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At the end of this page, a new Orca workspace runs on its own machine, with your repo cloned and your branch checked out. The Instabox plugin creates the machine with the workspace, pauses it when the workspace sleeps, and deletes it with the project. You need:
  • Orca 1.4.245 or later.
  • node on your PATH.
  • A repository with an origin remote. The start commit you pick must be pushed, because the machine fetches it from the Git host.
1

Install the CLI

The command signs you in and puts instabox on your PATH. The plugin runs this CLI on your computer. Restart Orca so that it finds the CLI.
2

Turn on Cloud VM

In Orca, open Settings, then Experimental, and turn on Cloud VM. Without this setting, the Instabox recipe does not show in Run on.
3

Install the Instabox plugin

Open the Instabox plugin page. It opens the plugin in Settings, under Plugins. If plugins are off, turn them on first. Select Install.
4

Save a GitHub token for a private repository

Skip this step for a public repository.
Each new machine selects the GH_TOKEN Secret. The outbound proxy adds the real token to requests to GitHub only.
5

Sign Claude Code in on your machines

The first command prints a token. Paste it at the second command’s hidden prompt. New machines then run Claude Code on your Claude subscription, with no real credential in the machine.To use Codex on your ChatGPT sign-in, run codex login --device-auth on the machine.
6

Create a workspace on a machine

In Orca, create a workspace and pick Instabox in Run on. The plugin creates a machine named orca-<workspace>-<id>, clones your repo into the machine’s home, and checks out your branch. Orca then installs its server on the machine and connects.To see the machine, run instabox ls. If a step fails, the plugin deletes the machine again.

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Pause, resume, and delete

Delete Worktree stays disabled, because the clone on the machine is the project’s primary checkout.
Each workspace gets an SSH token that does not expire. Orca connects to ssh.instabox.sh:2222 with the token as the user name and no key. Orca stores the token with the workspace, and the token stops working when the machine is deleted.
Machines use your account’s default template. An SSH remote such as git@github.com:org/repo.git is cloned over HTTPS, because the machine has no SSH key for your Git host.

Org Secrets

Proxy and direct Secrets, hosts, and updating a running machine.

Auto-pause and max-run

What counts as idle and what wakes a machine.