Using long-lived access tokens to execute hassio commands over ssh

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

I’m trying to make it easier to start/stop/check the config of my hass.io instance via the command line and I can’t figure out how to make it work. My RSA keys are set up properly and I can ssh into the instance without a password. If I ssh into my hassio instance interactively, I can run all the normal hassio commands just fine:

$ hassio ha info
arch: amd64
boot: true
...

If I try to do the same thing via ssh (hassio ssh port is 222 for me):

$ ssh -p 222 root@server hassio ha info

I get this in the system log:

No API token provided for /homeassistant/info

If I generate a long-lived access token via my profile in the UI and retry:

$ ssh -p 222 root@server hassio --api-token "xxx" hassio ha info

I get this in the log:

Invalid token for access /homeassistant/info

I’m just using the exact LLAT string in this case, but I’ve also tried adding "Bearer " to the front without success. All the search results point to doing this via web calls, so maybe there’s some other syntax for using an access token on the command line?

1 Like
2

Is nobody using the --api-token option for hassio? I’m wondering if it actually works, or if I’m just using the wrong kind of token.

3

Solved my own problem. There are several ways to do it:

  • cURL

    • Create a LLAT by going to your profile in the Hass UI (circle at the top-level, scroll to the bottom, create a token)

    • Detailed instructions here on how to construct the request: Authentication API | Home Assistant Developer Docs

      Mine looks like this: (replace homeassistant/check with whatever command you want to run)

$ curl -X POST http://<server>:8123/api/hassio/homeassistant/check -H ‘Authorization: Bearer token_from_ui’

  • SSH to the hassio ssh addon

    • Follow the directions to install the basic ssh addon from the hassio addon store, pick a port, and add your RSA public key into the “authorized keys” section of the config

    • Log in via SSH using the port you chose, type “env” at the prompt and find the “HASSIO_TOKEN=xxx” line. That’s the token you need to use.

    • Run it like this (replace “ha info” with whatever command you want):

$ ssh -p port_number_from_addon root@server_name hassio --api-token “token_from_above” ha info

  • Build the hassio-cli executable and use it from anywhere
    • Generate long-lived access token as in the first option
    • Follow directions to download and build hassio-cli from here: GitHub - home-assistant/cli: 🔳 Home Assistant command line interface
      • When you build it with gox, make sure to specify the platform you need. That was -osarch="linux/amd64" for me, and the example at the link is for ARM.
    • Run it like this (change “ha check” to whatever command you want to run):

$ hassio --endpoint <server>:8123/api/hassio --api-token “token_from_above” ha check

In the end, I used the third option (build hassio-cli locally) and wrote a shell script to run it:

~/bin/hassio-cli \
–endpoint rcoleman-linux:8123/api/hassio \
–api-token “<long-lived-access-token?” \
$*

and I call it “hassio”, so I can use the same command that I use from within the add-on:

hassio ha info

Let me know if you find any typos or have any questions.

2 Likes
4

fyi, if you have hass-cli already setup you should be able to do it like this too:

hass-cli raw post /api/hassio/homeassistant/check

…though I’ve never actually seen any output from a check call so I normally use things like:

hass-cli raw get /api/hassio/supervisor/info

5

I just saw hass-cli today but haven’t installed yet. I’ll check it out. ‘Check’ returns a simple ‘ok’ after a short wait if it’s all good or a bunch of errors if not. If you don’t see anything, it probably passed.

So far, I’m loving doing the check & restart from the command line. It avoids having to navigate the UI or keep a window open to the hassio cli.

6

Yeah, exactly why I work on hass-cli :slight_smile:

should add a specific hassio subcommand to make it even easier.

7

That’s awesome! It’s installed on my Linux machine and my Macbook and I’m playing with it now. I love it already.

Edit: I first used the homebrew installation method on my Mac, but it pulled what appears to be an old version that’s missing at least the “state” command. I switched to pip3 and it’s all good. I don’t know how the brew packages get updated, but it would be good to get it up to date.

8

im travelling at the moment so do please open bug on https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant-cli/issues so not lost.