Remote CMD — SSH Server Management Without the Overhead

pip install remote_cmd_manager

Quick Start · Use Cases · Python API · Docs · Contributing

Remote CMD is a lightweight Python CLI + API for managing servers over SSH. Add hosts, run commands, transfer files, and target groups by tags — no Ansible DSL or shell loops required.

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Why Remote CMD?

Feature	remote-cmd	ssh + shell	Ansible	Fabric
Host CRUD + tag groups	✅ Built-in	❌ Manual	✅ Inventory	❌
Batch commands across hosts	✅ batch-run	❌ Write a loop	✅ Playbook	✅
File transfer (upload/download)	✅ Built-in	✅ scp	✅ copy module	✅
Python API	✅ from remote_cmd import ...	❌	❌ YAML-only	✅
Zero setup	✅ pip install → go	❌ Config SSH	❌ ansible.cfg	❌
Learning curve	Low	Low	High	Medium

Use remote-cmd when you need a CLI that works immediately for ad-hoc SSH tasks. Use Ansible when you need full configuration management and idempotent playbooks.

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Quick Start

# 1. Install
pip install remote_cmd_manager

# 2. Add a server
remote-cmd host add web-01 192.168.1.10 ubuntu --key ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# 3. Run a command
remote-cmd run web-01 "uptime"

# 4. Run across all production servers
remote-cmd batch-run -t production "df -h /"

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Use Cases

System Admin — Check disk across 20 servers in one command

remote-cmd batch-run -t production "df -h / | tail -1"
# Output:
#   ✓ web-01  → /dev/sda1  32G  12G  19G  40% /
#   ✓ web-02  → /dev/sda1  32G  28G   3G  90% /   ⚠️
#   ✗ db-01   → Connection refused

Deploy — Pull code and restart service

from remote_cmd.core.host_manager import HostManager

manager = HostManager("hosts.json")
for host in manager.list_hosts(tag="staging"):
    with manager.connect_to_host(host.name) as client:
        client.execute("cd /app && git pull")
        client.execute("pip install -r requirements.txt")
        client.execute_sudo("systemctl restart app", password="sudopass")

Incident Response — Check logs across all servers

remote-cmd batch-run -t web "journalctl -xe -n 50 | grep -i error"

Config Update — Upload and reload nginx across tagged hosts

# Upload new config
scp nginx.conf user@server:/tmp/nginx.conf  # or use the upload command
remote-cmd run web-01 "sudo cp /tmp/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf && sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx"

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Python API

Use Remote CMD inside your own scripts and automation:

from remote_cmd.core.ssh_client import SSHClient, ConnectionConfig

config = ConnectionConfig(
    hostname="192.168.1.100",
    username="ubuntu",
    key_filename="~/.ssh/id_rsa",
)

with SSHClient(config) as client:
    # Execute commands
    result = client.execute("uptime")
    print(result.stdout)

    # Transfer files
    client.upload_file("./local.txt", "/remote/path/file.txt")
    client.download_file("/remote/path/file.txt", "./local.txt")

    # List remote directory
    for entry in client.list_remote_directory("/var/log"):
        print(f"{entry['name']}: {entry['size']} bytes")

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Features

Category	Details
SSH Auth	Password + key file + ssh-agent
Commands	Single, multi-line, sudo with password
File Transfer	Upload/download via SFTP
Host Management	CRUD with JSON/YAML persistence
Tag System	Filter hosts by tag (e.g., production, web, db)
Batch Ops	Run commands across any host group
Connection Test	Ping all hosts and report status
Type Safety	Full type annotations + mypy strict

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Installation

# From PyPI (recommended)
pip install remote_cmd_manager

# From source
git clone git@github.com:Vae-Scrooge/remote-cmd.git
cd remote-cmd
pip install -e ".[dev]"

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Documentation

Document	Contents
API Reference	Full API docs for SSHClient, HostManager, and more
Quickstart Tutorial	Step-by-step walkthrough
Advanced Tutorial	Batch ops, error handling, production patterns
Development Guide	Setup dev environment, contributing
Troubleshooting	Common issues and solutions
Changelog	Release history

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Project Status

Beta. The core API is stable. Breaking changes will be communicated via semantic versioning.

Roadmap:

• Async SSH operations (parallel execution)
• Configuration profiles (AWS, GCP, custom)
• Output formatting (JSON, table)

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License

MIT © Vae-Scrooge

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