artr is a tool to run remote tasks remotely without exposing remote machine to caller.

Aten Remote Task Runner (ARTR) is a minimal, secure agent-based tool to execute controlled scripts on remote Linux servers. Designed for modern DevOps and on-premise automation, it helps you schedule and run predefined system tasks (like database backups, log rotations, and status reports) from a centralized management system — while maintaining complete execution control and operational security.

• 🛡️ Root-safe architecture
• 🔒 Encrypted secret handling (no password leakage)
• 📦 Lightweight, single-binary deployment (artr)
• 📜 MIT-licensed and easy to integrate

art is useful in situations where remote access to servers are not allowed or not preferred. It is also useful to run automated tasks on a machine where tasks are initiated from a remote machine using any automation mechanism like cron or systemd.timer or at.

ARTR was developed as part of the Anchor MMS platform to manage periodic on-premise database backups and remote system tasks without exposing credentials or APIs. It runs under systemd for stability and is designed to execute only pre-approved scripts — ensuring zero shell injection or unsafe commands.

• Agent runs as a systemd service (artr.service)
• Task definitions are plain bash scripts (can be pulled securely from remote orchestrator)
• Native support for:
  • mTLS for cli/agent daemon communication
  • File transfer from agen to CLI
  • Post-execution report upload (coming soon)
• Optional counter/progress support for large files

Download the binary:

wget https://github.com/atenteccompany/artr/releases/latest/download/artr
chmod +x artr
sudo mv artr /usr/local/bin/

# /etc/systemd/system/artr.service
[Unit]
Description=Aten Remote Task Runner
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/artr server --port 9443 --dir /opt/artr/scripts/
Restart=always
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

enable and start daemon

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl enable artr
sudo systemctl start artr

artr daemon will look for executable scripts inside a directory defined using --dir flag for server verb (e.g. /opt/artr/scripts/).

Each script must:

• Be executable (chmod +x)
• Follow a predefined naming pattern
• Include necessary GPG logic if applicable
• use #::ARTR:: key to add headers for scripts, available headers are:
  • #::ARTR::title=<task title> : will display title on CLI output
  • #::ARTR::result-type=<type> : defines result type for CLI to render, supported types are:
    • metric: expects single value return only
    • table: expects tabulated result
    • file: defines task will generate a file that must be transferred to CLI once script ends
  • file-name: the file that artr daemon will send to CLI after script (Task) execution finishes. This works only when result-type=file is defined in script.

You may mount these scripts from containers or manage them via GitOps.

• version: show version
• server: run artr daemon
• run: runs a remote task on server and displays the result
• inspect: runs a remote systask for inspection purposes
• list: lists available remote tasks

# list available remote tasks for server 127.0.0.1 where artr daemon listens on port 9443
./artr list --addr 127.0.0.1 --port 9443

# run a remote task named backup at remote server of IP 192.168.1.2 where artr daemon listens on port 9443
./artr run backup --addr 192.168.1.2 --port 9443

# run a remote task named get-backup at remote server IP 192.168.1.2 where artr daemon 
# listens on port 9443, and task is expecting to generate file that must be transferred 
# to directory ./backups
./artr run get-backup --addr 192.168.1.2 --port 9443 --outdir ./backups

Aten Remote Task Runner (artr) are split to 3 components:

1. user CLI: a binary CLI tool at user machine.
2. management server: artr daemon running on a remote machine(s) using systemd:
   • responsible for running task on-demand (bash scripts)
   • responsible for running internal artr system tasks (built-in functionality)
3. task scripts: Bash scripts on each remote server for each functional requirement:
   • each task will be a single bash script
   • bash scripts must be able to chaining (follow Linux philosophy)

We welcome contributions! Please read our Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct to get started.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

ARTR is developed and maintained by AtenTEC, under the Anchor product ecosystem.

If you find this tool helpful, please consider starring the repo ⭐️ and spreading the word.