Go library · ssh deploy · cross-arch builds

goself install a Go binary anywhere, from itself.

A pure Go library that lets a CLI or service install itself on the local host or on remote hosts over ssh. It replicates the running binary, builds the local checkout, rebuilds the exact version for another architecture, or fetches a checksum-verified release.

go get ubunatic.com/goself@latest

View source

Project snapshot · measured 2026-10-26

Key facts

Commits 26Last commit 2026-10-25 Source receipt ↗ Commits · 7 days 26 Source receipt ↗ Tickets closed 2 / 5 Source receipt ↗ Studies 2 Source receipt ↗

12-week commit activity

2026-10-26

Aug 3

Aug 10

Aug 17

Aug 24

Aug 31

Sep 7

Sep 14

Sep 21

Sep 28

Oct 5

Oct 12

Oct 19

View 12-week data table

Week starting	Commits
2026-08-03	0
2026-08-10	0
2026-08-17	0
2026-08-24	0
2026-08-31	0
2026-09-07	0
2026-09-14	0
2026-09-21	0
2026-09-28	0
2026-10-05	0
2026-10-12	0
2026-10-19	0

Key Features

Deploys binaries to remote hosts requiring only SSH, /bin/sh, and uname on the target.
Automatic cross-architecture detection and zero-CGO recompilation from build info.
Multiple resolution strategies: checkout build, running executable self-stream, release archive, or upstream go install.
Atomic temp-file staging and rename replacement preventing truncation of running services.

Verified Engineering Milestones

Bootstrap to v0.2.2: pure Go SSH deploy engine (#001, 84d8e4b)
Cross-architecture build info inspection and fallback strategies (#005, e259599)
Consumer onboarding and harness integration (96b6e27)

Stack

Go 1.24, pure-Go SSH client, cross-compilation engine

Why goself

Deploy without remote toolchains

No remote checkout or Go

The target only needs ssh, /bin/sh and uname. goself builds or fetches the binary locally and streams it over the system ssh client.

Cross-architecture by default

When the target's platform differs, goself rebuilds the running binary's exact version from its build info with CGO_ENABLED=0 for that platform.

Safe replacement

Binaries are written to a temp file and renamed over the target, so a running copy is never truncated.

Strategies

Where the binary comes from

Strategy	Source
`auto`	checkout → `build`; same platform → `self`; otherwise → `go`
`self`	the running executable
`build`	the local checkout, cross-compiled when needed
`release`	a release archive with SHA256 checksum check
`go`	`go install pkg@version` upstream

res, err := goself.New(goself.Options{Strategy: goself.Auto}).
	Deploy(ctx, goself.Target{Runner: goself.SSH("user@host")})

Project details

Stack

Go 1.24, pure-Go SSH client, cross-compilation engine

Milestones

Bootstrap to v0.2.2: pure Go SSH deploy engine (#001, 84d8e4b) · Cross-architecture build info inspection and fallback strategies (#005, e259599) · Consumer onboarding and harness integration (96b6e27)

Source

https://codeberg.org/ubunatic/goself ↗

Architecture

Layer composition

Terminal: CLI self-deployment, SSH streaming
Desktop: —
Inference / AI: —
Containers / VM: OCI container testing
Web: —

Engineering story

goself: the story behind the project

Date: 2026-10-25, one session (Claude Opus 5.5 as host, no subagents). - Previous story: none. Baseline is the first commit bc30900 (chore: bootstrap goself). The only earlier study is the topic study prior-art-self-replication.md , written…

Read the engineering story

Measurement source · 2026-10-26

Verification receipts

Commits: 26 · Last commit 2026-10-25
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Commits · 7 days: 26
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Tickets closed: 2 / 5
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Studies: 2
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
12-week commit activity
git rev-list --count --since=<Monday> --until=<Sunday> HEAD
12 latest complete ISO weeks; weekly values are from spec/metrics.yaml.