Setup for agentic dev

I don’t think trusting any agent to be running on one’s personal device is a good idea. Even if it’s sandboxed (sandbox escapes happen).

The setup seems to be optimal for agentic dev:

Server + SSH + tmux + wezterm/iterm + vpn

Any harness with CLI will work: pi, codex, claude, hermes, etc.

Server

Dedicated server (“bare metal”) is better than laptop for three reasons:

• No personal data. Stuff breaks? Wipe the server, start from scratch. This also means an agent can be given more permissions.

• Stable 1gbps connection. Less stable home network could be an issue for long-running agent tasks

• Can load 100%, 24/7. Laptops aren’t optimized for this kind of work, their batteries would degrade. Also, keeping laptop open all the time isn’t comfortable.

$20-100/mo for server is common

$20-100/mo for server is common

A desktop is better than laptop, but still emits noise. It will bother some folks (like myself). Desktop hosted somewhere in a basement is kinda ok, though, the question of network reliability can still come up. Some people have successfully been using noise-less desktops, which also work, but their hardware is a bit less powerful.

A server is sometimes cheaper than amortization rate of a great laptop. Just run the numbers!

tmux

Session disconnect no longer matters!

Session disconnect no longer matters!

All work on the server is optimally done over SSH. However, SSH is unreliable and can drop connection which would screw the work over. Tmux fixes this. Multiplexing is useful to save bandwidth, but less important.

Zellij also seems to have persistence - though with a bit different UI.

Terminal app

native tmux tabs are great

native tmux tabs are great

Tmux multiplexing is basically tabs over 1 ssh connection, but the tabs aren’t native. Terminals like wezterm / iTerm2 / ivyterm fix this: they make their tabs = tmux tabs, in tmux -CC mode. iTerm2 also has vertical tabs - try it.

Kitty and Ghostty are cool, but they’ve solved multiplexing before solving persistence. Coding on an unreliable mobile connection is popular these days, which means it’s still necessary to launch tmux instead of using their custon multiplexing logic.

VPN

Last, but not least. A personal VPN is useful. For example, you want to test a demo from your phone or from your pc. With VPN, security story is easy: allow vpn subnet, block others.

Tailscale is ok, but when LLM can set up vpn in 3 mins, it’s not always the best solution. Hence, openvpn or wireguard (remember to enable PSK in wireguard for pq). They’re really zero-trust.

Conclusion

The setup isn’t for everyone. For example, reliable ios app dev is hard this way. But, it works for lots of different backend & frontend projects.