Val Town founder: branch VM overhead is negligible, base VM kept fresh with systemd

davidcrawshaw · x · 2026-10-11

David Crawshaw explains why branch VMs beat persistent disks for agent dev: overhead is negligible since idle RAM gets swapped out, allowing dozens of VMs on a cheap plan. His base VM stays fresh via systemd timers, avoiding an extra external timer system.

Related event: Debate: Persistent VMs vs Ephemeral Sandboxes for AI Agents(5 posts)→

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