--- title: "Putting my spare computers to work" description: "How Ender Chest syncs agent config and skills across three machines while one old laptop holds the agent logins, so my agents keep working when I leave." canonical_url: "https://www.kaylee.dev/blog/ender-chest" published: "2026-11-08T00:00:00.000Z" --- # Putting my spare computers to work Like a lot of engineers, I own more computers than I use. There's the MacBook I carry, a desktop I game on a few evenings a week, and an old work laptop that spent most of its life closed. Coding agents gave the spare machines a job. I didn't want to pay $200 a month for a cloud agent provider to run my work on someone else's computer while mine sat idle. They also gave me a chore. Every machine needed the same skills, the same MCP servers, the same dev environment, and its own set of logins. So I wrote [Ender Chest](https://github.com/KayleeWilliams/ender-chest), a small CLI called `ec`, and I've used it for months to keep all three machines in step. [Theo (@theo)](https://x.com/theo) runs a similar setup and explains it in [If you have a Claude sub, watch this](https://youtu.be/D8PikZ1KhUo). When it came out, I described mine: > Highly recommend. Very similar to my workflow right now, validating to see. I should get a Linux box too so I can move compute off my main macbook. > > Currently using two macbooks + desktop. One of the macbook's is always on as the server & proxy. > > I have my own cli (ender chest)… https://t.co/AIsmTrq1SB > > [Kaylee (@kaylee_dev)](https://x.com/kaylee_dev/status/2106130229379092815) ## Drift The first problem was drift. I'd write a skill on my laptop, start a worktree on my desktop, and find the agent there had never heard of it. An MCP server I added on one machine was missing on the next. Ender Chest keeps my config in a Git repo. A file called `ender-chest.toml` lists what each machine gets: dotfiles, Brewfiles, setup steps, and plugins. Skills and agent settings sit next to it in `skills/` and `agents/`, and sync installs one set of instructions for Claude Code, Codex, and Grok. `ec sync` pulls the repo and applies it. `ec push` captures what I changed locally, commits it, and pushes it. Third-party skills come from a manifest, so a new machine pulls them from GitHub instead of me copying folders around. `ec status` checks every machine over Tailscale and SSH: ```text m5 (here) current ec 0.0.4 (d88beef), config 2d517f1 desktop current ec 0.0.4 (d88beef), config 2d517f1 m1 current ec 0.0.4 (d88beef), config 2d517f1 3 of 3 machines current. ``` If one is behind, `ec sync --all` updates it from my laptop. ## Logins Auth was the harder half. I pay for several agent subscriptions across more than one account. Signing each agent into each account on each machine, then doing it again whenever a session expired, was not something I wanted to keep doing by hand. [CLIProxyAPI](https://github.com/router-for-me/CLIProxyAPI) runs on the old laptop and holds the provider logins. Every other machine points Claude Code, Codex, and Grok at it with one client key. Ender Chest's `cliproxyapi` plugin writes those settings during sync and leaves the rest of each agent's config alone. MCP servers had the same problem, with an OAuth flow per server per machine. [Executor](https://github.com/UsefulSoftwareCo/executor) now holds every integration and account on that same laptop, and the agents reach it as a single MCP server. I connect an account once and every machine has it. The keys for both stay out of the repo. `ec secret set` stores them on each machine with `0600` permissions, and `ec push` refuses to commit known credential files. ## Touching grass The old laptop stays plugged in and awake. When the desktop is off, `ec wol wake` sends a Wake-on-LAN packet through the laptop, waits for the desktop to answer, then unlocks its keyring over SSH. That means work I start doesn't depend on the computer in my bag. I can head out for a meeting or an event, or lose signal on the Tube, and the agents keep running on a machine at home. When I flew to San Francisco, I left the desktop on in London and used it the whole time from over 5,000 miles away. The same machines run automations. When a new error comes in, an agent investigates it and opens a fix, so the first thing I see is a pull request ready to review and merge. You can see it in my GitHub contributions. They jump in August, the month I started the config repo, and reach a new high in October: [https://areyougoingexponential.rhys.dev/KayleeWilliams](https://areyougoingexponential.rhys.dev/KayleeWilliams) ## The next limit Subscriptions and logins aren't what holds me back anymore. RAM is. My machines run out of memory before I run out of agents to start. I'm considering a dedicated Linux machine that does nothing but run agents. The desktop already runs Linux, but I dual-boot it. When I stop to play games, any long-running work on it stops too. A new machine would join the same way the others did: install `ec`, clone the config, save two secrets, and run `ec sync`. Sorry Ram Altman, I need some of the RAM. > sam come here come here > [Photo] > > [Harshith (@HarshithLucky3)](https://x.com/HarshithLucky3/status/2117800795047592049) > i lol'd > > [Sam Altman (@sama)](https://x.com/sama/status/2117844267020492948) > can u rename your x to ram altman! > > [jestermolecule (@jestermolecule)](https://x.com/jestermolecule/status/2117844478702608437) > ok yeah > > [Sam Altman (@sama)](https://x.com/sama/status/2117845542021808438) To try it, copy the [starter config](https://github.com/KayleeWilliams/ender-chest/tree/main/examples/config) and run `ec sync`. The name, obviously, comes from Minecraft. Every ender chest opens the same inventory, no matter where you place it.