Home Linux Claude Code: Run It on Your Home PC or on the VPS?

Claude Code: Run It on Your Home PC or on the VPS?

,

I run Claude Code on my CachyOS PC at home, and I also have a VPS that hosts this blog. That raised a question: should the AI agent live on my home PC and reach the VPS through SSH, or should I install it directly on the VPS and work from there? Here is what I learned.

The two options

  1. Home PC + SSH. Claude Code runs on my own computer. Projects live there, and when something needs to happen on the server, Claude runs commands over SSH, for example ssh vps "command".
  2. Claude Code on the VPS. I SSH into the server, start Claude Code there, and it works directly on the server’s files.

Side-by-side comparison

Home PC + SSH to VPS Claude Code on the VPS
Safety ✅ Code is written and tested at home. The live server only changes when I deploy. ⚠️ The agent works on the live server. One bad command can take a website down.
Tools ✅ Browser tools such as Playwright and Chrome DevTools MCP work, including screenshots. ❌ No browser or GUI, and MCP servers are harder to run.
Resources ✅ The PC’s full CPU and RAM. ⚠️ Claude Code plus Node.js needs about 0.5–1 GB of RAM, which a small VPS needs for its web server and database.
Backups ✅ Files and git history stay at home. The VPS is only where I deploy. ⚠️ If the VPS dies, the work goes with it unless it was pushed somewhere else.
Security ✅ The Claude login token stays on my PC. ⚠️ The login token is stored on a server facing the internet.
Always on ❌ The PC has to stay switched on. ✅ Can run 24/7 inside tmux.
Server tasks ⚠️ Every command has to go over SSH. ✅ Reads logs, configs and services directly.
Scorecard comparing Claude Code on a home PC versus on a VPS across seven criteria
The same comparison at a glance: the home PC wins 5 of 7.

My choice: home PC as the base

For a personal setup, running the agent on the home PC wins. The main reason is safety: the VPS is production, where my blog and websites are live, and I don’t want to experiment there. The home PC also has more power and runs the browser-based MCP tools I covered in my earlier post, Free MCP Servers for Claude Code.

The workflow I use

Workflow diagram: edit, test and commit on the home PC, deploy to the VPS, run server jobs over SSH
Claude Code works at home. The VPS changes only when I deploy.
  1. Keep each project (WordPress theme, plugin or website) in a git repository on the home PC.
  2. Have Claude Code edit and test it locally, including checking the page in a real browser with Playwright.
  3. Deploy to the VPS with git push, rsync, or ssh server "cd /var/www/site && git pull". Claude can run these commands for me.
  4. For server-only jobs like reading logs, running wp-cli or editing nginx config, Claude runs the command over SSH from the PC. That’s how this post got published: Claude wrote it on my PC and posted it to WordPress through SSH and wp-cli.

Tip: use SSH key authentication rather than a password. Claude can then connect without ever seeing or storing a password.

When installing on the VPS makes sense

A VPS install still has its uses:

  • You want long tasks to keep running while your PC is off.
  • You want to start or check work from your phone.

If you go that way, follow some basic rules:

  • Run it as a separate non-root user, not root.
  • Work in a staging copy, not the live web folder.
  • Start it inside tmux so it keeps running if the SSH connection drops.
  • Make sure the VPS has at least 2 GB of RAM.

If you only want phone access, you may not need a VPS install at all. Claude Code’s Remote Control or the web version at claude.ai/code may already cover it.

Bottom line

Develop at home and deploy to the VPS. Treat the server as production rather than a place to experiment. Your websites will be safer, and you keep the full power of your own PC.

73 de 9W2FRP