Oracle free VM & cheap VPS

Running your own VM is an option for people who want a cloud host they fully control. It is not the default setup — most users start with This Mac or a managed NOME Cloud Workspace. With your own VM, you own the instance, the bill, the patching, and the uptime.

Provision the VM yourself with your cloud provider — for example an Oracle Cloud Always Free compute instance, or a low-cost VPS from any provider. NOME does not create or manage this VM for you. Choose a Linux image, give it enough memory and disk for your toolchain, and make sure you can reach it over SSH.

SSH into the VM and install the NOME CLI with the same one-liner as any Linux host (see Install the CLI). Run nome login, then nome pair — use nome pair --no-qr over SSH and type the code into NOME. The VM is now a paired runner you can select as a Code host. Run the agent under systemd so it survives reboots.

Once paired, your VM behaves like any owner-edge host: pick it as the Code host and run work there. Route inference through a local model on the VM, BYOK, or NOME credits. If you signed in to a provider CLI on the VM, NOME can use that local seat — the sign-in stays on your VM and NOME cloud does not copy subscription tokens. Use provider seats on your own trusted computer or private workspace.

Free and very cheap tiers come with caveats. Always Free and similar instances can be reclaimed, throttled, or rate-limited by the provider, may have limited CPU/RAM, and are not covered by an uptime guarantee. Treat a free VM as best-effort: fine for experimentation and personal use, not for work that must not be interrupted. Keep the OS and CLI patched, lock down SSH, and checkpoint important work to a work item so progress survives if the VM goes away.