4 ms·

Show HN: One-click AI employee with its own cloud desktop

9 points by fainir 8mo ago

CloudBot gives you a fully configured AI employee with its own cloud computer in one click. Built on OpenClaw. What you get: - Full Ubuntu desktop environment in the cloud - Pre-installed AI agent that sees the screen and controls the computer - 24/7 availability - your AI keeps working while you sleep - Uses your own API keys for AI models - Starting at $69/month The AI can use VS Code, browse the web, run terminal commands, manage files - anything you'd do on a real desktop. I wake up to completed code reviews, finished research reports, and updated documentation. Built this because setting up an AI agent with a proper working environment was always the painful part. Now it's just one click. Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSe4bvDMuKQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSe4bvDMuKQ Would love feedback from the HN community!

slfnflctd 8mo ago
Interesting business model. I have two questions: 1) Who do you see as primary competitors in this niche? 2) What is your model for managing liability in a situation where a naive, less technical (or plain lazy) customer lets one of these run a business without sufficiently verifying output? Your definition of due diligence may differ from theirs.
- fainir 8mo ago
  Great questions! 1) Competitors: There are players approaching this from different angles - some focus on code completion (Copilot), some on chat (ChatGPT), some on specific automation tools. What I wanted was an end-to-end solution: a cloud-based AI employee with its own persistent environment. That's the gap I'm filling. 2) Liability: Valid concern. The AI can make mistakes, and that's a real risk. We're implementing safeguards - you can watch tasks in real-time, pause/stop at any point, and we encourage users to review outputs before deploying to production. It's definitely not "set and forget" for critical work. Still iterating on making this safer.
siva7 8mo ago
Boy this sounds like the equivalent of Nightmare in Elm Street but for developers and instead of waking up to freddy you wake up to thousands of code reviews made by this thing.
- throwatdem12311 8mo ago
  Or a dropped database.
deepsummer 8mo ago
I can understand why you want an AI to use a desktop. But it's still absurd to use the least efficient interface possible for interactions with the outer world. Having said that, fun project, good luck :) I am sure quite a few people would want to try it.
- fainir 8mo ago
  Thanks for the feedback and the kind words! I'm curious - what would you imagine as a better interface? The desktop approach has overhead, but the advantage is it can use ANY software (VS Code, browsers, GUI apps) without needing custom integrations for each tool. Would love to hear your thoughts on alternatives!
  - deepsummer 8mo ago
    APIs - MCP is the obvious better alternative, but as you said, most software and most online services don't provide a full API. Most none at all.
CuriouslyC 8mo ago
It looks like you're optimizing for meme value.
AndrewKemendo 8mo ago
Feedback: I’m not paying $70/mo to try this but there’s a price that I would that’s above free, maybe $5/mo and I’ll bring my claude/oai API key If you had a one time “local” setup fee with deepseek/llama or whatever instead of the services, I’d probably pay more than $70
- fainir 8mo ago
  Appreciate the honest feedback! Almost all of the $69 goes to cloud infrastructure costs (the instance runs 24/7 with GPU access). I hear you on wanting a lower entry point. Two things I'm considering: - Local version (bring your own hardware) - would eliminate the cloud cost - Cheaper tier with limited hours For now, the value prop is "one-click cloud solution" but I'll definitely explore local deployment soon. Thanks for the input!
  - mrbungie 8mo ago
    Why would you need a GPU for an AI managed instance? I guess it would useful for some workloads, but arguably not for most really.
  - AndrewKemendo 8mo ago
    Yeah the local part makes it worth it imo and lowers your cost
TekMol 8mo ago
This is just a sign-up page for a waiting list. A sign-up page cannot be a Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- fainir 8mo ago
  The product is fully functional - you can sign up and use it right away. We have a waitlist approval step because we need to manage cloud infrastructure capacity responsibly. Once approved (usually within hours), you get full access to spin up instances immediately. Happy to fast-track if you want to try it out!
  - TekMol 8mo ago
    Hmm.. ok. The page does not make it look that way. It makes it sound like all you can do is get on a waiting list to then at some point in time use it for $69/month. As for myself trying it - I think I would rather put OpenClaw on a $5/month VM myself than to pay $69/month for it.
4b11b4 8mo ago
Too early to give any sort of trust

