Server Deployment

Run the Great Minds agency 24/7 on a VPS. This guide covers DigitalOcean setup, but the steps apply to any Ubuntu VPS (Hetzner, Linode, etc.).

Server Requirements

8 GB / 4 vCPU is recommended. Each Claude Code session uses ~300-500 MB RAM at peak, and the agency can run 3-5 concurrent sessions during BUILD phases.

Step 1: Provision the Droplet

1. Create a DigitalOcean droplet: Ubuntu 24.04, Basic 8GB ($48/mo) or Hetzner CX32 ($8/mo)
2. Add your SSH public key during creation
3. Note the IP address

Step 2: Create a Non-Root User

Critical: Claude Code refuses --dangerously-skip-permissions as root. You must create a regular user.

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
adduser agent
usermod -aG sudo agent
cp -r ~/.ssh /home/agent/.ssh
chown -R agent:agent /home/agent/.ssh
exit

# Reconnect as agent
ssh agent@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Step 3: Install Dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y git tmux curl wget build-essential unzip jq

# Node.js 20 LTS
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

# Claude Code CLI
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

# Set your API key
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 4: Clone and Install

mkdir -p ~/projects && cd ~/projects
git clone https://github.com/sethshoultes/great-minds.git
cd great-minds

# Install the daemon
cd daemon && npm install

# Install memory store
cd ../memory-store && npm install

Step 5: Install the Plugin

# Install the Great Minds plugin for Claude Code
npx plugins add sethshoultes/great-minds-plugin

Step 6: Start the Daemon

Use tmux for session persistence across SSH disconnects:

tmux new -s daemon
cd ~/projects/great-minds/daemon
./bin/greatminds-daemon
# Ctrl+B, D to detach — daemon keeps running

Or use Docker:

cd ~/projects/great-minds/daemon
cp .env.example .env  # fill in ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
docker compose up -d

Step 7: Memory Store Setup

The memory store (memory-store/memory.db) persists agency learnings across projects. If starting fresh, the daemon creates it automatically. To preserve memory across deploys, back up memory.db or mount it as a Docker volume.

Monitoring

Heartbeat

The daemon runs heartbeat health checks every 5 minutes automatically. Check status with:

cat ~/projects/great-minds/STATUS.md

QA Crons (Backup)

The daemon handles all scheduling internally. For extra reliability, you can add QA crons as a safety net:

crontab -e

# Margaret QA sweep every 30 minutes (backup only)
*/30 * * * * cd ~/projects/great-minds && claude -p "Run Margaret Hamilton QA check" >> ~/logs/qa.log 2>&1

Daemon Logs

# If running directly
tail -f /tmp/claude-shared/daemon.log

# If running in Docker
docker compose logs -f daemon

# Check recent git activity
cd ~/projects/great-minds && git log --oneline -10

Security

• Disable password auth in /etc/ssh/sshd_config — SSH keys only
• Enable firewall: sudo ufw allow 22/tcp && sudo ufw enable
• Store API keys in .env (gitignored), never in committed files
• Install fail2ban: sudo apt install -y fail2ban
• Enable automatic security updates: sudo apt install -y unattended-upgrades

Cost

The API cost dominates. The server is a rounding error. Use Hetzner unless you specifically need DigitalOcean's managed services.