Your first VM

A Ghostdock VM is a whole Linux machine, ready in seconds: Docker, SSH and systemd, and a URL for any port you choose. It sleeps when it is idle and wakes up when it is needed.

On this page you create one, run a web server in it, put it on a public URL, and make it vanish again. About a minute, start to finish. You need a connected agent or the CLI.

With your agent

Paste this into an agent that has Ghostdock connected:

Create a Ghostdock VM called hello. Run nginx in it on port 8080, give port 8080 a public URL
that wakes the VM, and send me the URL.

That's the whole job. The agent reads Ghostdock's vm skill and calls the tools on its own: vm_up, a command in the VM, then vm_url_set.

With the CLI

1. Create the VM.

ghostdock vm up --name hello

It shows each step while the VM starts, then the VM's details. Leave out --name and Ghostdock picks a name like quiet-harbor. ghostdock vm list now shows ⚓ hello running.

2. Run a web server in it.

ghostdock vm ssh hello -- docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -p 8080:80 nginx

vm ssh logs you in to the VM. With -- it runs one command and returns. Without it you get a shell.

3. Give it a URL.

ghostdock vm url set hello 8080 --access public --wake

The URL is the url.url line of what it prints. Open it: you see nginx's welcome page.

• --access public lets anyone open it. Leave it out and only members of your organization can, after signing in.
• --wake starts the VM when someone opens the URL while it is stopped. A VM stops by itself when it is idle, and starts again where it left off.

4. Make it vanish.

ghostdock vm delete hello

The VM and its files are gone for good. The next one is a command away.

What you can do next

• See every VM in the app: ghostdock.ai.
• Run your own code: ghostdock vm up --compose ./compose.yaml, --dockerfile ./Dockerfile or --image <image>.
• Copy files in and out: ghostdock vm cp hello ./dist :/srv/app.
• Read how VMs work, for people and agents: ghostdock skill get vm.