rtk-ai/rtk

Feature request: ssh command support

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#783 opened on Mar 23, 2026

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 (3 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (2,914 forks)batch import
area:clieffort-largeenhancementhelp wantedpriority:high

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Description

Use Case

When using Claude Code (or other AI coding assistants), ssh is one of the most frequent commands — especially for remote server management. Remote commands like docker logs, ls, cat, systemctl status etc. executed via ssh produce verbose output that consumes significant context window tokens.

Statistics (from rtk discover)

  • ~5,000 ssh commands in 30 days (single user)
  • Most common patterns:
    • ssh user@host "docker logs container"
    • ssh user@host "ls -la /path"
    • ssh user@host "cat /etc/config"
    • ssh user@host "systemctl status service"

Proposed Behavior

rtk ssh user@host "docker logs container" could apply the same filters RTK already has for docker, ls, cat etc. — but to the remote output.

The challenge is that RTK would need to detect the "inner command" being executed remotely and apply the appropriate filter.

Impact

ssh is by far the #1 unhandled command by volume in rtk discover output.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Study the existing filter system in RTK, then design an SSH command parser that extracts the inner command from ssh arguments and applies the corresponding filter.
Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
3-5 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
RustSSH
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50