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Flint

Hosts and groups

A host is a server you connect to. You refer to it by its alias, a short name such as web-01. Aliases are 1–64 letters, digits, ., _ or -, are unique in the vault (ignoring case), and cannot start with - or ..

Add a host

Section titled “Add a host”
Terminal window
flint host add web-01 --hostname 10.20.30.40 --user root \
  --group homelab/web --tag prod --tag web --label "Web server"
Flag Meaning Default
--hostname <host> DNS name or IP address. Required
--port <n> SSH port 22
--user <user> Login user none
--label <text> A display name none
--group <path> Group path such as homelab/web. Missing groups are created none
--tag <tag> A tag. Repeat the flag for several tags none
--color <#rrggbb> A colour for the GUI none
--notes <text> Free text none
--jump <alias> Connect through this host (ProxyJump) none
--cred <name> Log in with a saved credential none
--key <name> Log in with a stored key none
--password Ask for a password for this host none
--password-stdin Read that password from stdin none

The password is encrypted again inside the encrypted vault and is never printed. Output only says whether one is set.

Find hosts

Section titled “Find hosts”
Terminal window
flint host list                      # every host
flint host list --group homelab      # hosts in homelab and its subgroups
flint host list --tag prod           # hosts tagged prod (any case)
flint host show web-01

Change or remove a host

Section titled “Change or remove a host”

host edit changes only the flags you give:

Terminal window
flint host edit web-01 --port 2222 --tag only   # --tag replaces all tags
flint host edit web-01 --alias web-1            # rename
flint host edit web-01 --group ""               # take it out of its group
flint host edit web-01 --jump "" --no-password  # clear the jump host and the password
flint host edit web-01 --no-tags
flint host rm web-01

An empty value (--group "", --jump "", --cred "", --key "") clears that field.

Flint refuses changes that would break the vault:

  • A host cannot jump through itself, and jump hosts cannot form a loop.
  • A host that another host uses as its jump host cannot be removed.

To open a shell or run a command on a host, see Connecting.

Groups

Section titled “Groups”

Groups nest, and you address them by path. Names compare ignoring case within one parent.

Terminal window
flint group add homelab/proxmox
flint group list
flint group rename homelab lab        # homelab/proxmox becomes lab/proxmox
flint group rm lab/proxmox            # only an empty group can be removed