9 points by fainir 8mo ago

slfnflctd 8mo ago

Interesting business model. I have two questions: 1) Who do you see as primary competitors in this niche? 2) What is your model for managing liability in a situation where a naive, less technical (or plain lazy) customer lets one of these run a business without sufficiently verifying output? Your definition of due diligence may differ from theirs.

fainir 8mo ago
Great questions! 1) Competitors: There are players approaching this from different angles - some focus on code completion (Copilot), some on chat (ChatGPT), some on specific automation tools. What I wanted was an end-to-end solution: a cloud-based AI employee with its own persistent environment. That's the gap I'm filling. 2) Liability: Valid concern. The AI can make mistakes, and that's a real risk. We're implementing safeguards - you can watch tasks in real-time, pause/stop at any point, and we encourage users to review outputs before deploying to production. It's definitely not "set and forget" for critical work. Still iterating on making this safer.

siva7 8mo ago

Boy this sounds like the equivalent of Nightmare in Elm Street but for developers and instead of waking up to freddy you wake up to thousands of code reviews made by this thing.

throwatdem12311 8mo ago
Or a dropped database.

deepsummer 8mo ago

I can understand why you want an AI to use a desktop. But it's still absurd to use the least efficient interface possible for interactions with the outer world. Having said that, fun project, good luck :) I am sure quite a few people would want to try it.

fainir 8mo ago
Thanks for the feedback and the kind words! I'm curious - what would you imagine as a better interface? The desktop approach has overhead, but the advantage is it can use ANY software (VS Code, browsers, GUI apps) without needing custom integrations for each tool. Would love to hear your thoughts on alternatives!
- deepsummer 8mo ago
  APIs - MCP is the obvious better alternative, but as you said, most software and most online services don't provide a full API. Most none at all.

CuriouslyC 8mo ago

It looks like you're optimizing for meme value.

AndrewKemendo 8mo ago

Feedback: I’m not paying $70/mo to try this but there’s a price that I would that’s above free, maybe $5/mo and I’ll bring my claude/oai API key If you had a one time “local” setup fee with deepseek/llama or whatever instead of the services, I’d probably pay more than $70

fainir 8mo ago
Appreciate the honest feedback! Almost all of the $69 goes to cloud infrastructure costs (the instance runs 24/7 with GPU access). I hear you on wanting a lower entry point. Two things I'm considering: - Local version (bring your own hardware) - would eliminate the cloud cost - Cheaper tier with limited hours For now, the value prop is "one-click cloud solution" but I'll definitely explore local deployment soon. Thanks for the input!
- mrbungie 8mo ago
  Why would you need a GPU for an AI managed instance? I guess it would useful for some workloads, but arguably not for most really.
- AndrewKemendo 8mo ago
  Yeah the local part makes it worth it imo and lowers your cost

TekMol 8mo ago

This is just a sign-up page for a waiting list. A sign-up page cannot be a Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

fainir 8mo ago
The product is fully functional - you can sign up and use it right away. We have a waitlist approval step because we need to manage cloud infrastructure capacity responsibly. Once approved (usually within hours), you get full access to spin up instances immediately. Happy to fast-track if you want to try it out!
- TekMol 8mo ago
  Hmm.. ok. The page does not make it look that way. It makes it sound like all you can do is get on a waiting list to then at some point in time use it for $69/month. As for myself trying it - I think I would rather put OpenClaw on a $5/month VM myself than to pay $69/month for it.

4b11b4 8mo ago

Too early to give any sort of trust