CLI Machines Remote Machine Command

`ed <machine> <command...>`

Names a machine as the first word of the line and runs the rest there. It is pure argument rewriting: ed reshapes argv before the parser ever sees it, then the ordinary ed machines exec runs.

ed <machine> <command...>
ed <machine>

The rewrite happens in this order, and stops at the first rule that applies:

When the first word	The line becomes
is missing, or starts with `-`	unchanged
is `machines`	reordered by the machine-first rule below
is a top level command name or alias, or `help`, or `__complete`	unchanged
does not match a configured machine name or ssh alias	unchanged
matches a machine, and something after it does not start with `-`	`machines exec <machine> -- <rest>`
matches a machine, and the rest is empty or all flags	`machines show <machine> <rest>`

The match against your machines is by whole name or whole ssh alias, case-insensitively. It is deliberately stricter than the resolver ed machines exec then uses: a prefix or a UUID is not enough to trigger the shorthand, so ed tu uptime is not rewritten and fails as an unknown command with exit 2, while ed tuf uptime and ed 'asus tuf 7' uptime both run.

The reserved list that wins over a machine name is every top level command and alias: guide, schema, version, completions, install, uninstall, config, app, extensions, permissions, usage, system, music, nowplaying, np, calendar, tools, apps, download, downloads, dl, clipboard, color, colour, shelf, cleaner and machines, plus help and __complete. A machine called usage is unreachable by the shorthand and has to be named explicitly, as ed machines exec usage -- ... or ed machines show usage.

Because the rewrite inserts -- after the machine name, every flag after it belongs to the machine, never to ed. That is what lets ed tuf ls -la and ed tuf docker compose up -d work without ceremony, and it is why --tty has no shorthand: write ed machines exec --tty tuf top.

ed tuf docker ps runs the machine's own docker binary and prints its raw output. The parsed, --json version is ed machines docker ps tuf, which is a different command. Both are correct; the shorthand is always the raw one.

The machine-first spelling under `ed machines`

A word straight after machines that is not one of the group's subcommands is treated as the machine and moved to wherever the subcommand wants it. ed walks as far down the subcommand tree as the words allow, then inserts the machine after the last subcommand it consumed:

ed machines tuf uptime            ed machines exec tuf -- uptime
ed machines tuf docker ps         ed machines docker ps tuf
ed machines tuf files ls /etc     ed machines files ls tuf /etc
ed machines tuf run ls -la        ed machines run tuf -- ls -la
ed machines tuf                   ed machines show tuf

Unlike the top level shorthand this does not check your machine list at all, so a typo is still moved into the machine slot and the error names it rather than complaining about an unknown subcommand:

$ ed machines nosuchbox uptime
error: no machine named nosuchbox
hint: known machines: Asus TUF 7; machines subcommands: add, broadcast, connect, disconnect, docker, edit, exec, files, forward, forwards, kill, list, ls, metrics, power, remove, rm, run, services, show, snippet, snippets, workspace, workspaces

A subcommand name always wins. The names that cannot be used as a machine here are ls, list, show, add, edit, rm, remove, forwards, forward, snippets, snippet, power, workspace, workspaces, broadcast, kill, metrics, exec, run, files, docker, services, connect and disconnect. A machine literally called docker needs ed machines show docker.

Examples

ed tuf uptime
ed tuf systemctl status nginx
ed tuf 'ls -la /srv | head'
ed machines tuf docker compose ls

Behaviour notes

A bare machine name is a lookup, not a shell:

$ ed tuf
Asus TUF 7
  target   tuf · pulkit@192.168.1.12
  auth     SSH agent
  system   Linux 7.0.0-28-generic x86_64
  uptime   22:25:13 up  9:17,  5 users,  load average: 0.03, 0.08, 0.21
  session  pulkit on seat0 since 2026-08-08 13:08 (login screen)
  session  pulkit on tty2 since 2026-08-08 13:08 (tty2)

Flags alone count as nothing runnable, so ed tuf --json is ed machines show tuf --json rather than an attempt to run --json on the machine.