Creating a server
Create a server… on the Hosts page makes a server at a cloud provider with the user’s own account and API token, then adds it to the hosts and connects, which installs enowX there (core/vps, ui/vpsform.go). enowX operates nothing in between: the app talks to the provider’s API itself.
| Provider | API | Image | Token |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud | api.hetzner.cloud/v1: locations, server_types (sizes offered in the region, without deprecated ones, with their gross monthly price), ssh_keys, servers | ubuntu-24.04 | Console → project → Security → API tokens, Read & Write |
| DigitalOcean | api.digitalocean.com/v2: regions (available ones), sizes (available in the region), account/keys, droplets | ubuntu-24-04-x64 | API → Personal access tokens, with write access |
| Vultr | api.vultr.com/v2: regions, plans?type=vc2 (offered in the region), ssh-keys, os (Ubuntu 24.04 x64), instances | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Account → API |
| InstaBox | api.instabox.sh/v1: me (the key checked), orgs (the sizes the plan allows, allowedSpecs: the Free plan’s 4 vCPUs and 8 GB only), machines (the user’s, and a new one of the size picked; every POST and DELETE with an Idempotency-Key), machines/{id}/resume and start, machines/{id}/connection-info, machines/{id}/connections (a certificate) | its default template: Debian 13 with Docker, Node.js, Go, Python and a browser | dashboard.instabox.sh → API keys, with machines read, write and delete; or the vault’s InstaBox credential |
The flow
- Pick the provider and paste a token (Use it). With Keep it in the system’s keychain on, the token is kept in the credential store as
vps-token:<provider>, read back the next time, and used to delete the server later. - Pick a region, then a size (cheapest first, with its CPUs, memory, disk and monthly price), and a name.
- The server gets the user’s SSH public key for root:
~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub,id_ecdsa.puborid_rsa.pub, the first there is; Make one runsssh-keygen -t ed25519without a passphrase when there is none. A key the provider holds already (same type and data, whatever its comment) is used again rather than added twice. - Create creates the server, waits until the provider says it runs with a public IPv4 address (polling every 3 seconds), then until its SSH port answers, adds
root@<address>to the hosts with the provider and the server’s ID, and connects: enowX installs its daemon and offers to run as a user of its own, as for any server. Set up… then brings the toolchains and agents.
InstaBox
An InstaBox machine is a Firecracker VM with no address of its own: it is reached through InstaBox’s SSH gateway (ssh.instabox.sh:2222) as the machine’s user (m_…), whose name the host keeps (m_…@ssh.instabox.sh:2222). The gateway takes certificates only, not a key in authorized_keys: each time enowX connects, it asks the API for a certificate signing the user’s SSH key in for an hour, with the API key, the vault’s InstaBox credential first, else the one kept in the keychain, and trusts the gateway by the certificate authority the API names, not known_hosts. enowX’s daemon runs as the machine’s user (user, home /data/home), not root. The dialog also lists the machines the user has (Use one you have), made in InstaBox’s console or before, and connects to the one picked, adding it to the hosts like one enowX made; one paused or stopped by hand, which InstaBox doesn’t wake as one signs in, is resumed or started before its certificate is asked for. InstaBox pauses a machine left idle, its memory kept, and wakes it as enowX connects; it bills it by the second while it runs.
A host enowX created has Delete server… in its ⋯ menu, which asks first, deletes the server with the token from the vault or the keychain, and removes the host.
Tests
core/vps is tested against fakes of each API that answer as their documentation shows; the dialog against a fake of Hetzner’s and a local port standing for SSH. No real server is created by the tests.