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When you start ipmideck in a terminal, it renders an interactive operator console: a pinned header with the banner and a help bar over a live, scrolling log. Every action is a single keypress — no menus, no mouse. The console runs in-process alongside the server, so what you see is the live state of the box you are on.
The console only appears on a real interactive terminal — both stdin and stdout must be TTYs. Under Docker, systemd, or when stdout is piped/redirected, ipmideck skips the console entirely and just writes plain scrolling logs. See Where the console shows up.

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The header

The top of the screen is a fixed header that never scrolls. It stacks, top to bottom:
  • The ipmideck banner.
  • The help bar — every action key and what it does.
  • The status line — the live state of the session.
  • A compact credits line (author, version, license).
The body below the header is the scrolling log tail. The newest line is always kept on screen, so a freshly surfaced URL or confirmation is never clipped off the bottom.

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Status line

The status line shows three live fields, separated by |:
  • Verbosity — the current log level (INFO, DEBUG, or WARNING).
  • Clients — the number of connected dashboard clients right now.
  • last — the last actionable key you pressed, as immediate visual feedback.

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Action keys

Every action is one keypress. The help bar lists them all:
KeyAction
vCycle log verbosity
cOpen the connected-sessions sub-view
sOpen the configured-servers sub-view
uSurface the dashboard url in the log
gUpdate check (prints the local version)
bOpen the change-bind editor
rRestart the server
qQuit, or return to the log view from a sub-view
ESCBack — return to the log view from a sub-view
Arrow, function, and navigation keys are consumed and ignored — they never collide with an action or count as a keypress.

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v — verbosity

v cycles the runtime log level through a fixed three-step loop: 
INFO → DEBUG → WARNING → INFO
INFO is the default. DEBUG shows more; WARNING shows less. The change takes effect immediately for the rest of the session and the status line updates to match.
The verbosity toggle changes the running level only. On the next boot, the level from your config (or the IPMIDECK_LOGGING_LEVEL env var) wins again. See Configuration.

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c — sessions

c opens the Connected sessions sub-view, a read-only table of the dashboard clients currently attached, with columns:
  • IP
  • Connected since
  • User-Agent
Press q or ESC to return to the log view.

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s — servers

s opens the Configured servers sub-view, a read-only table of the BMCs ipmideck is configured to talk to, with columns:
  • Name
  • Host
  • Status
Press q or ESC to return to the log view.

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u — url

u surfaces the dashboard URL (scheme://host:port) in the log body. If the server is bound to a wildcard address (0.0.0.0, ::, or empty), the URL is rewritten to 127.0.0.1 so it is actually openable in a browser — http://0.0.0.0:3000 is a listen address, not a navigable one.

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g — update

g prints the local version and a note that the online update check ships with the pip release. It makes no network call — ipmideck stays offline.

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r — restart

r performs a clean in-process restart: ipmideck tears down the console, re-reads config.yaml, and starts fresh. Use it after a change-bind edit to apply the new address.

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q / ESC — quit and back

  • From a sub-view (sessions or servers), q and ESC both return you to the log view.
  • From the log view, q triggers a clean exit — the server shuts down gracefully.

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b — change-bind

b opens the change-bind editor, an inline host:port prompt that replaces the help bar while you type. The header shows the current bind as a read-only current: host:port label and an empty new: field, so the value you type appears immediately and is never confused with the existing one. Keys inside the editor:
  • Enter — apply the typed host:port.
  • ESC — cancel without changing anything.
  • Backspace — delete the last character.
  • Any printable character — append to the buffer.
The input must be host:port with a non-empty host and a port that is an integer in the range 1–65535. On a valid entry, ipmideck confirms Bind set to host:port — restart required to apply (press r). On an invalid entry, it reports Invalid host/port and nothing changes.
A change-bind edit is not live — it is written to config and only takes effect after a restart. Press r to apply it. And remember the precedence: an IPMIDECK_SERVER_HOST / IPMIDECK_SERVER_PORT env var or an explicit --host / --port flag on the next boot overrides whatever the console persisted. See Configuration.

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Where the console shows up

The interactive console is gated on a real TTY: ipmideck renders it only when both stdin and stdout are interactive terminals. When they are not, it degrades to a banner plus plain scrolling logs and installs no key listener — so nothing busy-spins on a non-TTY. This means the console appears when you run ipmideck directly in a terminal: 
ipmideck
It does not appear when:
  • Running under Docker — the container launches uvicorn directly and never reaches the console path; you get plain container logs (docker logs).
  • Running under systemd or any service manager where stdout is not a terminal.
  • Piping or redirecting stdout (e.g. ipmideck > server.log) — stdout is no longer a TTY.
In every non-TTY case the server still runs normally and binds to the same default 0.0.0.0:3000; you just get plain logs instead of the live console.
ipmilink is a backward-compatible alias for ipmideck — both launch the same console.

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Next steps