Launch and manage Instances

An Instance is one running App: a desk or a service on one of your Computes. Hiring an agent launches its desk for you (Hire an agent). This page launches an Instance yourself, for a service your agents use, or a desk with no agent.

Launch an Instance#

1. Open Instances and press Launch an Instance, or press Launch on a service in Apps.
2. Under App, press Choose (or Change, once one is picked) to pick one from the Marketplace or your own Apps.
3. Give it a Name, and choose the Compute it runs on.
4. Open Network and identity if you need it:
   • Network name is how other Instances in the workspace reach it. It's filled in from the name, and fixed once launched.
   • Ports (optional, for a service) are the ones other Computes in the workspace may reach. See Services and the workspace network.
   • Role (optional) is a label the audit log names it by. It's fixed once launched.
   • Give this app its own identity gives the Instance a key when its container starts. It then acts as you in this workspace and can read every variable in reach. Leave it off unless the App is built to use it.
5. Open Environment to give the App the values it reads, such as a database password. For each key, choose a saved secret, New secret…, A value for something that isn't secret, or Not set.
6. Press Launch, followed by its name.

The Instance appears in Instances under its Compute, Starting, then Running. Read the App's instructions on its page for its port and how to connect.

Keep secrets out of plain values: New secret… saves one as a secret workspace variable, which isn't shown again after you save it.

Open, stop and start#

• Open opens a desk in a new tab: see Watch and control a desk. A service has no screen, so it has no Open.
• The ⋯ menu has Stop, Start, Share (a desk you own), Details and Archive….

Stopping keeps the Instance, but anything unsaved in its apps is lost. Start runs it again.

Archive#

Archive… stops the Instance and removes it from the list for good. Anything an agent launched from it is archived with it. Archiving loses what was on the Instance, so keep your work somewhere that lasts, such as a git remote.

From your AI or a desk#

A connected harness has launch_instance, list_instances, start_instance, stop_instance, restart_instance and archive_instance. On a desk, uremot instance does the same, and --env-file keeps a launch's values out of a transcript:

uremot instance list
uremot instance stop <instance-id>

The uremot-apps skill walks an AI through launching and running Instances: uremot-apps.