🎳 L8s (Lebowskis)

"The container management system that really ties the room together"

L8s is a git-native, remote-only development container system that creates isolated, SSH-accessible environments on dedicated servers. Each git repository gets its own persistent container with full development tools.

🔒 Security Architecture

L8s uses a defense-in-depth architecture for secure remote development:

• Unprivileged LXC container provides strong isolation from the host
• Root Podman inside the LXC for optimal performance
• SSH Certificate Authority prevents MITM attacks with cryptographic container verification
• Remote-only execution - code never runs on your laptop

This architecture provides excellent isolation for development workloads while maintaining the performance needed for real work.

Key Features

• 🔗 Git-Native: Seamlessly extends your git workflow - containers are tied to repositories
• 🔒 Secure by Design: SSH Certificate Authority prevents MITM attacks, remote-only execution
• ⚡ Fast: Containers ready in seconds, SSH multiplexing for instant connections
• 💾 Persistent: Your work survives container restarts with dedicated volumes
• 🛠️ Fully Featured: Modern dev tools, Neovim, tmux, GitHub CLI, and more

Quick Install

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/l8s.git
cd l8s
make build
sudo make install

# Initialize (one-time setup)
l8s init

That's it! L8s will prompt for your remote server details and GitHub token during init.

Quick Start

L8s requires you to be in a git repository for most commands:

# From inside your git repo
cd ~/projects/my-app

# Create a development container for this repo
l8s create

# SSH into your container  
l8s ssh

# Your code is already there at /workspace/project!

Core Workflow

L8s extends git with remote development containers:

# Work locally, test remotely
git commit -m "New feature"
l8s push              # Push changes to container
l8s ssh               # Test in isolated environment

# Or use your favorite editor
code --remote ssh-remote+dev-myapp-a3f2d1 /workspace/project

Common Commands

All commands work from within a git repository:

l8s create            # Create container for current repo
l8s ssh               # SSH into container
l8s push              # Push current branch to container
l8s rebuild           # Rebuild container (preserves data)
l8s rm                # Remove container
l8s exec <command>    # Run command in container

Global commands (work anywhere):

l8s list              # List all containers
l8s build             # Build container base image
l8s init              # Initial setup

Git-Native Design

L8s automatically:

• Names containers based on your repository and worktree
• Maintains the same branch in the container
• Creates git remotes for seamless push/pull
• Maps each worktree to its own container

For example, if you're in /Users/you/projects/myapp:

• Container name: dev-myapp-<hash>
• Automatic SSH config entry
• Git remote: l8s-dev-myapp-<hash>

Container Environment

Each container includes:

• OS: Fedora latest with systemd
• Shell: Zsh with Oh-My-Zsh
• Editor: Neovim with modern config
• Languages: Go, Python, Node.js, Rust
• Tools: GitHub CLI, tmux, ripgrep, fzf
• Security: SSH Certificate Authority managed

SSH Access

Three ways to connect:

# Via l8s
l8s ssh

# Direct SSH (after l8s creates the config)
ssh dev-myapp-a3f2d1

# VS Code Remote SSH
code --remote ssh-remote+dev-myapp-a3f2d1 /workspace/project

Architecture

L8s is remote-only - containers never run on your laptop:

Your Laptop                    Remote Server
-----------                    -------------
l8s CLI          SSH          Podman (rootful)
Git repo    ------------->    Dev containers
SSH agent                     Persistent volumes

Documentation

• Remote Server Setup - Configuring your server
• Configuration Guide - Detailed config options
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
• Development Guide - Building and contributing

Requirements

Your laptop: SSH client, Git
Remote server: Linux, Podman 4+, SSH server

Security

• Remote-only execution: Code never runs on your laptop
• SSH Certificate Authority: Cryptographic verification of container identity
• No passwords: SSH key authentication only
• Isolated environments: Each container is fully separated

License

MIT - See LICENSE file

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.