uhhh pretty sure it works

scripts/1clickservice.groovy

@@ -128,20 +128,19 @@ pipeline {
 
                             pushd ${servicename}
 
+                            databaseString="Host=${targetHost};Database=${servicename};Username=${servicename};Password=${env.pw_productiondatabase};IncludeErrorDetail=true;"
+
                             databasecredsid=\$(uuidgen)
                             httpBasicAuth=\"http://${env.JENKINS_USR}:${env.JENKINS_PSW}@alloces.lan:8080/\"
-                            echo \"\${httpBasicAuth}\"
                             urlGetData=\"crumbIssuer/api/xml?xpath=concat(//crumbRequestField,\\":\\",//crumb)\"
-                            
                             CRUMB=\$(curl -s -c cookies.txt \"\${httpBasicAuth}\${urlGetData}\")
-                            echo "crumb anyway. \$CRUMB"
                             curl -H \$CRUMB -X POST \"http://${env.JENKINS_USR}:${env.JENKINS_PSW}@alloces.lan:8080/job/gitea.arg.rip/job/${servicename}/credentials/store/folder/domain/_/createCredentials\" \
                             --data-urlencode 'json={
                               "": "0",
                               "credentials": {
                                 "scope": "GLOBAL",
                                 "id": "'"\$databasecredsid"'",
-                                "secret": "Host=${targetHost};Database=${servicename};Username=${servicename};Password=${env.pw_productiondatabase};IncludeErrorDetail=true;",
+                                "secret": "\$databaseString",
                                 "description": "database connection string",
                                 "\$class": "com.cloudbees.plugins.credentials.impl.UsernamePasswordCredentialsImpl"
                               }
@@ -152,6 +151,9 @@ pipeline {
                             rm cookies.txt
                             git add .
                             git commit -m \"set up for database\"
+
+                            cp appsettings.sample.json appsettings.json
+                            sed -i "s/\\"DBConnectionString\\" *: *\\"[^\\"]*\\"/\\"DBConnectionString\\":\\"\${databaseString}\\"/" appsettings.json
                         """
                     
                     
@@ -177,7 +179,10 @@ pipeline {
                             certCredsId=\$(uuidgen)
 
                             ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f "${servicename}-ssh" -N ""
-                            privatekeycontent=\$(cat ${servicename}-ssh)
+                            privatekeycontent=\$(cat ${servicename}-ssh)\$'\\n'
+                            privatekeycontent="\$privatekeycontent
+"
+                            echo "private key content: \$privatekeycontent hopefully newline isn't the issue."
                             pubkeycontent=\$(cat ${servicename}-ssh.pub)
                             CRUMB=\$(curl -s 'http://${env.JENKINS_USR}:${env.JENKINS_PSW}@alloces.lan:8080/crumbIssuer/api/xml?xpath=concat(//crumbRequestField,":",//crumb)')
                             echo \$CRUMB
@@ -268,6 +273,9 @@ pipeline {
         stage("initial service setup"){
             steps{
                 sh """#!/bin/bash
+                    ssh -i "${servicename}-ssh" -tt ${servicename}@${targetHost} "mkdir -p ~/dist"
+                    scp -i "${servicename}-ssh" ${servicename}/appsettings.json ${servicename}@${targetHost}:~/dist/appsettings.json
+
                     ssh -i "${servicename}-ssh" -tt ${servicename}@${targetHost} "mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/"
                     scp -i "${servicename}-ssh" ${servicename}/${servicename}.service ${servicename}@${targetHost}:~/.config/systemd/user/${servicename}.service