README.md

Terrarium Docs

Terrarium turns a plain Ubuntu 24.04 VPS into a secure home for isolated environments, with a built-in time machine.

It is built for the way people actually use agents and development tools now: giving software enough freedom to be useful, without giving it the whole host. Agent systems like OpenClaw, Hermes, browser-based editors, internal dashboards, and temporary development environments can run inside real LXD containers on ZFS, while the host stays hardened and recoverable.

That gives you three things at once:

• isolation, so one workload does not become everyone else's problem
• a built-in time machine, so a broken environment can be stepped backward instead of rebuilt
• easy publishing, so containerized web apps can be exposed through Traefik with TLS and optional OIDC protection

And if you enable S3 exports, that time machine is not limited to the local disk. You also get an off-host disaster-recovery path for the day the whole VPS disappears.

If you are new to Terrarium, start here:

• Getting Started
• Provider Guides
• Use-case Guides
• Operations
• Reference
• Architecture

What Terrarium Installs

Terrarium provisions a host with:

• Cockpit with cockpit-zfs and cockpit-S3ObjectBroswer
• LXD with the built-in web UI
• OpenZFS
• sanoid and syncoid
• Traefik with the built-in dashboard
• oauth2-proxy
• Optional self-hosted ZITADEL
• devsec.hardening

Supported Scope

• Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
• Single-host install only
• LXC containers only

Common Paths Through The Docs

If you want to get a box online quickly:

1. Read Installation
2. Read Storage and Sizing
3. Pick your provider from Provider Guides

If you want to understand auth and management access:

1. Read Domains and Authentication
2. Read Protecting Published Services with OIDC

If you want day-2 operations:

1. Read Reconfiguration
2. Read Backups and Restore
3. Use terrariumctl Reference