Deploy ubuntu-minimax-template

Ubuntu + MiniMax Code — SSH Coding Workstation

A persistent Ubuntu 24.04 SSH workstation with MiniMax's mcode coding agent preinstalled — bring your own MiniMax API key, SSH in from anywhere, and put the agent to work on real projects. Everything under the home directory lives on a persistent volume: your code, the agent's configuration, sessions, and shell history all survive restarts and redeploys.

What you get

• Ubuntu 24.04 (glibc — required by mcode) with OpenSSH: key-only auth, password and root login disabled
• mcode (MiniMax Code CLI, MIT, pinned at 0.5.4) on Node.js 22.x, installed globally — TUI plus headless mcode exec for scripts and CI
• Non-root dev user with passwordless sudo, zsh, git, python3 + venv, build-essential, ripgrep, jq, vim
• Persistent volume at /home/dev — ~/projects, ~/.minimax (agent config + sessions), shell history
• BYOK bootstrap: set MCODE_PROVIDER_API_KEY and the agent is configured against MiniMax's Anthropic-compatible endpoint automatically at first boot (idempotent — changing the key later re-provisions on restart)
• Health endpoint /healthz on $PORT reporting sshd + mcode status as JSON (Railway healthchecks are HTTP-only; the stub watches the SSH daemon for you)

Deploy-form variables

That is the only prompt. Your SSH key and API key are added after deploy (below) — nothing sensitive is baked into the template.

Post-deploy setup (2 minutes)

1. Add your SSH public key — in your new project, open the service -> Variables -> add SSH_PUBLIC_KEY with the one-line contents of your ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub (generate with ssh-keygen -t ed25519 if needed). The service redeploys and installs it into /home/dev/.ssh/authorized_keys.
2. SSH in — the template provisions a TCP proxy for SSH. Its host and port are visible in Variables as RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_DOMAIN and RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_PORT: ssh dev@$RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_DOMAIN -p $RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_PORT
3. Add your MiniMax API key — Variables -> MCODE_PROVIDER_API_KEY (subscription key from platform.minimax.io) -> restart. The boot script configures and activates provider mm against https://api.minimax.io/anthropic with model MiniMax-M3 (override with MCODE_MODEL: M2.7, M2.5, M2.1, M2 are also available). Or skip the variable and run mcode provider add interactively inside the box.
4. Put the agent to work: mcode exec --permission full "write hello.py that prints hello world, then run it"

Cost

Roughly $5–10/month on Railway for the workstation (service + 5 GB volume, usage-based), plus your MiniMax Coding Plan or API usage. A full agent round-trip costs fractions of a cent.

Deploy and Host

About Hosting

One Railway service (Dockerfile build from the public repo), one persistent volume mounted at /home/dev, one Railway-provided HTTP domain routed to the healthz stub on PORT 8000, and one TCP proxy routed to sshd on port 22 for public SSH access. SSH host keys regenerate per redeploy (a one-time known_hosts update is expected); everything in the home volume persists. The service runs ~$5–10/mo at hobby scale plus your own MiniMax plan or API spend.

Why Deploy

Hand-rolling this on a VPS means installing and hardening sshd, managing host keys, keeping a Node 22 runtime alive, and babysitting a box you pay for even when idle. This template ships it as one click: key-only SSH enforced by default, the mcode agent pinned and preinstalled, the home directory persistent across redeploys, and a health endpoint Railway can actually probe (HTTP) even though the real workload is SSH (TCP). Scale the service up or let it sleep — Railway handles the rest.

Common Use Cases

• A personal cloud dev box for MiniMax's coding agent — drive mcode from a laptop, tablet, or phone SSH client
• Scripted/CI agent runs: mcode exec headless round-trips against your persistent ~/projects
• BYOK agent workspaces for a team: one template deploy per member, each with their own key and volume
• A scratch Linux environment with compilers, Python, ripgrep, and git that never loses your files
• Long-running agent tasks in tmux that survive your laptop going offline

Dependencies for

No external services are required — a single self-contained service plus its volume.

Deployment Dependencies

• Railway template variables: PORT (enter 8000)
• Post-deploy service variables you supply: SSH_PUBLIC_KEY (your OpenSSH public key line), optionally MCODE_PROVIDER_API_KEY (MiniMax subscription key from platform.minimax.io), optionally MCODE_MODEL (default MiniMax-M3)
• An SSH client locally; MiniMax plan or API credits for agent usage