inventory-ssh

inventory-ssh is a lightweight wrapper around the standard ssh client. It reads ansible.cfg and Ansible inventory files from the current directory, resolves the requested host, and then runs SSH with the resolved options. If a host is not found, it can fall back to normal SSH behavior.

Features

• Works as a drop-in wrapper for ssh
• Reads ansible.cfg and inventory in the current directory
• Supports defaults for user, port, and keys
• Optional "inventory only" mode to disable fallback
• Debug logging toggle

Requirements

• A working ssh client (OpenSSH recommended)
• Ansible inventory files and ansible.cfg in the directory where you run the tool

Install

Binaries and distro packages

See the Releases page on GitHub for prebuilt binaries and packages.

Build from source

just build
# or
go build .

Configuration

Copy the sample config to your XDG config directory and rename it:

cp config.yml.sample "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/inventory-ssh.yml"

Key options (see config.yml.sample for the full list):

• path: inventory file path (default ./hosts)
• ssh_command: path or name of the ssh binary
• inventory_only: if true, do not fall back to plain SSH
• debug: enable debug logs
• defaults: default user, port, private_keys, and passwords

Usage

Run it exactly like ssh, but from a directory containing your inventory:

inventory-ssh my-host

Optional: set an alias to transparently use it as ssh:

# $HOME/.bashrc
alias ssh="inventory-ssh"

Examples

Connect using inventory resolution:

inventory-ssh app-server-1

Force inventory-only behavior (set in config):

inventory_only: true

Notes

• If the host is not found and inventory_only is false, inventory-ssh runs the underlying ssh command directly.
• Ansible is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Red Hat or the Ansible project.

License

See LICENSE.md.