The Sync tab (4) imports Boat sandboxes into Bast. Synced sandboxes show up in the host picker under Boat, stay connectable with your system ssh, and keep connection details owned by Boat sync.

Bast talks to Boat through the native boat CLI on your machine. There is no separate Bast cloud agent or Go SDK. Auth, list, stop, resume, and SSH key authorization all use the same CLI you already use with Boat.

Bast supports GCP, AWS, Azure, and Boat through each provider's native CLI, and Upstash Box and Hetzner Cloud through their APIs.

Requirements

Boat CLI (boat) on your PATH (the installer also places it at ~/.ascii/bin/boat)
An authenticated Boat account (boat login / boat onboard)
Network access to create, stop, resume, and SSH into your sandboxes

Connect Boat

Open Bast and press 4 for Sync.
Select Boat and press Enter.
Choose Connect or Sync now.

If the Boat CLI is already installed and logged in, Bast auto-connects on TUI start and when you run bast sync status, unless you previously chose Disconnect (sticky opt-out via bast sync disable boat).

boat login
boat status

What gets created

Each sandbox becomes an SSH host Bast writes under:

~/.ssh/bast/sync/boat/config

Your managed Bast config includes that file so OpenSSH (and Bast) can see the hosts. In the picker they are grouped as:

Boat
  sandbox-name

Running sandboxes show Boat synced. Stopped or archiving sandboxes stay in the same group but are hidden from the host list until you press . (the same toggle that shows user-hidden hosts). Search still finds them by name. Selecting the Boat group shows running vs stopped counts and New sandbox. Connection settings, group, and label are owned by sync, so edit (e), move, favorite, and hide are blocked. Delete (d) removes the upstream sandbox after confirmation.

On the Boat provider page (Sync 4), sandboxes are listed under Running and Stopped, the same collapse/expand pattern as the Hosts tab. Stopped starts collapsed. Enter on a host connects (or resumes a stopped sandbox).

How Bast connects

On connect (TUI Enter or bast connect / bast <label>), Bast prepares SSH access, then launches your system ssh.

Situation	Behavior
Running sandbox with IP	Direct SSH as `user` with `~/.ssh/ascii_box_ed25519`
Stopped sandbox	Enter resumes the sandbox, refreshes sync, then SSHs in
Missing local key	Ensures `~/.ssh/ascii_box_ed25519` and authorizes it on the sandbox

SSH user is always user. There is no default-user setting for Boat.

Stopping and archiving

Stopping a sandbox snapshots it and pauses billing (archiving → archived). That can take a few minutes. Stopped sandboxes cost nothing and can be resumed later. Delete (d / bast boat delete) force-stops the sandbox and permanently removes the snapshots it exclusively owns. Named snapshots stay until you run bast boat snapshot rm. List snapshots with bast boat snapshots [host].

Boat settings

Inside the Boat submenu:

Action	Purpose
Sync now	Re-run discovery and refresh SSH config
New sandbox	Create a sandbox (`small` / `default` / `large`)
Connect / Disconnect	Enable sync, or turn it off and remove generated hosts (Disconnect also opts out of auto-connect)
Enable / Disable auto-sync	Sync when the TUI opens
Refresh status	Reload account and last-sync info

Synced sandboxes appear below those actions, grouped by status. Press Esc to return to the provider list.

Host keys (Hosts tab)

With the Boat group selected:

Key	Action
`n`	Create a new sandbox
`s`	Sync now
`.`	Show stopped sandboxes
Space	Collapse or expand

With a Boat host selected:

Key	Action
Enter	Connect (resume first if stopped)
`r`	Resume only (when stopped)
`o`	Stop (when running; confirms with `stop`)
`n`	Fork from the latest snapshot (confirms with `fork`)
`d`	Delete the sandbox and its snapshots (confirms with `delete`)
`F`	Open Files (SFTP) when the sandbox is reachable

CLI

bast sync boat                 # discover and write hosts
bast sync status              # account, last sync, errors
bast sync disable boat         # turn off, remove sync hosts, sticky opt-out
bast sync boat --json

bast boat new [--type small|default|large] [--ttl seconds | --no-auto-stop] [--no-env]
bast boat fork <host|id> [--type small|default|large] [--no-env]
bast boat stop <host|id>
bast boat resume <host|id> [--type small|default|large] [--no-env]
bast boat delete <host|id> [--yes]
bast boat snapshots [host|id]
bast boat snapshot delete <snapshot-id> [--yes]
bast boat snapshot rm <name>

bast connect boat_dev        # banner + Boat access prepare, then ssh

Re-sync and cleanup

Press r on the Sync tab (or run bast sync boat) after you create, stop, or resume sandboxes outside Bast. Disconnecting Boat removes the generated sync config and the Include line Bast added for it. Your Bast-managed hosts and keys are left alone. ~/.ssh/ascii_box_ed25519 is left in place if Bast created it.

Migrating from Box

Install the Boat CLI. Your existing login carries over. Bast uses boat from PATH, ~/.ascii/bin/boat, or the BOAT_CLI override.

Bast migrates the previous sync inventory and Includes to ~/.ssh/bast/sync/boat/config, preserving host aliases, metadata, and sync preferences, including an explicit disconnect. Existing bast box, bast sync box, and bast sync disable box commands remain aliases. JSON output uses boat for the provider and sandboxId for snapshot ownership.

If the old and new inventory files conflict, Bast preserves both files and their host metadata. Boat sync, sandbox changes, and vault pulls are blocked until you back up and reconcile the inventories, then restart Bast. Other providers remain available. Run bast doctor to see the conflicting paths.

Sandbox IDs (bx_...) and the SSH key at ~/.ssh/ascii_box_ed25519 are unchanged. See Boat's migration guide.

Boat

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