the helper program is completely open source (waveshell) it is similar to the shell scripts or additions to your rc files that other modern terminals might add when connecting to a remote machine to support advanced features. the helper does not need any additional permissions, does not open any ports, runs only for the duration of the connection, and communicates exclusively via stdout/stdin over your standard ssh connection.

It absolutely should not be running commands on a remote host without prompting first!

agree in principle, but i will split some hairs here. if you type "ls" into your local terminal, there's an implicit agreement that it will run the remote "ls" program. the helper program facilitates that in the same way that any other terminal + ssh + shell combo does. it only runs commands in response to your activities in the terminal.

yes

if ls is installed on the remote host

and if it is not, the command should fail

this appears to be about telemetry, pure and simple

absolutely no telemetry in the helper, full stop. you can inspect the code yourself.

we do hear the feedback though and are working on a popup/notification that will prompt you before we push the helper program for the next release.

Does it, or will it ever fetch waveshell over the network on demand?

so youve been linux user for 25 years but dont see a problem here huh?

Oh so we're holding it wrong. Does 'modern' mean pre-enshittified?

i don't see any difference between this and what saltstack or ansible are doing. both can run a command on remote machines, and to do that they automatically connect to the machine and copy a program to be run there.

The biggest difference is that I install and execute salt and ansible in order to remotely install software, and I had no expectation that establishing an SSH connection would do that.

you install it locally, but not remote. then you run commands that get executed remotely by way of some tools that get automatically copied to the remote machine via ssh.

I do. And I do it in expectation that this is what will happen, because that's the whole point. Installing software on remote machines is normal for provisioning tools, but decidedly not normal for SSH clients.