Workers

A worker is a machine that runs containers for CropsCode. It connects outbound to the orchestrator over WebSocket and executes container operations locally using Podman.

Self-Hosted Workers

Self-hosted workers are machines you control — your laptop, a spare desktop, a cloud VM, a NAS. You install the CLI, register the machine, and it becomes a worker.

Advantages:

• Full control over hardware and network
• No per-minute compute costs
• Works behind NAT and firewalls (outbound connection only)
• Use existing machines you already own

Requirements:

• Node.js 22+
• Podman installed and running
• Network access to the orchestrator (outbound WebSocket)

Greenhouse (Managed Compute)

Greenhouse is CropsCode’s managed compute offering. Instead of running workers on your own machines, Greenhouse provides cloud workers that are always on, always available.

Advantages:

• No hardware to maintain
• Always-on availability
• Scales with your plan
• Supports both Linux and Windows containers

When to use Greenhouse:

• You don’t have spare machines
• You need Windows containers
• You want zero infrastructure management
• You need workers in specific geographic regions

See the Greenhouse guide for setup details.

How Workers Connect

Worker Agent (your machine)
    │
    │  WebSocket (outbound, authenticated)
    │
    ▼
Orchestrator (cloud or on-premises)
    │
    │  Commands: create, stop, terminal.open
    │
    ▼
Worker Agent executes via Podman

Workers phone home — they initiate the connection outbound. This means:

• No port forwarding required
• Works behind corporate firewalls
• Works behind NAT routers
• No static IP needed on the worker

If the connection drops, the agent automatically reconnects with exponential backoff.

Worker Limits by Plan

Plan	Self-Hosted Workers	Concurrent Containers
Starter	2	5
Pro	10	15
Enterprise	Unlimited	Unlimited

See Plans & Limits for the full breakdown.