If you wanna do it yourself, this is how: Buy (~15 min) 1. Cheap VPS from Hetzner or DigitalOcean (~€5-10/mo), Ubuntu 24.04, tick automatic backups at checkout 2. Add your domain to Cloudflare (free plan), switch nameservers at your registrar 3. Install Termius (SSH app) + Tailscale (private network) on laptop and phone, free tiers Lock it down (~20 min) 4. Generate an SSH key in Termius, add it to the VPS at creation. Keys only, never passwords 5. SSH in once via public IP, run updates, install Tailscale on the server, log it in 6. Disable Tailscale key expiry for the server (admin console, one click) 7. Verify you can SSH via the server's Tailscale 100.x address BEFORE the next step 8. Provider firewall: delete all inbound rules, allow only port 443 from Cloudflare's published IP ranges. No public SSH at all. You enter through the tunnel 9. Test from outside: public IP times out on everything, Tailscale IP connects. Server is now invisible 10. One SSH key per device. Phone gets its own key added to authorized_keys Install the brain (~5 min) 11. apt install tmux then install Claude Code (official native installer, one curl command) 12. Run Claude Code inside a tmux session so it survives disconnects and keeps working while your laptop is closed Hand over everything else 13. Write ONE long handover prompt telling Claude Code: the server facts, the security model (so it doesn't "fix" it), folder conventions (/srv/http/domain per project, one tmux session each), your preferences, and standing rules (confirm before destructive actions, new services bind to localhost/Tailscale only) 14. Make it write all of that into CLAUDE.md first, so every future session already knows everything 15. Backups before features: nightly job pushing your data to GitHub, tested, before a single page exists 16. Then let it install the web server (Caddy + Cloudflare DNS plugin plays nicest with the locked firewall), set up SQLite, deploy the first page From then on you never administer the server again. You open Termius from anywhere, on any device, and just say what you want. BOSH
Many users praise the €8 Hetzner VPS setup with Claude Code for remote access as a gamechanger that feels amazing and practical, while others call it unnecessarily complicated or overkill versus the Claude app.
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If you wanna do it yourself, this is how: Buy (~15 min) 1. Cheap VPS from Hetzner or DigitalOcean (~€5-10/mo), Ubuntu 24.04, tick automatic backups at checkout 2. Add your domain to Cloudflare (free plan), switch nameservers at your registrar 3. Install Termius (SSH app) + Tailscale (private network) on laptop and phone, free tiers Lock it down (~20 min) 4. Generate an SSH key in Termius, add it to the VPS at creation. Keys only, never passwords 5. SSH in once via public IP, run updates, install Tailscale on the server, log it in 6. Disable Tailscale key expiry for the server (admin console, one click) 7. Verify you can SSH via the server's Tailscale 100.x address BEFORE the next step 8. Provider firewall: delete all inbound rules, allow only port 443 from Cloudflare's published IP ranges. No public SSH at all. You enter through the tunnel 9. Test from outside: public IP times out on everything, Tailscale IP connects. Server is now invisible 10. One SSH key per device. Phone gets its own key added to authorized_keys Install the brain (~5 min) 11. apt install tmux then install Claude Code (official native installer, one curl command) 12. Run Claude Code inside a tmux session so it survives disconnects and keeps working while your laptop is closed Hand over everything else 13. Write ONE long handover prompt telling Claude Code: the server facts, the security model (so it doesn't "fix" it), folder conventions (/srv/http/domain per project, one tmux session each), your preferences, and standing rules (confirm before destructive actions, new services bind to localhost/Tailscale only) 14. Make it write all of that into CLAUDE.md first, so every future session already knows everything 15. Backups before features: nightly job pushing your data to GitHub, tested, before a single page exists 16. Then let it install the web server (Caddy + Cloudflare DNS plugin plays nicest with the locked firewall), set up SQLite, deploy the first page From then on you never administer the server again. You open Termius from anywhere, on any device, and just say what you want. BOSH
@robj3d3 😂😂 One thing I haven't figured out yet btw is sending screenshots via SSH I do use the SFTP feature in Termius to upload files etc
@robj3d3 Awesome man!!! Please install Tailscale immediately, then set up a Cloudflare Tunnel if you wanna host any websites Then go to Hetzner, add Firewall, make new one, empty it (!), then it will block all inbound ports
@robj3d3 @levelsio This skill can help you set it up faster next time https://github.com/Avanderheyde/levelsio-vps-setup-skill
@robj3d3 This is really the benefit It can work for you in background non-stop I start entirely new projects fully from VPS Barely any project on laptop still
Seriously tho, now I am gonna start going out for coffees in the morning Instead of ordering in and sitting at my laptop Cos I can still work from my phone :D
@robj3d3 Oracle always free tier is unrivalled if you haven’t already got it. 24gb memory/4 OCPUs for the cool price of £0
@robj3d3 There's no point to this now. You can literally just use the Claude app
@joeet33 And drain your battery and be constrained to your device’s resources? You gonna host a SaaS from your laptop?
@robj3d3 This is so unnecessarily complicated 😂 Just use clonk G Literally does all of this in one app
I'm not saying it's bad but to me @levelsio is the Akira Nakai of coders. Just because he can get away with cutting into the body panels of a $300k Porsche with a kitchen knife doesn’t mean it’s the easiest or best way to do it. I’m not criticizing, he ships more in a week than most teams do in a quarter, solo + most of it in public, and makes it look fun. So he can work however he wants and he’ll encourage everyone to do the same because he’s a good guy and wants to help others. But still, for most people a slightly more conservative setup gets you the same autonomy with better results. For example remote Claude /code sessions get you 99% of the way there. You end up with a PR and at least some CI checks, and that PR still deploys to your VPS in a minute once merged. Just with a few guardrails in between.
@robj3d3 OR... OR... tell codex/claude to do it via computer use it's how i copied the levelsio setup recently 😂
@robj3d3 that remote dev setup rabbit hole is real 🥲 every time I think I'm done, I find one more thing that makes it 10% better.
@robj3d3 Get ready to burn more of your usage limits. Yes the first time I set mine up I thought why didn’t I think of this earlier haha
@robj3d3 I got this working: https://www.simple-agent-manager.org/ Made by Raphael https://github.com/raphaeltm It works pretty well!! You don't need to ssh or anything, it handles everything
Thank youuuu @levelsio for inspiring as usual This setup is goated Been scrolling past your tweets on this for a long time But holy shiett this feels so nice