pexpect-cli

name	pexpect-cli
description	Persistent pexpect sessions. Use when automating interactive terminal programs (ssh, databases, debuggers, REPLs).

Each session is a long-lived Python namespace: all variables, imports, and functions persist across calls. Exceptions return exit 1 but the session stays alive. Expression results are not echoed; use print().

pexpect-cli --start [--name label]   # → prints session id
pexpect-cli --list
pexpect-cli --stop <id>              # also kills spawned children

session=$(pexpect-cli --start --name ssh)
pexpect-cli $session <<'EOF'
child = pexpect.spawn('ssh user@host', encoding='utf-8')  # encoding → .before is str not bytes
child.expect('password:', timeout=30)
child.sendline('secret')
child.expect(r'\$')
EOF

# child still alive next call
pexpect-cli $session <<'EOF'
child.sendline('uptime')
child.expect(r'\$')
print(child.before)
EOF

Only stdout is returned. stderr and full history go to pueue log (find task id via pueue status --group pexpect).

Always set timeout= on expect(). Catch pexpect.TIMEOUT / pexpect.EOF for robustness.