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kkovacs
vmtree
Shell2026–2026
kkovacs / vmtree

vmtree

🌳VMTREE is a fast and easy way to provision self-hosted ephemeral VMs.

2Distinct people
3Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
51GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

🌳VMTREE is a fast and easy way to provision self-hosted ephemeral VMs.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

(I am not the author of vmtree) Would be pretty magical if when you need a sandbox, you just SSH into it and it's already there, right? exe.dev popularized this UX, but I…

dimitry12 used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by week3 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2026-04-06 20:18:46 UTC to 2026-09-07 18:14:02 UTC. Weeks start Monday, UTC.

0122026-04-06 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 commentsApr 62026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsJun 222026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-09-14 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 commentsSep 7

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Apr 62026-04-06 00:00:00 UTC2026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC211
Apr 132026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 202026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 272026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC000
May 42026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC000
May 112026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC000
May 182026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC000
May 252026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 12026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 82026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 152026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 222026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 292026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 62026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 132026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 202026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 272026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 32026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 102026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 172026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 242026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 312026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC2026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 72026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC2026-09-14 00:00:00 UTC110

What Hacker News says

3 sources
dimitry12·Apr 6, 2026Recommendation phrase
(I am not the author of vmtree) Would be pretty magical if when you need a sandbox, you just SSH into it and it's already there, right? exe.dev popularized this UX, but I self-host a lot of things already, so I wanted something similar, but on my own server, which has plenty of spare RAM and CPU cores. I tasked Gemini DeepResearch with finding what I can use to glue together something like exe.dev. In a typical Gemini Deep Research fashion, it came back with a very obscure recommendation claiming everyone is using it. Repository had one fork and six stars at the time of search. While obscure, Gemini IMO found a gem: https://github.com/kkovacs/vmtree It's a collection of a few short bash scripts which automatically provision sandboxes using ssh as a trigger. It has other nice touches such as: controlling how sandboxes get cleaned up, and p
Read the rest
rovisioning subdomains with or without HTTP authentication to expose services running inside the sandbox. I love it. Mine is deployed entirely inside the VM (HTTPS and SSH DNAT'ed), and doesn't interfere with other VMs on my server.
In Self-hosted disposable sandboxes with exe.dev-like UX

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

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