iwctl station wlan0 connect "essid" --passphrase "itsasecret"
The permanent config would be stuffed into /var/lib/iwd/essid.conf (different file per SSID)
The harder part for me is remembering it's "iwctl station wlan0 scan && iwctl station wlan0 get-networks" to see what's out there for a new connection. Of course I always cheat and make a wifi-scan wrapper script so maybe that's why I never remember...
Once you get rid of network manager it's not terrible. I think to part that felt less than satisfactory was first you have to get the interface up, so read the man page for "ip" and figure that out. then you have to get the wifi parameters set but you can't do the from "ip" (why not?) so you grab iwctl and get that going. then just to add insult to injury it still would not work and you had to figure out "wpaclient"(I have not set up wifi on linux in a while is this still needed?). whereas on openbsd it is one command and there is never a management utility you have to watch out for unless you put it there yourself, and you probably would not do that because the base does a decent job at this it is why they added the "join" command. openbsd may still need "wpaclient" but only if you want to connect to a .11x type network not for the more common psk ones.
"Wpa_supplicant" perhaps? That's wha iwctl replaced. You don't need anything else installed to connect to .1X networks just "iwctl station wlan0 connect examplessid" and follow the prompts.
The harder part for me is remembering it's "iwctl station wlan0 scan && iwctl station wlan0 get-networks" to see what's out there for a new connection. Of course I always cheat and make a wifi-scan wrapper script so maybe that's why I never remember...