Save and run snippets

A snippet is a saved command or script you can type into any session. Snippets sync with your hosts. On the desktop they are under Snippets in the sidebar; on the phone under Settings › Tools › Snippets.

Save a snippet

1. Choose New snippet.
2. Give it a Name, and write the Script: the text typed into the session, one or more lines.
3. Choose its Kind:
   • Command: typed into the session and, when you run it, followed by Enter.
   • Note: only ever pasted at the prompt, without Enter, so you can check it first.
   • Macro: a list of steps that types, waits for output and answers prompts (below).
4. Optionally put it in a Package, a folder for snippets that belong together.
5. Save.

With an AI provider set up (Settings › AI), Describe what it should do writes the script for you from a sentence. Read it before you save or run it.

Ask for values when it runs

Write {{name}} where a value should be asked for, or {{name:default}} to offer a default:

sudo systemctl restart {{service:nginx}}

These are filled in, never asked: {{$HOST}} (the host’s address), {{$USER}} (the user name it logs in as), {{$PORT}} and {{$NAME}} (the host’s label). A local terminal has no host, so give such a built-in a default there: {{$USER:root}}.

A value you type is inserted exactly as typed, with no quoting: quote it in the script if it may hold spaces. Built-ins are quoted for the host’s shell where Sternway has seen a POSIX shell or fish on that host, and refused where they cannot be placed safely. The field help has the full rules.

Run it

• In a terminal: press Ctrl+. (macOS: Cmd+.) or Ctrl+Shift+P to open the snippets beside the terminal, and choose one. Or search for it with the command palette, Ctrl+K. Asked-for values are filled in the side panel.
• With a key of its own (desktop): give the snippet a Keyboard shortcut. It works while a terminal has the focus, and is kept on this device only.
• In all tabs: run a command snippet in every open terminal at once.
• On several hosts: Run on hosts… on the snippet. See Act on many hosts at once, including Collect results, which shows each host’s exit status and output.
• When a host connects: set it as the host’s Startup snippet in the host editor.

Automate a login with a macro

A macro’s Steps are one per line:

send sudo -i
wait for "password for"
send secret identity "Ops admin"
wait for /[#$] $/ 10s
send systemctl restart nginx

• send types the rest of the line and Enter (variables and built-ins are filled in).
• wait for "text" or wait for /pattern/ waits for the output, 30 seconds unless you write another time.
• send secret identity "Name" types that identity’s saved password; key "Name" a key’s passphrase; host "Name" a host’s saved password.
• pause 2s waits; a line starting with # is a comment.

A secret is typed only into a terminal it belongs to (a host’s password into a session to that host or through it), only right after a wait whose line is still the terminal’s last line and is a password prompt ending in :, and never into a local terminal. It is not written to the window, the scrollback, recordings, logs, AI or a shared session. If another password prompt comes right after it (a wrong password), or none at all, the macro stops and types nothing more. Locking the app stops every macro.

Share snippets

A snippet in a team vault is there for everyone in that vault. Copy or Move it to another vault from its menu. A macro only reaches secrets saved in its own vault, so a macro shared with a team cannot type your personal passwords.