Boring Computers

boring computers

On-demand Linux computers you can hand to an AI.

Each one is a real Firecracker microVM — a full machine with its own kernel — that boots in milliseconds, does its thing, and self-destructs when it's done (or stays up as long as you want). Open source (Apache-2.0), self-hosted with your own keys. boringcomputers.com is a showcase; you run the real thing yourself.

> One machine, everything on it — a live desktop with a real browser, a terminal > with coding agents preinstalled, and an AI you can hand the whole thing to. > Type "build a snake game" and it writes it, runs it, and gives you a link to play.

What you get

• A computer — a full Linux desktop (browser, terminal, apps) over VNC, or a

fast headless shell.

• Coding agents preinstalled — claude, codex, cursor, pi, plus node,

python, git and internet.

• An AI that drives it — say what you want. It either uses the screen

(clicks, browses) or writes + runs code and hands you a live URL.

• Files & ports — drag files in and out; open any port through the daemon.
• Fork — clone a running computer, exact live state and all, in ~35 ms.
• Storage — persistent volumes (S3-backed) that outlive a machine.
• Ephemeral or not — machines self-destruct on a TTL by default; flip

keep alive and one runs until you stop it.

Run your own

You need a machine that can run Firecracker: Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 with /dev/kvm (a bare-metal box, or a VM with nested virtualization) that you can root-SSH into. One command turns it into a running boringd:

git clone https://github.com/michaelshimeles/boring-computers
cd boring-computers && npm install

# set it up on your box (installs Firecracker, builds the images, runs boringd)
BORING_ANTHROPIC_KEY=sk-ant-...  ./infra/setup.sh root@YOUR_BOX_IP

Don't have a box? If you use Latitude.sh, [infra/latitude/provision.sh](infra/latitude/provision.sh) creates one for you first. Any other provider works too — just point setup.sh at it.

Then run the site against it:

# apps/web/.env
PUBLIC_BORING_URL=http://YOUR_BOX_IP:8080   # or a tunnel — see apps/web/.env.example
npm run dev -w web

setup.sh options (env): BORING_TOKEN (require auth), BORING_S3_* (persistent volumes), BIND_LOCALHOST=1 (reach it only via SSH tunnel — most private), SKIP_DESKTOP=1 (skip the ~8-min desktop image). Full REST + WebSocket API in the docs.

From any AI — an MCP server ([packages/mcp](packages/mcp)) lets Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other agents spin up and drive your computers as a tool. There's also a small Effect-native TypeScript client ([packages/sdk](packages/sdk)). Both run from source (not on npm).

How it works

Real hardware-virtualized isolation — a kernel per machine, not a shared container. Each VM is jailed and resource-capped, restored from a memory snapshot in ~3 ms, and self-destructs on a TTL (or runs until you stop it, when the server enables BORING_ALLOW_PERSISTENT). Guests are network-isolated behind an egress firewall. The control plane is [boringd/](boringd) (Go); host setup is one command ([infra/setup.sh](infra/setup.sh)).

Repo

A Turborepo monorepo (npm workspaces):

apps/web/          the site — SvelteKit
boringd/           the control plane — Go, runs the microVMs
packages/sdk/      @boring/sdk — Effect-native TypeScript client
packages/mcp/      @boring/mcp — MCP server
infra/setup.sh     one-command host setup (any Ubuntu + KVM box)
infra/latitude/    rootfs/kernel/image builds, networking, Caddy, Latitude helpers

npm install      # all workspaces
npm run dev      # the site
npm run build    # production build
npm run check    # type-check
npm run lint     # prettier + eslint

Contributing & license

Contributions welcome — see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). Licensed under [Apache 2.0](LICENSE).

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: michaelshimeles
• Source: michaelshimeles/boring-computers
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://boringcomputers.com

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.