Remote Access

openmates remote-access keeps a read-only connection open between your local project files and OpenMates. The command runs in the foreground until you press Ctrl+C, so closing it makes its sources unavailable in OpenMates.

Commands

openmates remote-access [--path <folder>]... [--personal|--team <team>] [--json]

Interactive hosting confirms the current Personal or Team context before any folder discovery. Non-interactive and JSON hosting must pass --personal or --team <team>; otherwise it fails with context_confirmation_required.

Without --path, the CLI discovers accessible Git repositories below the current folder, reconnects existing Project associations, and asks before creating or binding missing Projects. Repeating --path replaces that default discovery scope; only those folders are connected. The CLI warns and asks for additional confirmation before exposing a broad root such as your home folder.

OpenMates can browse bounded directory listings, search safe text files, and preview a selected text file while the source is connected. A preview remains ephemeral unless you explicitly choose Upload to OpenMates.

Request those files from another authenticated CLI with deterministic commands:

openmates projects files list <project> --personal --json
openmates projects files search <project> billing --team acme --source <source-id> --json
openmates projects files read <project> src/billing.ts --team acme --source <source-id> --json

Live filesystem hosting and requests are CLI-only; stored encrypted Project data is the separate surface intended for npm and pip SDK parity.

Live file requests always require an explicit Personal or Team flag in JSON or non-interactive mode. Multiple online sources require --source; reads require an exact source-relative path returned by list or search. These operations have fixed path, depth, query, result-byte, concurrency, rate, and protocol-timeout limits and never fall back to an AI model or broader source/context.

Use openmates projects --help for deterministic list/show/open/create/update, archive/unarchive/delete, item, and source commands. Stored Project commands may use the persisted context. Team viewers can read, members can mutate Projects and remove links/sources they attached, and owners/admins can change settings, remove any link/source, and permanently delete. API permission denials remain stable machine-readable errors. Project deletion sends the exact Project ID to the server for confirmation, and source removal sends the exact source ID. Missing or mismatched IDs are rejected; a generic boolean confirmation is not accepted.

The CLI reconnects automatically after temporary network interruptions with a bounded backoff. OpenMates marks the source offline after missed heartbeats and blocks new reads until the foreground command reconnects.

Safety

Remote access cannot create, edit, delete, rename, or execute files. Every operation stays inside the approved real path and excludes symlink escapes, Git-ignored files, protected paths such as .env, binary files, and oversized results. Source associations are stored with owner-only permissions under ~/.openmates/remote-sources.json.

Paths, queries, snippets, and file previews are encrypted end to end between the OpenMates client and CLI. The backend routes opaque ciphertext and live status only; encryption keys and filesystem plaintext are not sent to it.

Examples

# Discover repositories below the current folder
openmates remote-access --personal

# Connect only these approved roots
openmates remote-access --team acme --path ./web --path ../api

# Emit structured lifecycle events while remaining in the foreground
openmates remote-access --personal --path ./my-repo --json