vee ssh

Open an SSH session to a running VM.

vee ssh <name> [-- <remote command>]

Flags

Flag	Description
`--user`	SSH username (overrides `ssh_user` in `vm.yaml`)
`--identity`	Path to SSH private key (defaults to `~/.vee/ssh/id_ed25519`)

IP resolution

vee resolves the VM’s IP address in this order:

Guest agent — if guest_agent: true and qemu-guest-agent is installed, reads the IP directly from the guest without ARP. This is the most reliable method.
ARP / neighbour table — matches the VM’s MAC address to an IP in the host’s neighbour table. IPv4 is preferred over IPv6 link-local.
NAT port forward — for user-mode NAT VMs, connects via 127.0.0.1 and the forwarded SSH port.

SSH key

vee generates an Ed25519 keypair at ~/.vee/ssh/id_ed25519 on first use and injects the public key via cloud-init. For bridge VMs without cloud-init, set ssh_user in vm.yaml and ensure the key is pre-installed in the guest.

Examples

# Interactive shell
vee ssh myvm

# Run a single command
vee ssh myvm -- uptime

# Override user
vee ssh --user root myvm