the dashboard
a full-screen terminal UI over SSH: machines, shells, files, and account settings in one place.
opening the dashboard
$ ssh dashboard@ironwire.sh
no client to install. watch machines live, open shells, and reach the few settings that only exist here (delete protection, orchestration, themes, devices). prefer one-shot commands and scripts? everything lifecycle-related is also a plain SSH command; see the command reference.
if a service message is active, an announcement ribbon appears across the top. planned maintenance and similar notices show up there.
the machine list
<SCREENSHOT: dashboard machine list — a few machines in mixed states (running, stopped, paused) with live cpu/mem columns>
the main screen is a table of your machines, refreshed every 2 seconds:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| NAME | machine name |
| STATE | running, stopped, paused, booting, … |
| IP | internal address, reachable from your other machines |
| UP | uptime since the last start (running machines only) |
| CPU | live CPU %, sampled while running |
| MEM | memory used, % of total |
| DISK | disk used, % of total |
| DRIVE | attached if the shared drive is mounted |
| SSH | the machine's direct SSH endpoint |
| URL | custom domain (with (pending) until active) or the machine's HTTPS URL |
cells show — when there's nothing to report (a stopped machine has no uptime or live stats). a machine being created or copied appears as a spinner row until it's ready.
keys and actions
<SCREENSHOT: actions popup (Space) open on a running machine, showing the state-filtered operations and toggles>
move with ↑/↓ (or k/j), then:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | connect: open a shell on the machine |
| Space | actions popup for the selected machine |
| n | new machine |
| s | stop / start |
| p | pause / resume |
| r | restart (running machines) |
| y | copy (paused or stopped machines) |
| z | resize |
| o | ports |
| m | custom domain |
| t | stats popup: CPU/memory/disk graphs over 1h, 24h, 7d, or 30d (←/→ to change range) |
| e | env vars (account-global; per-machine env is in the actions popup) |
| d | shared drive |
| g | toggle delete protection |
| c | toggle orchestration (let this machine drive the fleet via the CLI) |
| x | delete (press y to confirm) |
| f | file manager |
| a | account settings (appearance, devices) |
| ? | help |
| q | quit |
the Space actions popup lists the same operations, filtered to what the machine's state allows.
shells
<SCREENSHOT: framed shell on a machine with two tabs visible along the frame>
press Enter on a running machine to open a shell inside a frame that stays connected to the dashboard. open shells appear as tabs along the frame, tmux-style, numbered for the first nine.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F2 | detach: back to the dashboard, the shell keeps running |
| F3 | shell switcher popup: 1 to 9 jump, ↑/↓ + Enter select, x close a shell, Esc cancel |
| F5 / F6 | previous / next open shell |
| Shift+PageUp / PageDown | scroll back / forward half a screen |
each shell keeps 10000 lines of scrollback. while scrolled, the status bar shows how far up you are; any other keystroke snaps back to live. inside full-screen apps (vim, htop) the paging keys pass through to the app.
type exit to close the shell; if other shells are open you land in one of them, otherwise back on the machine list.
mouse and clipboard
at a plain prompt, the wheel scrolls and click-drag selects; releasing the button copies to your local clipboard via OSC 52 (most modern terminals). double-click selects a word, triple-click a line. middle-click pastes the last in-shell selection. when an app like vim or htop takes over the mouse, clicks and wheel events are forwarded to it untouched.
the file manager
<SCREENSHOT: dual-pane file manager — one pane on a machine, the other on the shared drive>
press f for a dual-pane file manager. each pane starts at a location picker listing your running machines (browsed over SFTP) and your shared drive, if you have one. machine panes open in the login user's home directory; the drive pane at its root.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab | switch pane |
| Enter / → | enter directory |
| Backspace / ← | up one level (from /, back to the picker) |
| v | view a file |
| Space | tag files for a multi-file operation |
| y / m | copy / move to the other pane |
| a | new folder |
| r / x | rename / delete |
| g | refresh |
| Esc | back to the dashboard |
listings sort ls -la style: dotfiles and dotfolders first, directories before files, then case-insensitive by name. the viewer shows the first 64 KiB of text files (with line numbers); binary files show their details instead. view-only; use a shell to edit. copies between machines, or between a machine and the shared drive, stream through the file manager; if the destination runs out of room you get not enough space at the destination — nothing was copied.
themes
<SCREENSHOT: theme picker open, a non-default theme highlighted>
press a and open Appearance to change the theme. ten available: Amber (the default), Green P1, Cyan CRT, C64, Synthwave, Paperwhite, Plasma, Gameboy, Ice, and Gold. ↑/↓ previews live, Enter saves, Esc reverts. the theme is stored on your account and also colors shell frames and tab strips. see accounts & devices for the rest of the account settings screen.