Skip to Content
Quickstart

Quickstart

Deploy your first cage in under 5 minutes.

1. Sign up

Create an account at app.lobstercage.ai .

2. Install the CLI

npm install -g lobstercage-cli

3. Log in

lobster login

This opens your browser to authenticate. Once confirmed, you’re ready to go.

4. Deploy a cage

lobster deploy my-first-cage

This creates and starts an isolated container. You’ll see progress output as the cage provisions.

5. Connect via SSH

lobster ssh my-first-cage

You’re now inside your cage. It’s a full Linux environment with persistent storage at /workspace.

6. Set environment variables

lobster env set my-first-cage BOT_TOKEN=your-token-here
lobster env set my-first-cage API_KEY=sk-1234

Environment variables are encrypted at rest with KMS envelope encryption.

7. Manage the lifecycle

# Stop the cage (preserves data)
lobster stop my-first-cage
 
# Start it again
lobster start my-first-cage
 
# Hibernate (stops compute, keeps storage)
lobster hibernate my-first-cage
 
# Wake from hibernation
lobster wake my-first-cage
 
# Destroy the cage permanently
lobster destroy my-first-cage

Next steps

IntroductionCages