Show HN: Boxes.dev: ditch localhost; run Claude Code and Codex in the cloud

A new tool called boxes.dev is pitching a very online fantasy: send your coding helpers off to their own cloud computers, let them work while you sleep, and check in from your phone like a tech-world babysitter. The sales pitch is simple enough for non-experts: instead of making these AI assistants work on your laptop, you give each one its own rented machine in the cloud. That means more tasks at once, fewer laptop meltdowns, and the promise of waking up to finished work. Sounds dreamy.

But the comment section? Instant reality check. The biggest anxiety was not “can it do this?” but “what stops the giant AI companies from copying it?” One commenter basically asked whether OpenAI and Anthropic are already marching straight toward this exact idea, which turns the whole launch into a classic startup thriller: bold innovation or future feature announcement from a richer rival?

Then came the pricing and control backlash. One camp liked the idea that machines go to sleep automatically so users don’t get quietly billed into oblivion. Another camp was much less charmed, saying they’d only bite if it worked on any cheap server for around $10 a month—or, better yet, if the whole thing were open-sourced so people could run it themselves. And in perhaps the most relatable moment, one skeptic asked the question hovering over all AI hype: who is actually letting these things run overnight, and is the output any good? Even the billing term “box-hours” got side-eye, with commenters practically demanding a translator. In other words: cool demo, but the crowd wants proof, cheap prices, and fewer mystery boxes.