connect, disconnect & shell

These commands manage the connection between your laptop and the robot (Wombat/Pi).

This page is the connection management reference. For the full SSH key setup flow and options, see the dedicated connect page.

Where the connection is saved

raccoon saves the connection in two places simultaneously:

• config/connection.yml inside the project — used when you run commands from this project directory
• ~/.raccoon/config.yml globally — records the Pi as a “known Pi” so raccoon shell and raccoon doctor can find it without a project

raccoon disconnect only drops the in-memory session state. It does not delete either saved address. To fully reset (e.g. when the robot changes IP), run raccoon connect <new-IP> — it overwrites both config files with the new address.

raccoon connect

raccoon connect [OPTIONS] ADDRESS

Connect to a Wombat via its IP address or hostname. Sets up SSH key authentication and saves the connection so every subsequent command works automatically.

Examples

# Connect to a Wombat with default credentials
raccoon connect 192.168.4.1

# Connect with a custom port and user
raccoon connect -u fox1 --port 8222 192.168.4.1

# Connect without saving (useful for one-off checks)
raccoon connect 192.168.4.1 --no-save

When a connection is saved, raccoon writes to two places:

• config/connection.yml (inside your project) — used when running commands from this project
• ~/.raccoon/config.yml — records this Pi globally so raccoon shell and raccoon doctor can find it without a project

raccoon disconnect

Removes the current active connection and clears the session state.

raccoon disconnect

This does not delete the saved address from config/connection.yml or ~/.raccoon/config.yml. It only drops the in-memory session. To fully reset, also edit those files manually, or run raccoon connect to overwrite them with a new address.

raccoon shell

raccoon shell

Opens a full interactive SSH session to the connected Pi by replacing the current process (os.execvp). Once inside, you have a normal shell on the Pi — useful for inspecting logs, checking running processes, or manually running commands.

Address resolution

raccoon shell finds the Pi address in this priority order:

1. The active session (if you ran raccoon connect earlier in the same shell)
2. The connection.pi_address field in the current project’s raccoon.project.yml
3. The first known Pi from ~/.raccoon/config.yml

If no address is found, raccoon prints an error and exits.

Example

# Connect first (once), then drop into a shell
raccoon connect 192.168.4.1
raccoon shell

# You are now on the Pi:
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ps aux | grep raccoon
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tail -f /var/log/raccoon/server.log
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ exit

raccoon shell calls ssh from your PATH. Make sure ssh is installed (raccoon doctor will flag it if not).