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openbox

openbox

Authenticate once, then openbox -t mac make build just works — on any machine in your fleet, from any laptop.
Quick start View on GitHub

What is openbox

openbox turns the machines you already have — a GPU box, a couple of Mac minis for builds, a Raspberry Pi wired to some hardware — into a single fleet you can drive from anywhere. Tag a node, then target it by tag:

Terminal window
openbox -t mac  uname -a                 # run on any node tagged "mac"
openbox -t gpu  --docker pytorch/pytorch python train.py
openbox -t mac -s build cd /tmp/work     # persistent session: these three…
openbox -t mac -s build make             # …share cwd + env, run in order…
openbox -t mac -s build ./ship.sh        # …in the same shell on the same node

It’s built for AI agents as much as humans: a coding agent can fan a build out across a tagged pool, hold a working directory open across steps, and isolate risky work in a container — all through one small CLI.

How it works

openbox is one Go binary that plays three roles: a thin control plane you self-host, an agent on every node, and the CLI you run anywhere.

                        ┌──────────────────────────┐
   openbox login  ───►  │   control plane (thin)   │   you self-host this
                        │  · user auth / tokens    │
                        │  · node registry + tags  │
                        │  · SSH certificate CA     │
                        │  · session directory     │
                        │  · web dashboard          │
                        └────────────┬─────────────┘
                                     │ brokers identity, then steps aside
            ┌────────────────────────┴───────────┐
       ┌────▼─────┐   peer-to-peer, mutually  ┌───▼──────┐
       │ openbox  │   cert-verified SSH       │ openbox  │
       │  (CLI)   │ ────────────────────────► │  agent   │  on each node
       └──────────┘   (no control plane in    └──────────┘
                       the data path)

The control plane never sees your command traffic. It hands the CLI a short-lived SSH user certificate and tells it which node to reach; the CLI then talks straight to the node’s agent. The node trusts the cert because the openbox CA signed it, and the CLI verifies the node’s host certificate the same way — the Teleport / Netflix-BLESS model: one CA, ephemeral certs, no static key distribution.

Why you might want it

  • Simpler than Kubernetes. No cluster, no YAML, no control-plane-in-the-data-path. Native execution by default; opt up to Docker or systemd-nspawn per command.
  • Reach across NATs. An embedded Tailscale/Headscale mesh lets laptops and nodes find each other directly, with no port forwarding. See Mesh networking.
  • Tags + sessions. Target a pool by tag; bind a session id to keep a shell (cwd + env) alive across commands on one node.
  • A real dashboard. A live map of your fleet — online/offline, tags, platform — with a web console that streams command output back over SSE.

Next steps

  • Install — one curl command, or a prebuilt binary.
  • Quick start — stand up a control plane and enroll your first node.
  • CLI reference — every command and flag.
  • Architecture — the trust model and data path in depth.