      # install the pre-commit gate (ruff + hygiene)
make check      # ruff lint + format-check + tests
make test       # tests only

CI (.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml) runs lint + tests on every PR and on main; a green main auto-tags v<version> and the tag publishes a GitHub release.