yardsort

A test box for Remote

To try a computer with no screen for real, with your phone, you need a Linux server reached over SSH. scripts/test-box.sh makes one on Hetzner Cloud, sets it up, builds your checkout of Yardsort on it, and deletes it again when you are done, cleaning up after itself. The maintainers use it for each Remote slice's run on a real box. It is for development: to run a host you keep, follow the guide on a machine of your own.

Any Linux server works if you would rather use another provider: what the script does is written out below, and scripts/test-box/cloud-init.yaml is the first boot, which most providers accept as it is.

What you need

  • A Hetzner account, and in its Cloud Console a project of its own for this, so the box never lands among anything else. Then Security → API tokens → Generate API token, with Read & Write.

  • hcloud, with the token kept in a context of the same name as the project. Type the token at its prompt yourself, never on a command line or in a chat:

    hcloud context create yardsort

  • gh, signed in to your GitHub account, and jq, rsync and ssh.

  • An SSH key, ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub unless you set TEST_BOX_KEY.

  • A Yardsort server to sign the host in to: your own, as self-hosting says, or one you have an account on.

Using it

scripts/test-box.sh up       # about ten minutes
scripts/test-box.sh ssh      # log in as the box's yardsort user
scripts/test-box.sh sync     # after a change here: copy it over and build again
scripts/test-box.sh status   # whether it exists, and what yardsort-host says
scripts/test-box.sh down     # sign it out everywhere, then delete it

up makes a server called yardsort-box, a CX33 (4 vCPU, 8 GB) running Ubuntu 24.04, behind a firewall that lets in SSH only, and:

  • on its first boot: updates, the build tools, an ordinary yardsort user with your key, password logins off, a firewall on the box too, its programs kept running after you log out, and Rust;
  • installs gh and Claude Code there;
  • makes the box an SSH key and adds it to your GitHub account, and sets its git name and email from your GitHub profile;
  • makes a private repository, <you>/yardsort-box-demo, unless it exists, and clones it to ~/src/demo for the agents to work in;
  • copies this checkout to ~/src/yardsort and builds yardsort-host and ys there.

It prints what is left, since each is a sign-in of yours: claude, gh auth login, yardsort-host sign-in <server>, then yardsort-host serve under tmux, ys project add ~/src/demo and yardsort-host pair for the phone, as the guide says.

sync copies the checkout again and rebuilds. A serve already running keeps the old build until you restart it, and the agents keep running either way.

TEST_BOX_SERVER sets the server those printed steps sign in to. TEST_BOX_NAME, TEST_BOX_TYPE, TEST_BOX_LOCATION, TEST_BOX_CONTEXT, TEST_BOX_REPO, TEST_BOX_GIT_NAME and TEST_BOX_GIT_EMAIL change the other defaults; the script's header lists them.

What it costs, and when to take it down

Hetzner bills a server for as long as it exists, powered off or not. Only down stops the bill. On 2026-11-07 a CX33 was €0.0136 an hour, at most €8.49 a month, plus its IPv4 address; up prints the price when it creates the box. Keep it while you are working on something that needs it, and take it down when that is done: up builds it again in about fifteen minutes.

What it holds

The box holds your sign-ins: Claude Code's, gh's, the host's, and an SSH key that can push to every repository your GitHub account can. Anything running there as yardsort, every agent included, can use them. So:

  • Use it for throwaway work, like the demo repository.
  • Do not snapshot it or turn on backups: either would keep the sign-ins.
  • Take it down with down, not from the Console. down lists work there that is not pushed and asks first, then signs the host out at the server (or your phone keeps a computer that never comes back), signs gh out, removes the box's key from your GitHub account, and deletes the server. The demo repository stays; gh repo delete removes it.