SDM UI

Overview

SDM UI is a custom wrapper around StrongDM (SDM) designed to improve the developer experience (DX) on Linux.

Motivation

While working for an employer who utilized StrongDM for service access management, I encountered limitations with the available tools. SDM offers both a CLI and a GUI, but the GUI was only available for macOS at the time. Although I generally prefer using the CLI, managing hundreds of connections via the GUI became necessary and cumbersome on Linux.

Initially, I used a combination of CLI tools such as sdm, grep, column, and fzf to streamline the workflow. This solution, while functional, fell short of my expectations.

Solution

I faced two options:

• Write a shell script to handle the complexities.
• Develop a wrapper using a general-purpose language.

Given the limitations of shell scripting, particularly with handling arrays, I opted for the latter approach. This decision allowed me to leverage existing libraries to build a robust solution.

Implementation

SDM UI integrates the following libraries:

• rofi: Provides a user-friendly GUI for connection management.
• keyring: Manages and stores credentials securely.
• clipper: A clipboard manager for efficient copy-pasting.
• bbolt: A performant key-value database for storing connection details.

This combination resulted in a more efficient and user-friendly tool for managing StrongDM connections on Linux.

By creating SDM UI, I improved the overall developer experience, making it easier to manage numerous connections and enhancing productivity.