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Cloud machines

Make a DigitalOcean droplet from Muxen, set up and added to your machines, and keep an eye on what it costs.

Need a machine you don’t have? Muxen can make one in your DigitalOcean account: a droplet with your user and ssh key, the tools you picked, and Muxen’s agent, added to your machines. Then it’s like any other machine: terminals, agent sessions, files, workspaces, runners.

A cloud machine costs money every hour it exists, powered on or off. Only Destroy stops the charges.

Connecting your DigitalOcean account

In Settings › Cloud, sign in one of three ways:

  • Browser: Sign in with DigitalOcean opens DigitalOcean’s sign-in page and comes back to Muxen.
  • API token: create a token with read and write access on DigitalOcean and paste it in. It’s kept in the Keychain on a Mac, and in Credential Manager on Windows.
  • doctl: if you use DigitalOcean’s command line tool, run doctl auth init in a terminal, then Check again.

Settings › Cloud then says which account you’re connected as, with Sign out.

Making one

Pick New cloud machine… in the Add machine dialog (⌘N) or the command palette. Give it:

  • A name, which is also its name in Muxen.
  • A region. The nearest one is picked for you.
  • A size: CPUs, memory and disk, each with its monthly price. The button says what you’re about to pay (“Create · $24/mo”).
  • What it comes with. Tools (Docker, the GitHub CLI), languages (Node.js, Python, Go, Rust and others), agent CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Amp, Pi) and Tailscale. By default: Docker, the GitHub CLI, Node.js with Claude Code and Codex, and Tailscale.

Muxen creates the droplet (Ubuntu 24.04), sets up your account and ssh key, installs what you chose, and adds it to your machines. Follow along in Activity (⌘J). The defaults for new machines (region, size, what they come with) are in Settings › Cloud › New machines.

With Tailscale picked, save a Tailscale key in Settings › Cloud and new machines join your tailnet by themselves. Without one, Muxen opens Tailscale’s approval page for each new machine.

Its page

A cloud machine’s page starts with a card: its region and size, whether it’s running (and how long it’s been idle), and what it costs: its hourly rate, this month so far, since it was created, and what this month comes to if you keep it. The card has Power on or Power off, and Destroy….

The dev-1 cloud machine's page: DigitalOcean, its region and size, running, with its hourly rate, this month, since created and the month's total, and Power off and Destroy. The dev-1 cloud machine's page: DigitalOcean, its region and size, running, with its hourly rate, this month, since created and the month's total, and Power off and Destroy.
dev-1, a DigitalOcean droplet: what it costs, and the buttons that change that.

How billing works

DigitalOcean bills a droplet by the second while it exists, powered on or off, up to its monthly price.

  • Power off shuts it down, but it’s still billed. Its sidebar entry says “Powered off”.
  • Destroy… deletes the droplet and everything on it, and takes it out of Muxen. That stops the charges. Muxen asks first and says what it has cost so far.
  • Remove from Muxen isn’t offered for a cloud machine, since removing it alone would leave it running, and billed.

Push your work before you destroy one. Nothing on it can be brought back.

When one sits idle

Muxen can notice a cloud machine nobody is using: no busy agent session, no running job, and no CPU use. In Settings › Cloud › When one sits idle, pick what happens:

  • Nothing.
  • Tell me: it shows on the overview, under what needs a look (the default).
  • Power off: it stops, but is still billed.
  • Destroy: it’s deleted, with everything on it.

Then pick after how many hours, from 1 to 72 (3 by default). Muxen has to be open to notice.

Usage and cost

Settings › Cloud › Usage and cost adds it all up: what you’re paying per hour right now, this month so far (machines destroyed this month included), what the month comes to if nothing changes, and your whole DigitalOcean bill this month, with Open billing.

The bill needs permission to read it: sign in with the browser, or use a token with billing:read.

From the command line and MCP

muxen cloud login --token dop_v1_...
muxen cloud options          # regions, sizes and prices
muxen cloud create dev-1 --size s-2vcpu-4gb
muxen cloud usage            # what they cost
muxen cloud power dev-1 off  # still billed
muxen cloud destroy dev-1

Your agents have the same through MCP: cloud_options, cloud_create, cloud_usage, cloud_power and cloud_destroy. They’re told to say the size and price and get your OK before creating one. See MCP for your agents.