Introduction

What are Targets?

This feature provides users with a centralized and automated control over deployment targets. This allows to store FTP/FTPS/SFTP or SSH server details in a single place to be used across multiple projects, pipelines or actions.

Currently Buddy supports two types of targets:

FTP
SFTP & SSH

That can be used in the following actions:

SFTP/FTP - sending files to FTP/FTPS/SFTP servers.
SSH - running commands on servers using the SSH protocol.
Download FTP, SFTP - downloading files from the servers and saving them locally in the filesystem.

Image loading... Actions supporting targets

Selecting targets

There are two ways of selecting a target:

Specific targets - select targets manually, without applying additional filters.
Filters - select based on specific filters like tags (e.g. all servers tagged as production), ID (using their full names or simple wildcards like *, *stage*, *stage ) or scope.

You can access multiple targets within a single action. The number of consecutive transfers depends on the number of runners available in your current plan.

Image loading... Transfer action with multipe targets

Managing action and pipeline targets with YAML

Action and pipeline targets can be defined in YAML files, allowing for easy and automated management. Here is an example of a YAML file with three targets set-up within a single action, one of which is inline.

yaml
  - action: "Execute ls"
    type: "SSH_COMMAND"
    commands:
    - "ls -al"
    targets:
    - target: myTarget1
      type: "SSH"
      host: "domain.com"
      auth:
        username: "$login_ssh"
        password: "secure!dJyAQBqXzJHQvPMglTZT5Q==.6SmXCn3OHzNur6SHUwdjDA=="
    - "myTarget2"
    - "myTarget3"
    retry_count: 1
    run_as_script: true

Configuring targets in YAML files

Define targets directly in your YAML to automate their use in pipelines:

Transfer via FTP/SFTP - Configure and send files to FTP, FTPS or SFTP servers.
Downloading files from servers - Download files from FTP/SFTP servers to the local filesystem.
Executing commands over SSH - Run scripts and commands on remote SSH servers.
Push via Git - Push code to remote Git repositories from your pipeline.

Targets in REST API

Our REST API allows you to add and manage targets for actions like: SFTP & FTP, SSH, Git Push, Vultr, DigitalOcean, UpCloud, Download FTP,SFTP.

You can find out more regarding targets in REST API in the following articles:

Using targets in actions:

Managing targets:

Last modified on May 20, 2025

FTP/FTPS targets