offload

Run coding agents on remote Docker containers. Your terminal is a thin client — everything executes on a pod. Encrypted end-to-end.

How it works

Your terminal Your VPS
┌──────────────────┐ encrypted WSS ┌──────────────────────┐
│ offload │ ◄─────────────────► │ offload swarm │
│ (thin terminal) │ PTY I/O stream │ │
│ │ │ ┌────────────────┐ │
│ stdin ───────────┼────────────────► │ │ Docker pod │ │
│ stdout ◄─────────┼──────────────── │ │ pi / claude │ │
│ │ │ └────────────────┘ │
└──────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘

When you run offload, a Docker container is spun up (or claimed from a warm pool), and the agent launches inside it with a PTY. Your terminal streams keystrokes up and output back. All frames are encrypted with NaCl secretbox using a pre-shared passphrase.

Quick start

# Install
npm install -g offload
# Create config
mkdir -p ~/.offload
cat >~/.offload/config.json << 'EOF'{ "passphrase": "your-secret-passphrase", "command": "pi"}EOF# Build the Docker image (one-time)
offload build
# Start the daemon
offload swarm
# Connect (in another terminal)
offload

Commands

Command	Description
offload	Connect to a pod and run the default command
offload swarm	Start the daemon and pod pool
offload build	Build the runner Docker image
offload run "claude"	Run a specific command in a pod
offload status	Show pool statistics
offload attach <id>	Reattach to a detached session

Press Ctrl+\ to detach from a session — the pod stays alive. Reattach with offload attach <session-id>.

Configuration

~/.offload/config.json:

{
"passphrase": "your-secret-passphrase",
"command": "pi",
"server": "ws://localhost:9876",
"port": 9876,
"host": "0.0.0.0",
"poolSize": 0,
"image": "offload/runner:latest"
}

Field	Description	Default
passphrase	Encryption key (required)	—
command	Default agent command	pi
server	Daemon URL (client-side)	ws://localhost:9876
port	Listen port (daemon-side)	9876
host	Listen host (daemon-side)	0.0.0.0
poolSize	Warm pods to pre-create	0 (on-demand)
image	Docker image for pods	offload/runner:latest
dockerHost	Docker socket path	auto-detected

Set poolSize to a higher number (e.g. 5) if you want instant pod assignment without cold-start delay.

All config values can be overridden with environment variables: OFFLOAD_PASSPHRASE, OFFLOAD_SERVER, OFFLOAD_PORT, OFFLOAD_POOL_SIZE, OFFLOAD_IMAGE, OFFLOAD_COMMAND, DOCKER_HOST.

API keys

The daemon auto-forwards these env vars into pods:

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• OPENAI_API_KEY
• GOOGLE_API_KEY
• GROQ_API_KEY
• MISTRAL_API_KEY

Set them in your shell before running offload swarm.

Security

Layer	Protection
TLS (WSS)	Transport encryption
NaCl secretbox	E2E per-frame encryption
Pre-shared passphrase	Only matching clients can connect
Container isolation	Each session gets its own pod

License

MIT