# Machinen

**Your computer is already a cloud. Machinen makes it feel like one.**

You already have machines: one on your lap, one on your desk, maybe one humming in a closet. Machinen gives you small, named Linux VMs on the hardware you control. They run in the background, keep terminal sessions alive, and let you reconnect from another shell later.

No tiny rented slice. No hyperscaler-shaped workflow. Just cloud-shaped computers that belong to you.

## The loop

```bash
npx machinen boot --name work --detach -- sleep infinity
npx machinen attach work

# from another terminal, another SSH session, or after your client drops:
npx machinen attach work
```

`attach` opens a real PTY with job control, tab completion, full-screen TUIs, and Ctrl-C going to the guest. By default it creates or reconnects a persistent session named `default`; if your host terminal or SSH connection disappears, the shell keeps running inside the VM.

```bash
npx machinen attach --session editor work
npx machinen sessions work
npx machinen session-kill work editor
npx machinen stop work
```

## Run a coding agent

No global install is needed. `npx` can download the CLI and run a signed recipe directly:

```bash
npx @machinen/cli run machinen.dev/run/claude-code
npx @machinen/cli run machinen.dev/run/codex --session work
```

## Install

```bash
npm i @machinen/cli @machinen/runtime
```

Then run `npx machinen ...` or `npx mn ...`.

## What it is

Machinen is a native microVM runtime: arm64 on Apple Silicon/Linux and amd64 on Linux/KVM. Node.js is the first-class target; Python, bash, and anything else that boots in a Linux VM works too.

When you need the power tools, you can snapshot, fork, and hand off a running VM between hosts.

## Links

- Repository: https://github.com/redwoodjs/machinen
- README: https://github.com/redwoodjs/machinen/blob/main/README.md
- CLI reference: https://github.com/redwoodjs/machinen/blob/main/packages/cli/API.md
- Runtime reference: https://github.com/redwoodjs/machinen/blob/main/packages/runtime/API.md