pipeOS
pipeOS is a whole machine for an agent: diskless Alpine Linux that runs from RAM, with pipe, Claude Code and Hermes preinstalled. Write the image to a stick or a drive (the live disk), boot any spare x86_64 box, and it becomes a Machine: a dashboard on your LAN, a resident assistant, storage, streaming and scheduled work. Several Machines an owner has joined are a cluster. These pages are the Machine's manual; they are also on the Machine under Docs, readable without internet.
How the section reads
Three pages get a Machine running, eight cover day to day, the rest is what is underneath. Read in order once; afterwards each page stands alone.
Getting one running
| hardware notes | requirements, the reference Machine, the BIOS switches, the watchdog |
| the live disk | download, verify and write the image; a Machine's replacement stick |
| first boot | the lobby, the claim, the recovery phrase, naming, services, Sign in with Claude |
Day to day
| the dashboard | sixteen views, which are admin-only, alerts, the hourly health check |
| the assistant | one Claude session per Machine; Hermes; sign-in |
| schedule and usage | jobs and agents, what they need from the vault, spend and caps |
| secrets | the sealed vault, the recovery phrase, the agent's one door |
| files, storage and backup | the /data explorer, external disks, identity backup, SMB shares |
| streaming | one capture to four providers, bitrates, the stutter checklist |
| users and access | admin, user and viewer; unix logins and terminals; lockouts |
| persistence and updates | what survives a reboot, hourly updates, known-good, the operator verbs |
Underneath
| recovery | reflash, replace a stick, bring back /data and the identity, power loss |
| the cluster | join and adopt, the Cluster page, rolling updates, agents on members |
| networking | mDNS names, finding the address, plain HTTP on the LAN |
| vendor support access | the one switch that opens a path to your vendor |
| the fence | what the resident agent cannot do; the model card |
| pipe integration | the pipe view, the one-time key, DMs; optional and off by default |
| troubleshooting | boot report verdicts, Repair remote access, the two reboots |
| build your own | building the image, your own keys, origin and relay |
Source
The build pipeline, the overlay that ships and the fleet runbooks are at securedataresearch/pipeOS. The image is free. The agent's own contract is /pipeos/skill.md.