Matt Shumer wipes the Mac Mini previously set up for OpenClaw and reconfigures it into an always-on devbox for Codex mobile development tasks

There's gonna be a weird ugly middle where some of us are doing stuff like this to pull forward the future

And the the future will arrive and it will be awesome for everyone

@mattshumer_ always on devbox for codex mobile is the way

@gdb Just closed my computer for the first time while a run was going.

Such a freeing feeling.

this is what i did, have mac mini as automated 24/7 developer! have pulled the /goal function out of codex and now I run consecutive define goal do it verify push next cycle as codex can not skip to next goal out of a box. It is on its 85 cycle and alredy almost build full app, incrementaly, as real dev would prefere to do it. zero human intervention, from idea to product

@mattshumer_ This is going to be insane.

I did the same with a mini added Tailscale + ran tmux new -s codex so Codex mobile stays connected 24/7.

One-shot full project builds from my phone now. What’s your first test project on the new devbox?@mattshumer_

@mattshumer_ Ad Hermes on there too then using their kanban system and paperclip you can have an incredible multi agent system

@mattshumer_ You know you do t have to wipe it to of that? Can do both

@mattshumer_ So the self-proclaimed « world’s best expert on Open Claw » has stopped using it??? What happened to those man-fangled prompts for ultra-complex workflows that could never be created with one prompt? Any apology to those whose precious time you wasted?

@mattshumer_ Always-on devboxes are the real mobile unlock: phone for intent and approval, Mac mini for filesystem access, toolchains, caches, secrets, test loops, and persistent state.

"Closed my laptop while a run was going" is the milestone most enterprise shops are 18 months from. Not because the tooling isn't ready. Because they haven't scoped what the agent is allowed to touch before they'd trust it to run without them watching. Blast radius first, autonomy second.

@mattshumer_ This little gadget you can plug into your MacBook too and or your Mac mini and it keeps it running all the time because it thinks it’s got a monitor attached https://amzn.to/42HKGOp

@gdb @mattshumer_ Why a mac mini and not a 5$ vps?

@altryne Peace of mind that came with removing OC from a security perspective >>>

the always on devbox sounds simple until you hit the operational reality power outages kill long running agent jobs isp downtime locks you out at the worst moments security on an always exposed machine is a real concern most people skip. The upside is real but plan for ssh fallback, ups battery backup, and a vpn tunnel before you ship anything important on it

@mattshumer_ What about your Agent S?

@mattshumer_ @TheRealAdamG So I've convinced you?

Inverse failure mode for always-on devbox setups: our runner reported 'Running' to backend even after config.yaml was wiped — launchd had the process up but nothing to register with. OS service status != app registration status. The Mac Mini stays up; what's actually serving may not.

It runs Hermes as a “managed employee” inside a Paperclip company — Paperclip’s scheduler invokes hermes chat -q, the adapter parses transcripts, token usage, and cost back into Paperclip’s UI, and skills from both sides are unified into one view. The benefit is clean separation of concerns: Paperclip handles org-level coordination (task routing, handoffs, budgets, dashboards) while each Hermes instance keeps its own persistent memory and self-improving skills, so you get fleet governance without flattening workers into stateless drones.

@mattshumer_ Wiping for that seems like an over reaction, gateway off and you're golden.

OC is not inherently "insecure" but yeah I getcha

@nickbaumann_ But as soon as you arrive, you'll want to reset again with the next best thing. We all stuck in a Ralph loop 😭