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Commands you save once

A snippet is a command you save once and run on any host: from the Snippets page on several hosts at once, or in a session, as if you typed it.

Updated

On this page
  1. How it works
  2. The Library
  3. Make a snippet
  4. Write it for me
  5. Run it on hosts
  6. In a session
  7. When a session starts
  8. A team’s snippets
  9. More with snippets
  10. Good to know

How it works

Running a snippet types it into a terminal, through the same path as your keys. So it goes only where your typing goes.

Runtypes ittypes ittypes itDisk usedf -hGoTermopens a session on eachweb-01web-02db-01
One snippet, Disk use, run on three hosts: GoTerm opens a session on each and types the command there.
  • Snippets are plain text, not secrets: everyone who can run one can read it. Keep passwords in the Vault.
  • Yours are yours alone. A team’s are there for everyone on the team.
  • Someone who only watches a session can’t run a snippet in it: the gateway drops their typing.

The Library

  1. Open Snippets, then Library: about 140 ready commands in 15 kits, such as Disk, Logs and Docker.
  2. Search for what you need, or pick your system to see only what works there.
  3. Run one with its run button, or choose Copy the kit to My snippets to change your own copy.

Tip: Each Library command says what it does, which systems it suits, and whether it changes the server.

Make a snippet

  1. On My snippets, choose New snippet. Pick its Space and, if you like, a Kit.
  2. Give it a Name and a Command. Write {{name}} for a value to fill in when it runs, or {{name:default}} to offer one.
  3. Tick Changes the server for a restart, a delete or an upgrade: its run shows the final command and asks once more.
  4. Choose Add snippet.

Tip: Pasted something that looks like a password or a token? GoTerm warns you, and refuses a private key: those belong in the Vault.

Write it for me

  1. In New snippet, choose Write it for me and describe the job in a sentence.
  2. Pick the System, then choose Write it.
  3. Check the command it writes, and change it if you need to. It never runs by itself.

Tip: Only your sentence and the system go to the AI: never a host, an address, or what a terminal showed.

Run it on hosts

  1. On Snippets, choose a snippet’s run button.
  2. Tick up to ten hosts. GoTerm opens a session on each, and types the command once its shell is ready.
  3. Fill in any values, check The command, then choose Run on 2 hosts, or however many you ticked.

Tip: Paste on a host…, on a snippet’s menu, types it without pressing Enter.

In a session

  1. In a session, choose Snippets among the session tools at the right.
  2. Mine lists this host’s own first, then yours and your teams’. Library has GoTerm’s kits.
  3. Choose a snippet’s run button to type it here. Run in open sessions…, on its menu, types it into several of your sessions at once.

Tip: GoTerm asks first when a program fills the screen or a line is half typed, and never types into a password prompt.

When a session starts

  1. Edit a host. Under When a session starts, pick a snippet from the host’s space or the Library.
  2. It runs each time a new session starts on the host: not when someone attaches again, nor for someone watching.
  3. It can’t be one that changes the server, and each value it asks for needs a default.

A team’s snippets

  1. A team’s admins, and the organization’s, add and edit its snippets. Every member can run and copy them.
  2. To let members add and edit them too, open Teams, then the team, and switch on Members can add and edit this team's snippets.
  3. A snippet that a host runs when a session starts stays the admins’ to edit, whatever the switch says.

More with snippets

  • AutocompleteAs you type in a terminal, your snippets and the Library suggest the rest of the command.
What you typesudo systemctl reYour snippetsand the LibraryA suggestionrestart nginx
You start a command in the terminal; your snippets and the Library suggest how it ends.

Good to know

  • Runs, and the values you fill in, are never logged, as no typing is.
  • Changes to a team’s snippets go in the audit log, without the command’s text.
  • Personal snippets are yours alone: no admin sees them.
  • A run that would go past your workspace’s limit on open sessions stops, and names the hosts it didn’t start.
  • Write it for me is on every paid plan, and in the trial.

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