Chief Remote Plugin for BindCaptain

Optional Chief plugin that lets you control a remote BindCaptain installation from your local machine. All DNS and service commands are executed on the remote host over SSH.

Use case: BindCaptain runs on a server (e.g. wolfman.homelab.io); you use Chief on your laptop and run bc.create, bc.list, etc.; the plugin runs the corresponding commands on the server via SSH.

Chief is a separate project. If you are not familiar with it, see the Chief GitHub project for what it is, how to install it, and how to use plugins:
https://github.com/randyoyarzabal/chief

Overview

Plugin name: bc (BindCaptain)
Location in repo: chief-plugin/bc_chief-plugin.sh
Requirements: Chief (or any shell that sources Chief plugins), SSH access to the BindCaptain host, BindCaptain installed on that host.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Chief	Separate shell framework that loads user plugins. See Chief on GitHub for more info.
SSH	Access to the remote host as a user that can run `sudo` (typically `root`).
Remote host	BindCaptain installed (e.g. under `/opt/bindcaptain`) with `tools/bindcaptain_manager.sh` and, if you use service commands, the systemd unit `bindcaptain`.
SSH auth	Key-based authentication is recommended so commands run without a password prompt.

Configuration variables

Set these before sourcing the plugin, or edit the defaults inside bc_chief-plugin.sh.

Variable	Description	Default
`BC_HOST`	SSH target: `user@host`. Must be able to `sudo` on the remote.	`root@wolfman.homelab.io`
`BC_MANAGER`	Absolute path to `bindcaptain_manager.sh` on the remote host.	`/opt/bindcaptain/tools/bindcaptain_manager.sh`

Overriding without editing the file

export BC_HOST="root@dns.example.com"
export BC_MANAGER="/opt/bindcaptain/tools/bindcaptain_manager.sh"
# Then load the plugin (e.g. Chief does this automatically for the bc plugin)
source /path/to/bc_chief-plugin.sh

Installation

Copy the plugin into Chief’s user plugins so Chief loads it as the bc plugin. The exact path depends on your Chief setup (e.g. chief_plugins/user_plugins/bc_chief-plugin.sh or equivalent). You can copy from the BindCaptain repo:
```
cp bindcaptain/chief-plugin/bc_chief-plugin.sh /path/to/chief/user_plugins/
```
Set BC_HOST and BC_MANAGER for your BindCaptain server (see above).
Load the plugin (e.g. start a new Chief shell or run chief.plugin bc if your Chief supports it).
Run bc.help to confirm and see usage.

Commands (summary)

After loading the plugin:

Command	Description
`bc.create <fqdn> <ip>`	Create A record (and PTR when applicable).
`bc.create_cname <fqdn> <target>`	Create CNAME record.
`bc.create_txt <name> <domain> <value>`	Create TXT record.
`bc.delete <fqdn> [type]`	Delete a DNS record.
`bc.list [domain]`	List records (all zones or one domain).
`bc.refresh`	Validate and reload BIND on the remote.
`bc.git_refresh`	Run `git pull` in the BindCaptain repo on the remote.
`bc.status`	Show BindCaptain service and container status.
`bc.start` / `bc.stop` / `bc.restart`	Control the BindCaptain systemd service.
`bc.ssh`	Open an interactive SSH session to the BindCaptain host.
`bc.help`	Show full usage and current `BC_HOST` / `BC_MANAGER`.

Examples

# Create A record
bc.create webserver.homelab.io 172.25.50.100

# Create CNAME
bc.create_cname www.homelab.io webserver

# TXT record
bc.create_txt @ homelab.io "v=spf1 -all"

# List records
bc.list homelab.io

# Delete record
bc.delete webserver.homelab.io

# Refresh BIND config on remote
bc.refresh

# Update BindCaptain from Git on remote
bc.git_refresh

# SSH to the BindCaptain host
bc.ssh

How it works

The plugin is sourced in your local shell (never run as ./bc_chief-plugin.sh).
Each bc.* command uses ssh $BC_HOST to run the corresponding operation on the remote host.
DNS record operations run source $BC_MANAGER && bc.create_record ... (and similar) on the remote, so the same logic as bindcaptain_manager.sh is used there.
Service commands run systemctl and podman on the remote.

Troubleshooting

“Cannot connect to $BC_HOST”
Check SSH from your machine: ssh $BC_HOST. Ensure key-based auth or agent is set up so the plugin can connect without a password.
“Permission denied” or sudo errors on remote
The user in BC_HOST must be able to run sudo without a password for the paths and commands the plugin uses (e.g. sudo source $BC_MANAGER, sudo systemctl, sudo podman).
Manager not found on remote
Confirm BindCaptain is installed and BC_MANAGER points to the real path on the remote host (e.g. /opt/bindcaptain/tools/bindcaptain_manager.sh). See Installation for where BindCaptain lives on the server.