[bradgessler]

I'm working on a different approach that doesn't use ssh at https://terminalwire.com/.

It's meant for inherently server-based CLI's like Github, Stripe, Fly, Heroku, or any other SaaS and can be plugged directly into web frameworks. My thinking is that more companies would ship command-line interfaces if they didn't have to maintain APIs for them, deal with distributing binaries (and all the compatibility issues that come with that), or deal with all the configuration involved in hooking up SSH to their app servers.

It's in beta at the moment, and I'm currently focused on Rails apps to get the ergonomics dialed-in. My goal is to make it possible for people in any web framework to build and ship a CLI to customers in under an hour and never have to touch an API or worry about binary distribution for as long as their CLI exists.

[qudat]

At my org the biggest issue with out CLI is not the initial distribution, but supporting and maintaining multiple platforms, code signing the binaries, and making sure customers actually update the binaries.

[bradgessler]

Yeah, I put all of that under the umbrella of “distribution”—the last mile is a huge pain in the SaaS that SaaS CLIs shouldn’t have to deal with or even think about.

Terminalwire will handle the builds for all the different platforms, signing, etc. so companies can instead focus on shipping their unique features to customers.

I’m also going to ship clients that automatically update to match the version of the client that’s compatible with the server in a way that the client won’t even notice.

[darthwalsh]

At the large enterprises I've worked at, signing with our certs had to happen on our own build machines. And I don't think there was any precedent if we could sign third party binaries that had been built for us.

Having some my-company.terminalwire.com as the signing identity could work; I bet most SMB wouldn't bat an eye to ship like that.