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vm — local VMs as SSH hosts

A VM's address comes from its hypervisor and changes, so a VM host does not carry one. Its block renders ProxyCommand "<sshmgr>" vm proxy <alias>, and each connection asks the hypervisor where the VM is now.

Hypervisor CLI Address from Key install Keys owned by
Parallels Desktop prlctl list --all --full --json (ip_configured) prlctl exec sshmgr
VMPal vmpal list --json (localAddress) vmpal exec sshmgr
VMware Fusion / Workstation vmrun getGuestIPAddress -wait over SSH once (guest commands need guest credentials) sshmgr
UTM utmctl ip-address (first IPv4) utmctl exec sshmgr
Lima limactl list --json (forwarded sshLocalPort on loopback) limactl shell sshmgr
OrbStack orb its own ssh config (ssh <machine>@orb) not needed OrbStack
Podman machine podman machine list --format json (forwarded port) not needed Podman

OrbStack and Podman run their own SSH access and keys: vm list shows their machines, and they are refused as hosts so sshmgr never takes their keys over. VMware's VM name is the path of its .vmx.

sshmgr vm list

parallels  not installed
vmpal      Ubuntu 24.04                   running  host devbox/devbox
vmware     not installed
lima       default                        Running

sshmgr vm add <profile> <alias> --hypervisor H --vm NAME -u USER

Adds the host (HostName is the alias, since ProxyCommand ignores it) and re-renders the config. Mint its key with sshmgr reconcile, then install the public key in the guest once (with the hypervisor's exec, or over SSH with a password).

sshmgr vm add devbox devbox --hypervisor parallels --vm "Ubuntu 24.04" -u imani
sshmgr reconcile
ssh devbox

In the manifest:

{"alias": "devbox", "hostname": "devbox", "user": "imani", "key_name": "devbox_docker-ed25519",
 "vm": {"hypervisor": "parallels", "name": "Ubuntu 24.04"}}

A port other than 22 on the host wins over the hypervisor's (Lima and Podman forward their own).

What vm proxy does (ssh runs it)

  1. Finds the host's VM and hypervisor.
  2. Asks for the current address. A stopped VM is started, and sshmgr waits up to three minutes for an address, saying so on stderr.
  3. Connects and relays stdin/stdout, so ssh talks to the guest as if directly.

The rendered path prefers the sshmgr on your PATH (a package manager's stable link) over the versioned file behind it. If an upgrade still moves it, doctor reports vm proxy: … does not exist and sshmgr config render rewrites it.

sshmgr vm docker-context <alias>

Creates (or updates) a Docker context ssh://<alias>, so docker --context devbox ps runs against the VM's daemon through the same ProxyCommand. OrbStack and Podman provide their own contexts.

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