Introduction

COMA points your Docker and Podman workflows, and your coding agents, at a machine with more CPU, memory and disk. Bind mounts, localhost ports and interactive commands keep working, so nothing about how you work has to change.

You keep your editor, your files and your terminal on the laptop. The containers run on a Linux machine that COMA reaches over SSH. COMA sits above Docker, Podman and Compose: it does not replace them.

Start with one machineCopy Anchor Link

You don't need COMA Cloud, Kubernetes or a new container runtime. If you have a Linux machine you can reach over SSH, it can be your first COMA machine.

No COMA account is needed.

StatusCopy Anchor Link

What works todayCopy Anchor Link

• Machines over SSH. coma machine add registers a Linux server you own or rent. It verifies the SSH host key, records an inventory (OS, CPU, memory, disk, engines) and changes nothing on the machine. See Add a machine.
• Bare VM setup. coma machine bootstrap installs Docker or rootless Podman from the distribution's own packages on Debian and Ubuntu. It shows the plan and asks first. See Bootstrap a bare VM.
• Your Docker CLI, pointed at the machine. coma connect makes a Docker context called coma current, so docker, Docker Compose and every new shell, including shells started by coding agents, use the machine. With a Podman engine it also sets podman's default connection. The local socket is private to you, and traffic goes over SSH.
• Bind mounts. COMA keeps a copy of your project directory on the machine and maps bind mounts to it, so ./src:/app/src in a Compose file mounts your code. In the default mode, sync never deletes or overwrites files on the machine. See Source sync.
• localhost ports. Every TCP port a container publishes on the machine is also available on your localhost at the same number. On the machine, COMA publishes on 127.0.0.1 only. See Ports.
• Interactive and streaming commands. docker exec -it, docker logs -f and docker compose up stream through COMA as they do locally.
• Workspaces. A coma.yaml in your project names its machine, engine, sync rules and ports. coma workspace up connects and syncs in one step. See Your first workspace.
• Sleep and wake. When the laptop wakes, COMA checks its SSH connections and reconnects the ones that died.
• Diagnostics. coma doctor checks the installation and the traps that send commands somewhere other than the machine, such as containers created on a local engine while you are connected.
• Scripts and coding agents. Every command takes --json, and every error has a stable code. See JSON output.

What you needCopy Anchor Link

• A laptop running macOS or Linux (arm64 or amd64), with the docker CLI, the podman CLI, or both. Use Docker Compose v2: coma doctor warns about Compose v1.
• A Linux machine you can reach over SSH with a key, through ssh-agent or a key file. It needs Docker or Podman, or, on Debian or Ubuntu, passwordless sudo so coma machine bootstrap can install one.

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