Import from Ásbrú

Coming from Ásbrú Connection Manager? desk can read its connections and add them to an organization’s servers file: its groups, users, ports, keys and jump hosts. Passwords stay behind.

Close Ásbrú first

desk reads ~/.config/asbru/asbru.yml (or the folder in $ASBRU_CFG). Ásbrú writes that file when it closes cleanly, so close it before importing, or desk may read an older copy.

Settings

1. Open Settings (next to Organizations in the sidebar) and pick the organization.

2. Under its accounts, the Servers part says where its servers file is, or that there’s none yet and where an import will make it.

   

   Acme has no servers file yet.

3. Click Import from Ásbrú. desk lists Ásbrú’s top-level groups.

   

   Pick the group that is this organization’s, or all of them.

4. Click the group that is this organization’s (Prod here), or All of Ásbrú. Cancel closes the list.

A toast says what happened, with the first few skipped hosts:

Three SSH hosts added; the RDP one skipped.

desk then reads the organization’s servers again, so its Servers row shows up in the sidebar at once:

If nothing was new, the toast says “Nothing to import from Ásbrú (N skipped)”. If desk can’t read Ásbrú’s file, it says “No Ásbrú connections: …”.

Shell

desk servers import-asbru -org ~/Work/Acme -group Prod   # add Prod's hosts to Acme's servers file
desk servers import-asbru > ssh_config                   # or just print the file

desk servers import-asbru [-org DIR] [-group PATH] [FILE]

• -org DIR: add the hosts to that organization folder’s servers file. It prints “N servers added to …” when done. Without -org, the file’s text goes to standard output.
• -group PATH: only the hosts in that Ásbrú group. A path: Prod/Web.
• FILE: another file to read instead of Ásbrú’s own, such as an export from its tree. It goes last, after the flags.
• Skipped hosts are listed on standard error: skipped Prod/win-01: RDP, not SSH.

What it brings

For each SSH connection:

• Its address, user (for a key login, the key’s user), port (unless it’s 22) and key (IdentityFile). A key login with no fallback also gets PreferredAuthentications publickey.
• Its description, as #@ desc (its first line; Ásbrú’s default “Connection with ‘…’” is left out).
• Groups become #@ group paths, relative to the group you picked. Hosts right in that group, or in no group, go under #@ group servers.
• Jump hosts become hidden Host blocks (#@ hidden) that the host reaches through ProxyJump. A SOCKS proxy becomes a ProxyCommand nc -X 5 -x …. Ásbrú’s global proxy or jump settings apply when the connection has none of its own.
• Its ssh options become their config keywords: -X, -Y, -A, -C, -4, -6, -g, -o Key=Value, -L/-R/-D forwards, -p, -i, -l, -J. Anything else stays as a comment in the host’s block (# Ásbrú ssh option not imported: …).
• Names become ssh aliases: spaces turn into -, and only letters, digits, ., _ and - stay. Two hosts with the same name get the group’s name in front, then -2, -3…

The import starts with a comment line saying when and how many. Ásbrú’s Prod group, with a Web group inside, a build host and an RDP connection, imported with -group Prod:

# Imported from Ásbrú Connection Manager on 2026-11-04: 3 servers.

#@ group Web
Host www-01
    HostName 192.0.2.31
    User deploy
Host www-02
    HostName 192.0.2.32
    User deploy

#@ group servers
Host build
    HostName 192.0.2.40
    User ci

What it leaves behind

• Passwords. An ssh_config can’t hold them. Point #@ password at your vault instead.
• Connections that aren’t SSH (RDP, VNC, Telnet…): “RDP, not SSH”.
• Hosts written with Ásbrú’s variables (<GV:…>, <ENV:…>) in the address, user or port: “uses Ásbrú variables (…)”.
• Connections with no address: “no address”.
• Hosts the file has already, by name (Includes inside the organization’s folder count): “already in the servers file”. Importing again only adds the new ones.

The toast and the shell list which ones were skipped and why.

Where it writes

• The organization’s servers file: <Org>/.desk/ssh_config, or the [servers] file of its desk.toml.
• New hosts go at the end, after a blank line. What’s already there isn’t touched.
• desk makes the file if there’s none, readable by you only (600).
• With nothing to add, it writes nothing.