Control another device from your computer

Once the tool is installed on the controller (your own computer), set the instance addresses first — once is enough, and wanctl config shows and changes them whenever you like:

wanctl config set relay=https://wanctl-relay.z10.dev portal=https://wanctl.z10.dev

wanctl login signs you in once and gets you an identity (portal login in the browser, then paste the one-time code back into the terminal). Then just use it:

wanctl peers                                  # which devices are online
wanctl exec --target DEVICE "uname -a"        # run a command on it
wanctl push --target DEVICE ./local /remote   # send a file up
wanctl pull --target DEVICE /remote ./local   # pull a file down

The device owner can give a device an alias: open the device in the portal, click the gear on the title row, fill in the Alias field and save; clearing it and saving again removes it. An alias is unique within your namespace and may not collide with any device's real name.

Once set, the device list and the device page show the alias as the display name, with the real device name beside it — an alias is an easier handle, not a way to hide which machine it is. wanctl peers prints the alias in brackets after the real device name, and the --target of the commands above takes either the real device name or the alias. For a shared device, write owner-namespace/alias the same way.

Besides your own online devices, wanctl peers prints a separate shared with you section listing the devices other people shared with you, written as owner-namespace/device — paste a whole line into --target as it stands. A name with no namespace is looked up in your own namespace first, and only then among the devices shared with you; two owners may use the same label, and a label that matches both is refused rather than guessed.

The first time you drive a new device, it waits for that device's own Waiting / Trusted controllers page to say yes. Driving a friend's device needs a share first, and answering its approvals yourself needs that share to carry management (see "Invites, friends and sharing").