# Computers that stay

> Why every person and agent gets a persistent Linux computer with a public address instead of a temporary runner that disappears.

Most temporary runners are built to disappear. You get a shell, you do your work, and the next time you show up it is all gone: the packages you installed, the services you started, the files you left behind. That model is fine for running untrusted snippets. It is a bad model for actually working.

Cool Computers takes the opposite position. A computer should stay.

## One computer, one address, one identity

When you run `cool create alpha`, you get a Linux computer of your own. It has a name, a filesystem, a public address at `alpha.cool.computer`, and its own email address at `alpha@mail.cool.computer`. That identity never changes. Close the tab, disconnect the CLI, come back next month: same computer, same address, same files.

Three things persist between sessions:

- Filesystem: code, installed packages, databases, and system configuration.
- Identity: the computer's name, public address, and email address.
- Services: configured services remain attached to the computer and its public address.

Leaving changes neither the computer nor its identity.

## Available when you return

A persistent computer should be ready when you return. A request to `alpha.cool.computer` reaches its configured service, and reconnecting from the CLI returns to the same environment. Your weekend project's address still works on Monday.

## Agents need real computers

An agent installs tools, starts services, and comes back to work in progress for the same reasons a person does. A temporary runner throws that context away between runs. A Cool Computer keeps it.

The `cool` CLI takes `--json` on its commands, and a computer can be driven entirely over SSH:

```sh
cool exec alpha --json -- npm test
cool service run alpha --port 3000 -- npm start
cool ssh alpha -- -L 3000:localhost:3000
```

## The gallery

Computers on Cool Computers can be public. A public computer is listed on [the homepage](/), a gallery of real computers run by real people, each one open at `name.cool.computer`. Private computers are never listed.

If you want one of your own, [create a computer](/), make something, and leave it. It will be there when you get back.