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Your agents can work on more than this Mac. Add a server you sign in to with SSH, mention it in a chat, and ask, the way you’d ask about your own Mac: the Agent runs the commands there and answers here. Nothing is installed on the server. Your other computers that run Enconvo can be paired the same way. The video below adds an SSH host from your SSH config, asks the Agent to read a log on it, and shows who can reach this Mac.

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Before you start

  • You need a server you can sign in to with ssh from this Mac: a host in ~/.ssh/config, or an address you can type as user@host. Enconvo uses this Mac’s own ssh and keys. If the server asks for a password or a passphrase, ssh asks through Enconvo, and Enconvo keeps none of it.
  • For a server on your local network, allow Enconvo in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.

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What Connections lists

Open Settings → Connections. It has three lists: Click a phone or a computer to open its own page, with what it can do on this Mac.

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Add an SSH host

  1. Open Settings → Connections and, under SSH hosts, click Add a host.
  2. The list shows the hosts in your ~/.ssh/config. Pick one, such as build-server, or type user@host (or user@host:port).
  3. Click Connect. Enconvo tests the connection: it reaches the host, checks the host key, signs in, and runs a command.
  4. Under Before each command, choose how the Agent asks before it runs a command there:
    • Follow the chat: asks as the chat’s Permission mode says. See Approve actions.
    • Always ask: asks before every command.
  5. Click Add host.
The host now shows under SSH hosts, and in every chat’s @ menu. The first time Enconvo sees a server’s host key, check the key with whoever runs the server, then click Trust and connect. On a Linux server, the dialog also offers Also install Enconvo there, which pairs the server as a computer. Leave it off to install nothing.

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Ask the Agent to work on a host

  1. In a chat, type @ and the start of the host’s name. Your computers and SSH hosts are listed under Computers.
  2. Pick the host. It goes into the message as a chip.
  3. Ask what you want done there, and send. For example:
The Agent runs the commands on the host over SSH, asking first as you chose for that host. Each command step names the host it ran on. The answer comes back in the chat. To see what it ran, click Worked for above the answer. The fold lists each command. You can mention a paired computer the same way. The Agent hands the task to that computer’s own agent, or runs commands there when that computer allows Terminal for this Mac.

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Change a host’s settings

Under SSH hosts, click a host to open its page: The page’s ⋯ menu has Test connection and Remove host…. Removing a host forgets it in Enconvo. Your ~/.ssh/config and the server stay as they are.

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See who can reach this Mac

Who can reach this Mac, in Settings → Connections, shows how many phones and computers can reach this Mac. To cut them all off at once, click Stop all access and confirm. Your phones and other computers can no longer reach any of your Macs, and what they have running there stops. Click Turn access back on when you want them back.

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Troubleshooting

iPhone App

Pair a phone, the first list in Connections.

Agents

Permission modes and how the Agent asks before it acts.

Computer Use

Let the Agent use apps on this Mac.

Chat Window

Where you mention a host and read the answer.