sitectl

A simple CLI for bootstrapping Linux servers, nginx site configs, and TLS certificates.

It is opinionated, but customizable:

• today it is biased toward Debian-like servers because the bootstrap/install flow is written for apt, nginx, certbot, ufw, and related packages
• after install, you can edit the data files in ~/.config/sitectl/ however you want and adapt the tool to your own setup
• templates, remote scripts, and nginx configs are meant to be user-editable

This is a CLI-only utility for interactive local use. It is not intended for CI or hermetic automation environments.

The workflow is interactive only:

• start sitectl
• choose an action from the menu
• follow the prompts

Demo

Setup

npm install -g sitectl

sitectl is intended to run on Unix-like systems.

Supported local environments:

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows via WSL

Native Windows is not supported at the moment.

Required local dependencies:

• Node.js
• npm
• ssh
• rsync
• ssh-copy-id

Platform notes:

• On macOS, Manage sites -> Copy conf files to server expects a newer rsync than the system one. Install it with Homebrew:

brew install rsync

• On Linux, Open data dir and local config opening use xdg-open, which is typically provided by your desktop environment or xdg-utils.
• On Windows, use WSL and install the Linux dependencies inside WSL.

Menu

Main menu:

• Manage servers
• Manage sites
• Open data dir
• Exit

Manage servers:

• Add server
• Edit server
• Delete server
• Install base packages
• Configure zsh
• Setup ufw
• Back

Manage sites:

• Add site
• Open nginx.conf
• Copy conf files to server
• Issue certificate
• Enable https
• Disable https
• Back

The non-interactive commands are:

• sitectl ssh
• sitectl ssh <server-name>
• sitectl ssh-copy-id

Remote automation assets live in:

• ~/.config/sitectl/nginx/bootstrap.conf
• ~/.config/sitectl/remote/install-base-packages.sh
• ~/.config/sitectl/remote/configure-zsh.sh
• ~/.config/sitectl/remote/myzshrc.zsh
• ~/.config/sitectl/remote/setup-ufw.sh

Nginx site registry lives in:

• ~/.config/sitectl/nginx/sites/<domain>/nginx.conf

Manage Servers Workflow

Typical flow for a new VPS:

1. Add server
2. sitectl ssh-copy-id
3. Install base packages
4. Configure zsh
5. Setup ufw

What those actions do:

• Add server Creates a server record in ~/.config/sitectl/config.json.
• sitectl ssh-copy-id Installs your SSH public key on the target server so the rest of the workflow can work over key-based SSH.
• Install base packages Runs the opinionated bootstrap script for Debian-like servers.
• Configure zsh Installs the custom shell config from ~/.config/sitectl/remote/.
• Setup ufw Applies the default firewall rules for SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS.

Manage Sites Workflow

Typical flow for a new site:

1. Add site
2. edit nginx.conf
3. Copy conf files to server
4. Issue certificate
5. Enable https

What those actions do:

• Add site Creates ~/.config/sitectl/nginx/sites/<domain>/ and seeds nginx.conf from the local template.
• Open nginx.conf Opens the local site config for editing.
• Copy conf files to server Uploads:
  • <domain>.bootstrap.conf
  • <domain>.conf if local nginx.conf exists
• Issue certificate Uses certbot certonly --nginx -d <domain>. This command is intended for the bootstrap flow when HTTPS is still disabled. After issuing a certificate, the site remains on the bootstrap HTTP config until you explicitly run Enable https.
• Enable https Switches sites-enabled/<domain>.conf to the main HTTPS config.
• Disable https Switches sites-enabled/<domain>.conf back to the bootstrap HTTP config.

Config

Server records are stored locally in:

~/.config/sitectl/config.json

Current server shape:

{
  "servers": {
    "prod": {
      "address": "203.0.113.10",
      "flag": "🌍",
      "port": 22,
      "user": "root"
    }
  }
}

Run

npm run dev

SSH command:

npm run ssh
npm run ssh -- prod
npm run ssh-copy-id

After global install:

sitectl ssh
sitectl ssh prod
sitectl ssh-copy-id

Interactive actions are available through the menu opened by sitectl.

Build

npm run build

Built CLI also starts without arguments:

node dist/index.js

Defaults are seeded from the packaged config/ files during prepare, and the runtime still recreates a missing file on demand if needed.