[Willamin]

> as simple as installing Claude in the VM and connecting via an SSH terminal

I've done exactly this, and it works pretty well!

1. I setup a VM in UTM (but this could be any kind of containerization thing). I don't even bother with a non-root account in there (the agent has free rein to install packages, write files, etc). 2. I SSH into the container. 3. I install Claude or whatever there. 4. I setup git things in a way where I can push/pull to move code between the container and my host machine.

Upsides: the agent is isolated from the rest of my host system, only being able to read/write what I've explicitly handed to it. Downsides: the agent is isolated from the rest of my host system, so it's more limited in capability.

[_doctor_love]

UTM is undefeated for me, especially in combination with Vagrant. What I'm hoping for is a polished turn-key solution version of all this.

tart is also an option I like a lot, but it's macOS only.