skipper-ssh-cli 0.1.2

Jump between servers with SSH aliases and PEMs, without touching ~/.ssh/config.

Skipper 🛶

Jump through your servers, not your configs.
A minimalist CLI tool to manage and connect to SSH servers using aliases and PEM file paths — without touching your ~/.ssh/config.

🚀 Why Skipper

• Fast: Just run skipper connect web-01 and you're in.
• Secure: Doesn’t store keys, only paths to your .pem files. Config file uses strict 600 permissions.
• Git-friendly: Plain JSON config, optionally versionable.
• Enterprise-ready: Supports bastion/ProxyJump, SSH flags, and PEM routing.

✨ Features

• Register hosts via alias (IP/FQDN, user, port, PEM).
• Support for bastion/jump hosts via alias or user@host:port.
• Interactive launcher (skipper menu) with optional fzf integration.
• Pass extra SSH flags after --, e.g., port forwarding or compression.

🧩 Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• (Optional) fzf for enhanced interactive menus

📦 Installation (recommended via pipx)

macOS: brew install pipx && pipx ensurepath

pipx install .

or directly from GitHub:

pipx install git+https://github.com/RchrdMrtnz/skipper.git

Check installation:

skipper --help

Local development

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
skipper --help

🔐 Recommendation: Centralize your PEMs

Keep your .pem files in a private, secured folder:

mkdir -p ~/.pem
for f in ~/*.pem; do [ -f "$f" ] && mv -i "$f" ~/.pem/; done
chmod 600 ~/.pem/*.pem

⚙️ Basic Usage

Add a host:

skipper add --alias web-01 --hostname 54.12.34.56 --user ubuntu --pem ~/.pem/web-01.pem

List hosts:

skipper ls

Connect:

skipper connect web-01

Pass extra SSH flags:

skipper connect web-01 -- -L 5433:localhost:5432

Remove:

skipper rm web-01

🛰️ Bastion / ProxyJump

skipper add --alias bastion --hostname 3.88.77.66 --user ubuntu --pem ~/.pem/bastion.pem
skipper add --alias db-priv --hostname 10.0.2.15 --user ubuntu --pem ~/.pem/db.pem --bastion bastion
skipper connect db-priv

You can also use:

--proxy-jump "user@host:port"

🎛️ Interactive Menu

skipper menu

• If fzf is installed, fuzzy-search menu is used.
• Otherwise, a simple console selector is shown.

🧰 Commands

skipper add
skipper ls
skipper rm <alias>
skipper connect <alias> [-- <ssh flags>]
skipper menu
skipper edit

🗂️ Configuration

Default: ~/.config/skipper/hosts.json (600 perms)
Override via:

export SKIPPER_CONFIG="$PWD/infra/skipper.hosts.json"

🔒 Security

• No private key material stored — only file paths
• Enforce strict PEM permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.pem/*.pem

• If versioning config, consider encrypting SKIPPER_CONFIG

🛣️ Roadmap

• Tags and filters
• Tunnel templates
• skipper test <alias>
• Import from ~/.ssh/config

🧪 Example Smoke Test

skipper add --alias test --hostname 11.11.11.11 --user ubuntu --pem ~/.pem/test.pem
skipper ls
skipper connect test
skipper connect redis-momentum -- -L 6380:localhost:6379

📄 License

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE

🙌 Contributing

PRs welcome. Follow Typer + Pydantic style, simple tests, clear commits (feat:, fix:, docs:). Skipper — jump through your servers, not your configs. 🛶