Features

DevCell wraps the development environment in a durable lifecycle. The current golden path runs on a self-hosted NixOS appliance with the container backend; the same control plane also drives the Firecracker machine boundary.

Demo ready available in the golden pathMachine path implemented in the Firecracker backendNext the remaining production boundary

One development loop

01PairApprove a Mac or CLI in the browser

02CreateClone a repo and resolve its workspace

03OpenAttach an IDE, terminal, or agent

04ExposePublish private preview routes

05BranchCheckpoint, sleep, or fork

06DestroyRemove the cell and runtime cleanly

Built for the whole workspace

Real repositories

Create from a Git URL or local path. celld materializes the source into cell-owned storage before runtime startup.

Devcontainer compatible

Reuse devcontainer.json, image, Dockerfile, and lifecycle commands instead of inventing a new project format.

IDE and terminal attach

Open a running cell in Cursor or VS Code over the appliance SSH path, or execute commands through the guest API.

Agent-ready sessions

Launch a scoped workspace-agent task inside the cell and retain its output in the operation event stream.

Private preview routes

Discover workspace ports and expose HTTP services through a stable, Tailscale-reachable host route.

Checkpoint and fork

Save workspace state, create a new cell from a checkpoint, and compare risky or parallel work without mutating the source cell.

Durable operations

Lifecycle changes are persisted as operations, steps, and events so clients can reconnect without losing the story.

Paired host trust

Browser approval, TLS fingerprint pinning, scoped bearer credentials, rotation, and revocation make host access explicit.

Self-hosted appliance

Nix builds the NixOS host, Go services, CellOS artifacts, Swift client, and site from one reproducible source tree.

Dedicated kernel boundary

Firecracker launch, TAP, vsock, jail staging, cleanup, and reboot reconciliation are wired; the rebuilt CellOS guest image closes the live exec slice.

The same API, three backend modes

Mode	Best for	What actually runs
Fake	API and UI development	Durable lifecycle simulation; no guest process
Container	The current end-to-end demo	Docker/devcontainer workspace plus cell-agent; shared host kernel
Firecracker	The production isolation boundary	KVM microVM, TAP network, vsock guest channel, jail staging, dedicated guest kernel

Backend capability reporting keeps the distinction visible. A container cell is useful and complete enough for the golden path, but it is never presented as having a dedicated kernel.

Why the pieces belong together

Most tools solve one slice: environment construction, remote access, sandboxing, or agent execution. DevCell makes them one inspectable object. A cell has source, runtime, identity, operations, ports, checkpoints, and policy—not just a process ID.

Continue with Key Concepts for the vocabulary or System Architecture for the concrete request path.