Podbay, self-hosted

Keep Claude working on hardware you control.

Podbay runs Claude Code in a persistent Docker workspace with your project, tools, services, and data. Sign in once, then work from the official Claude apps on desktop or mobile while the pod keeps the computer—and your work—running. It uses your existing Claude Pro or Max subscription, so you do not need an Anthropic API key or pay Podbay a separate agent-usage bill.

Important

Podbay Self-Hosted is an early alpha. It is released for local experiments and early feedback, but expect rough edges and occasional breaking changes. The public installer is available now; a buildable source release is being prepared.

What you get

• A workspace that stays put. Your project, tools, and agent live together in one pod instead of being recreated for every session.
• Claude in the official apps. Podbay starts Claude Remote Control after sign-in, so the same pod session is available from Claude on desktop and mobile.
• A capable development environment. Install packages, run Postgres, keep workers and dev servers running, schedule recurring agent work, and open the result through an app preview.
• Work that continues. Ask Claude to keep an app and its workers available, run a report every week, watch a source for meaningful changes, or recover a service that stopped.
• Project access without secrets in chat. Add credentials in the dashboard when Claude asks for them, then let the project use that access without pasting values into the conversation.
• Control over the machine. Pods run as Docker containers on your computer or server, using its storage and network connection.

Install Podbay

You need Docker Desktop or Docker Engine with Compose v2, at least 8 GB of memory, about 6 GB of free disk space, and a Claude Pro or Max subscription. The installer works from macOS and Linux shells, or from WSL2 on Windows.

curl -fsSL podbay.cloud/install.sh | sh

The installer checks your machine, downloads the Compose configuration into ./podbay, and pulls the Podbay images. First startup takes longer while those images download.

When it finishes, the installer prints the real URL for your setup — it auto-detects where it's running:

• Your laptop / a private box → http://localhost:8080.
• A public server, no domain → a public HTTPS URL via sslip.io, e.g. https://<your-ip>.sslip.io — pods get their own https://<pod>.<your-ip>.sslip.io preview, with automatic Let's Encrypt certificates. Just open ports 80 and 443.
• A public server with a domain → dashboard + per-pod preview subdomains on your domain, HTTPS automatic (set PODBAY_DOMAIN=yourdomain; the installer prints the two DNS records to add).
• A server already running nginx/Caddy/Traefik on 80/443 → podbay coexists behind it and prints a snippet to add to that proxy — no port fight.

Then:

1. Open the URL the installer printed (or http://localhost:8080 locally).
2. Create the single owner login. This protects the dashboard and administrative terminal.
3. Select Create a pod and choose a playbook or workspace.
4. Follow the sign-in link and enter the code from your Claude account.
5. Once Claude is signed in, open the pod session from the official Claude desktop or mobile app.

From then on, Claude is the main interface. Return to the Podbay dashboard when you want to manage the pod, add secrets, inspect health, or open an app preview. A browser terminal remains available as an advanced recovery tool.

Prefer to inspect the files and run Docker Compose yourself?

Review the public install.sh and compose.yaml, then run:

mkdir podbay && cd podbay
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/podbay-cloud/install/main/compose.yaml -o compose.yaml
docker compose up -d

Know before you deploy

• This is a single-owner edition. The built-in login protects the dashboard and administrative terminal; it is not a multi-user access-control system.
• Local or private-network use is still recommended. Remote deployment is experimental, pod ports need Docker-aware firewall rules, and app-preview links currently work only on the Docker host. Read the deployment and security guides before using a server.
• The host must remain online. A pod cannot keep working while its Docker host is asleep or disconnected.
• A pod is not a backup. Deleting a pod deletes its container and workspace. Commit important work to Git or export it first.
• Podbay has powerful host access. The dashboard controls Docker so it can create and manage pods. Only run it on a machine where you trust the people who can reach the dashboard.

Documentation

• Podbay docs — what Claude can accomplish, how to ask for recurring work, and how to manage previews, skills, secrets, and recovery
• Deployment — supported hosts, ports, private access, remote-host guidance, and configuration
• Operations — logs, updates, backups, stopping, uninstalling, and common problems
• Architecture — the containers, networks, data, and trust boundaries
• Security — current limitations, exposure risks, secrets, and reporting a vulnerability

Source and licensing

The buildable self-hosted source is being prepared for publication. It will include the dashboard, local control plane, gateway, pod agent, Docker provider, default environments, image build files, and the tests needed to reproduce the published images. Podbay's managed-cloud orchestration and operator tooling will remain separate.

Until that source and its license are published, this repository is the public self-hosted installer—not the source distribution.

Help and feedback

This edition is being shaped with early users. Report reproducible bugs and installation problems in GitHub Issues. For the managed version, visit podbay.cloud.