Run the pi coding agent in the cloud

A sleeping laptop runs nothing, so closing the lid stops pi mid-task. To keep it working, run it on a machine that stays on:

• pi in tmux on a server you run. You install it, maintain the machine, and move your code there with git.
• A Prized box. A Linux machine that stays on, with your project folder synced both ways and its ports on your localhost; one command installs pi there and starts it. The steps follow.

11. Put your project on a box

Sign up at prized.dev: the tour starts a box on $30 of free credit with no card, then shows one command that installs the CLI and signs this machine in (Quickstart). Then run setup in your project folder:

cd ~/code/myproject
prized setup --no-start

It syncs this folder with ~/code/myproject on the box; --no-start keeps setup from starting Claude Code or another agent there. Already have a box? Skip the sign-up and run just the setup.

22. Start pi on the box

prized agents run pi --attach --dir code/myproject

The first run installs pi on the box from a pinned release, checked against its SHA-256, then starts it in your project in a tmux session named pi and opens that session in this terminal. A copy you installed on the box yourself is used instead.

pi has no models until it has a provider, and your laptop's pi sign-in does not travel, so give it one on the box:

• A key: add a provider key such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENROUTER_API_KEY as a Secret (Keys for other agents), then quit pi and run the same command to restart it with the key.
• Or /login in pi: pick an account or an API key, then a provider, and follow its prompt; a sign-in that finishes in a browser ends with pasting back a code or the address the browser lands on.

33. Close the lid

Give pi its task, then close the terminal or the laptop. The session belongs to the box, so pi keeps working, and its edits sync to your laptop when it wakes (Sync). The same prized agents run pi --attach --dir code/myproject opens the session again, or starts pi again if the session is gone. If the session holds only a shell, as it does when the dashboard's pi row opened it while pi wasn't running, that command reports the session as already running and neither installs nor starts pi: run prized ssh --kill pi first.

44. Check on it from anywhere

• From a computer: prized ssh -s pi. On another computer, install the CLI and run prized login first.
• From your phone or any browser: open the box on the dashboard. The arrow beside Open terminal lists pi, which opens the box's terminal in the pi session.

Or hand it a task and walk away

prized prompt --provider pi --cwd code/myproject --auto --detach "run the test suite and fix what fails"

This runs pi headless on the box and returns at once; prized events --follow follows the run. pi has no approvals, so without --auto it gets no bash tool and edits files without running commands; --auto adds it (Prompt an agent remotely). --model openrouter/… and the like pick a backend (Models and backends).

With an updated box agent that supports running-job protection (the runs capability), the run counts as use even while it waits on the model. A turn that prints nothing for 6 hours stops counting. On an older agent, or when support is unknown, the run counts for one idle window after it starts, then only while it keeps the CPU or network busy. In that case, or if the task can stay silent longer, run prized box auto-pause BOX off before starting it (Auto-pause).

What it costs

Asleep, a box pays only for its disk (Billing). On the free credit, a box sleeps after 2 hours idle, never in its first 24 hours; pi's output in its tmux session counts as use, so the box stays up while it prints (Auto-pause). Nano through Small keep pi's session through a pause, and prized box pause sleeps it at once (Pause and resume).