VM AccessVibe CodingClaude CodeSkillsAI Development Environment

Your VM Is Your Workspace: Claude + Skills at Your Fingertips

Synthcore Team9 April 20264 min read

Your dedicated VM isn't just where your AI agents work — it's your workspace too.

When you SSH in, you're not connecting to a separate dev machine. You're pair-programming with your 13 AI agents on shared infrastructure, with Claude Code CLI and the full Synthcore skills toolkit at your fingertips.

Your AI Development Environment, Explained

Every Synthcore project runs on a dedicated AWS EC2 instance running Ubuntu 24.04. Your AI agents code, test, and ship around the clock. But that VM is also yours to use.

VM access means you can:

SSH into the same environment your agents use
Run Claude Code CLI for interactive sessions
Access skills your agents use daily
Debug in real time alongside your team

The Skills Toolkit: 11 Tools at Your Command

Synthcore packages developer tools as skills — ready to invoke from your terminal:

| Skill | What It Does | |-------|--------------| | web-search | Search documentation, research errors, evaluate packages | | github-workflow | Branch, commit, PR operations with GitHub CLI | | dev-services | Start, stop, restart, and health-check dev servers | | code-review | Diff analysis, security scanning, style checks | | docker-ops | Author Dockerfiles, compose files, CI/CD patterns | | browser-research | Browse web pages for research and UI verification |

These skills are the same ones your agents use to build your project. When you invoke them, you're working with the same tooling your team relies on.

Quick Start: SSH, Run Claude, Invoke Skills

1. Connect via SSH

Get your VM credentials from the Synthcore dashboard under Project Settings → VM Access:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/your_private_key ubuntu@proj-abc123.vm.synthcore.dev

2. Verify Your Environment

whoami          # returns: ubuntu
cd ~/project    # your GitHub repo
claude --version # confirms Claude Code is available

3. Run Claude Code

claude
# Now you're pair-programming with your AI team

4. Invoke a Skill

# Search documentation
python ~/.openclaw/skills/web-search/web_search.py search "Next.js deployment"
 
# Code review
python ~/.openclaw/skills/code-review/code_review.py scan .
 
# GitHub workflow
gh pr create --title "feat: new feature" --body "## Summary"

Why This Matters for Vibe Coders

Vibe coding is about staying in flow — letting AI do the heavy lifting while you steer the direction. Your VM keeps you in that flow without breaking your momentum.

You're not managing infrastructure. The VM is provisioned and running. Your agents are working. When you want to drive, you SSH in and go.

You see what they're building. Real-time access to the same filesystem means you're always aware of project state — no surprises when you check GitHub.

You can override anytime. If an agent is going down a wrong path, step in, correct course, and hand it back to the team.

Skills close the gap. Need to check a dependency issue? Run web-search. Want a security scan before a big PR? Run code-review. The toolkit means you're never blocked from the tools that matter.

Security and Isolation

Each VM is dedicated to your project:

Isolated infrastructure — your VM is for your project only
Key-based SSH — password authentication disabled
Firewall-locked — only your IP can connect
API keys isolated — your model keys stay on your VM

What's Next

Ready to use your workspace? Connect your SSH key in the Synthcore dashboard and start building.

Deploy your first project and get VM access in under 10 minutes.