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Hetzner

Read this when you are:

  • choosing Hetzner Cloud as the Crabbox provider;
  • debugging Hetzner capacity, quotas, images, or SSH readiness;
  • changing Hetzner provisioning code in the CLI or the coordinator.

Hetzner is a Linux-only managed provider. Crabbox creates a Hetzner Cloud server, labels it with lease metadata (crabbox=true plus lease/slug/class and related labels), waits for the standard SSH bootstrap contract, and optionally layers on the desktop, browser, code, and Tailscale capabilities. It is one of the five providers that can run brokered through the coordinator (alongside aws, azure, daytona, and gcp); without a configured broker it runs direct from the CLI against the Hetzner Cloud API.

Targets

Target Managed Notes
Linux Yes Cloud-init bootstrap, SSH, rsync sync, optional desktop/browser/code/Tailscale.
Windows No Use aws or azure for managed Windows, or provider: ssh for an existing Windows host.
macOS No Use aws (EC2 Mac), parallels, or provider: ssh for an existing Mac.

Examples:

crabbox warmup --provider hetzner --class beast
crabbox run --provider hetzner --class standard -- pnpm test
crabbox warmup --provider hetzner --desktop --browser
crabbox vnc --id blue-lobster --open

Server classes and types

--class selects a list of candidate server types. Crabbox tries them in order and falls back to the next when Hetzner rejects a candidate for quota or capacity (dedicated_core_limit, resource_limit_exceeded, server_type_not_available, location_not_available). The default class is beast.

standard  ccx33, cpx62, cx53
fast      ccx43, cpx62, cx53
large     ccx53, ccx43, cpx62, cx53
beast     ccx63, ccx53, ccx43, cpx62, cx53

--type pins an explicit server type. It is tried first, but Crabbox still falls back to the rest of the class candidates if that type is rejected for quota or capacity, so a busy region does not strand a lease. Dedicated-core types (the ccx* family) are the most likely to hit account quota.

Image and location

The OS image follows --os (default ubuntu:26.04), mapped to the Hetzner image name. Both ubuntu:26.04 and ubuntu:24.04 resolve to the ubuntu-24.04 Hetzner image today. The default location is fsn1.

Override the image, location, or a preexisting Hetzner SSH key via config or environment variables (see below). Crabbox otherwise generates and uploads a per-lease SSH key automatically.

Credentials and configuration

Direct mode reads the API token from the environment:

HCLOUD_TOKEN     # preferred
HETZNER_TOKEN    # fallback

One of these is required for any direct Hetzner operation.

Brokered mode stores the token as a Worker secret named HETZNER_TOKEN; the CLI never sees it. Lease lifecycle calls go through the broker, while SSH, rsync, and command execution still run directly from the CLI to the runner host.

Optional config keys (file section hetzner: or CRABBOX_HETZNER_* environment variables):

CRABBOX_HETZNER_LOCATION   # hetzner.location  (default fsn1)
CRABBOX_HETZNER_IMAGE      # hetzner.image     (default per --os)
CRABBOX_HETZNER_SSH_KEY    # hetzner.sshKey    (reuse a named Hetzner key)

Capabilities

The Hetzner adapter advertises ssh, crabbox-sync, cleanup, desktop, browser, code, and tailscale.

  • --desktop / --browser use the Linux VNC path: resize-capable TigerVNC and a lightweight XFCE session, with VNC bound to 127.0.0.1:5900. crabbox vnc opens an SSH local tunnel to it. See Linux VNC.
  • --code provisions code-server, bridgeable into the portal with crabbox code.
  • --tailscale joins the lease to a tailnet. In direct mode this requires an auth key in the configured --tailscale-auth-key-env variable; brokered mode uses the coordinator's OAuth secrets. See Tailscale.

Cleanup

In brokered mode, expiry and teardown are owned by the coordinator's Durable Object alarm. In direct mode, cleanup is best-effort through the crabbox=true provider labels: crabbox cleanup --provider hetzner deletes expired direct-provider servers and skips machines that were kept.

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