Commands

┌────────────┬────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│  COMMAND   │  KIND                      │  USE WHEN              │
├────────────┼────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ shell      │ interactive terminal (PTY) │ hands-on work          │
│ exec       │ one-shot + captured output │ scripts, automation    │
│ mosh       │ roaming interactive        │ survives Wi-Fi changes │
│ tunnel     │ raw TCP/UDP over P2P       │ ssh / scp / git / DB   │
└────────────┴────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘

vpncli shell my-server

vpncli exec my-server "hostname; uptime"
# → prints the remote hostname and uptime

vpncli exec my-server "test -f /etc/ready"
echo $?      # ← the REMOTE command's exit code

if vpncli exec my-server "systemctl is-active nginx"; then
  echo "nginx is up"
fi

vpncli mosh my-server

# Use ssh over vpncli:
ssh -o ProxyCommand="vpncli tunnel %h %p" user@my-server

# Forward a local port to a remote service (e.g. a database):
vpncli tunnel my-server 5432 --listen 5432

# UDP (for mosh, DNS, and similar):
vpncli tunnel my-server 60001 --udp --listen 60001

vpncli cp report.pdf my-server:/home/me/report.pdf
vpncli cp my-server:/var/log/app.log ./app.log