dial/docs/v2-report.md

dial — v2 report

A status report on dial after the v2 pass, written to be self-contained so it can be pasted into a fresh chat for brainstorming. No codebase access needed to follow it. (For the original tool, see the v1 REPORT.md; this focuses on what v2 added and where it stands.)

What dial is (one paragraph)

dial is a fast, cross-platform command-line SSH tool. Its core is an interactive host picker: it reads ~/.ssh/config, shows a clean, static, high-contrast, low-light-friendly list, and on selection execs the real system ssh client into the host (so tty/ProxyJump/agent forwarding just work). It's a single Go binary. v2 added richer sorting/grouping and a native SSH key generator. Optional features include a YubiKey launch gate. App data (recents, favourites, settings) lives under ~/.ssh/.dial/ so it syncs via the user's existing Syncthing.

What v2 shipped

1. Alphabetical sort. The s key now cycles three modes: recently used → most used → name. Favourites still pin to the top in every mode. Persisted.

2. Last-connected timestamp shown in the host preview pane ("1 hour ago" / "never"), surfacing the recency data already tracked for sorting.

3. Tag grouping + coloured tag pills. A g toggle (independent of sort) groups the list into sections: a Favourites section, one section per tag (alphabetical), then Untagged. Tag pills are coloured deterministically per tag from the theme's high-contrast palette. Decision made: grouping is an independent toggle (not a 4th sort mode), and a multi-tagged host appears under its first tag only, so the list stays a clean permutation with no duplicated rows.

4. dial keygen. A new subcommand that generates SSH keys natively in Go (no ssh-keygen dependency): ed25519 by default, --rsa for RSA-4096. Optional passphrase (default none). It keeps the .pub file (the old shell script deleted it), writes the private key 0600, and can append a matching Host block to ~/.ssh/config — backing the file up first and refusing to duplicate an existing alias. It's a rebuild of an old create_ssh_keypair.sh, fixing that script's macOS-only sed, key-deletion, and unquoted-append bugs.

Architecture (packages)

Existing v1 packages: sshconf (read-only config parser), store (~/.ssh/.dial/ persistence), picker (the TUI), connect (exec-into-ssh), yubikey (gate + recovery code), theme (styling). v2 added:

• internal/keygen — native key generation (crypto + x/crypto/ssh), key-file writing with correct perms, and safe ~/.ssh/config appends.

Host selection stayed decoupled from the action, which keeps room to add new per-host actions (e.g. the deferred SFTP browser) without disturbing the picker.

Current state

• Complete and green. All packages build; go vet clean; unit tests pass for sshconf, store, yubikey, picker, keygen.
• Cross-compiles to all five targets (macOS arm64/amd64, Linux amd64/arm64, Windows amd64).
• Live-verified via tmux: keygen verified end-to-end (valid ed25519, correct perms, config append with backup); picker navigation, sort cycling, tag grouping, and favourites toggling all exercised.

Known limitations / not yet exercised

• YubiKey gate is hardware-untested — the challenge-response and recovery-code logic have unit coverage, but the gate has not been exercised against a physical YubiKey + ykman on real hardware.
• Still unsigned binaries (Gatekeeper/SmartScreen warnings); no CI/releases.

Deferred (explicitly out of this pass)

• In-app SFTP file browser. Planned for v2 (see dial-v2-plan.md §3) — a dual-pane push/pull browser opened with t, built on an in-process SFTP stack (pkg/sftp + golang.org/x/crypto/ssh). Not built. No t action, no transfer/connection packages, and pkg/sftp is not a dependency. This is the largest deferred item and would be the natural centrepiece of a v3.
• Idle-timeout gate option; distribution/signing/package managers; multi-select actions across hosts; per-host notes; fuzzy search.

Open questions & directions to brainstorm

1. SFTP browser — build it next? It was the headline v2 plan but slipped. Worth scoping as the v3 centrepiece, and if so, what's the cheapest way to smoke-test the connection layer against a real sshd (a throwaway VM? a container running sshd? a known host)?
2. Grouping refinements — should multi-tagged hosts optionally appear under every tag? Should there be a per-tag filter shortcut or colour legend?
3. Distribution — Homebrew tap / Scoop / install.sh / signed releases via CI: worth doing now that the feature set is broad?

How to build / try

• Build: make build (native) or make dist (all platforms). Requires Go 1.25+.
• Keys: dial keygen (no external deps).
• YubiKey gate: dial yubikey enable (requires Yubico's ykman).