Devices: the computers your agents work on

Devices are the computers your agents work on: a cloud device your workspace runs, or your own computer. Each channel has its own set of devices, and Nebula works on that channel's default device.

Cloud devices and your own computer

A subscribed workspace starts with one small cloud device, which comes with the seat. Your role doesn't decide whether you can create more; the workspace's Nebula Credits do, because cloud-device time draws from them. If the balance is empty, Nebula asks for a top-up first. Current plans are on nebula.gg.

A new device is private: it reaches other people only when you name them, or when a channel uses it. Adding a cloud device to a channel shares it with everyone in that channel: they can all run work on it there, as the channel's default, as the device of an agent on its team, or as one you added. Your own computer is never shared that way; it stays yours unless you name people. Someone you name on a cloud device with Can use can still attach files to work that runs on it: each one is saved as a new file, so nothing already there is overwritten. Changing, moving or deleting files on the device needs Can manage. Sharing a device with the whole workspace is retired — a device still shared that way shows as Workspace (legacy), and you can make it private.

On desktop, Settings → Workspace → Devices shows whether each one can take work. Your own computer reads Online while Nebula's background helper runs on it, and Offline since the time it went quiet when it doesn't. A cloud device reads Running or Stopped. Either kind reads Unreachable since a time when Nebula can't reach it. The device pickers, such as Runs on when you create an agent, add that state after the name of any device that isn't up, as in "Studio Mac · Offline since 2:14 PM", so you can tell two devices with the same name apart.

A new cloud device starts out Stopped. It boots the first time an agent uses it, so the first task on it takes a little longer while it starts. To open its terminal before then, click Start on it in Settings → Workspace → Devices.

Cloud device sizes

You pick a cloud device's Size when you create it, on desktop or on your phone. A bigger size draws more Nebula Credits while it runs.

When a device needs more room, upgrade it one size at a time. The device restarts to apply the new size, and an upgrade is one-way: a device can't move back to a smaller size.

Use a cloud device's terminal

In the desktop app, open Settings → Workspace → Devices and open a cloud device. Its Terminal tab sits next to Files and Services, and gives you a shell on that device. You need write access to the device, and the device has to be running. The phone app has no terminal.

Sometimes an agent working in a terminal hits a password or a sign-in code it can't enter for you. The task then shows a card such as The terminal needs a password or code. Click Open terminal to type it yourself. The agent waits while you're there, and a password you type doesn't show on screen or in the task.

A sign-in the agent starts, such as a command-line login, gets its own card instead, headed with the site to sign in on, such as "Sign in on github.com with this code": copy the code, open the page and enter it there, and the agent carries on once you're signed in. On a cloud device other people in the workspace can use, the card also warns: "This device is shared. Its other members can read a login saved on it." To keep a login private, sign in on a device only you use.

To reach a cloud device from your own machine, its owner can add an SSH key on the device's Settings tab, under SSH keys, then use Copy ssh command. Each key logs in as root. Nebula records when a key is added or removed, not what it does on the device.

Keep a copy of files on idle cloud devices

If your workspace has no subscription, a cloud device that hasn't been used for 60 days is deleted, along with everything on it. The clock runs from the last time an agent used the device, or from the day it was created if nothing ever used it.

Credits don't keep it. A workspace with a balance but no subscription still loses an idle device, and it goes without a warning beforehand or a notice afterwards. A channel that used it as its default is left without one, and the next agent that needs a device asks for a new one.

There is also a shorter cleanup window: a cloud device that is neither a live channel's default nor assigned to a live agent can be deleted after 14 idle days when the workspace's credit balance is very low, even if it has a subscription. Idle time is measured from the last device use, or its creation if it has never been used.

Your own computer is never touched by this cleanup. Copy files you need to keep somewhere else; a subscription alone does not guarantee cloud-device retention.

A channel's default device

When Nebula needs a computer in a channel, it uses that channel's default device. As the channel's Devices settings put it: "Nebula uses this Channel's default device. Specialists keep their own device assignments."

The default device carries a Default badge. Every other device in the channel has Set as default, so you can switch in one click. A new Nebula agent that you don't give a device of its own works on the default device of whichever channel it's working in.

A channel without devices still works, and you can still chat in it. When a task does run on a device, the device's name appears under the task's transcript, so you can see where the work happened.

Add a device to a channel

Add a device you can already use

You can also bring an existing device in by asking Nebula in that channel. It adds the device and makes it the default in one step.

Y

You

Nebula, add the Launch cloud device to this channel and make it the default.

Nebula

Done. Launch cloud device is now in q4-launch and set as the default, and new agents created here will work on it.

An agent's own device

An agent can have a device of its own. On desktop you choose it under Runs on when you create the agent, or pick Nebula chooses to leave it to the channel. An agent with its own device keeps working there whatever the channel's default is, and changing the default doesn't move it. An agent without one works on the default device of the channel it's working in, so the same agent can run on different devices in different channels.

Your own computer is an exception: an agent that runs there is yours alone. Nobody can add it to a channel, and other members can't run it; a coding agent there answers you in every channel instead. See Agents that live on your computer.

See Agents and your channel's team for how agents join a channel, and Coding agents for picking a device for Claude Code, Codex and other coding CLIs.

Your own computer as a device

Your own computer works differently from a cloud device: work nobody started asks you before it runs, and you decide how often agents need your approval. Computer use covers turning it on, what agents can reach, work nobody started and how often you're asked.

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