Daytona

Daytona is a cloud development environment platform that lets you spin up isolated, pre-configured workspaces on demand. Use it as Mona's terminal backend for ephemeral, cloud-based execution.

When to use Daytona

• You need ephemeral workspaces that start clean every time
• You want pre-configured environments with specific tools
• You need workspaces accessible from multiple locations
• You want cloud-based isolation without managing Docker

Installation

The Daytona extra is included in the [all] install. If you installed the minimal bundle:

cd ~/.monoclaw/monoclaw-runtime
uv pip install -e ".[daytona]"

Authentication

1. Sign up at daytona.io
2. Generate an API key from your dashboard
3. Configure MonoClaw:

monoclaw config set DAYTONA_API_KEY "your-key"

Configure as terminal backend

monoclaw config set terminal.backend daytona

Or in config.yaml:

terminal:
  backend: daytona
  daytona:
    image: "ubuntu:24.04"
    cpu: 4
    memory: "8gb"
    disk: "20gb"
    timeout: 3600

How it works

When Mona needs to run a command:

1. MonoClaw creates a Daytona workspace
2. The command executes inside the workspace
3. Output streams back to Mona
4. The workspace can be destroyed or kept for reuse

Pre-configured environments

Use Daytona images with tools pre-installed:

terminal:
  daytona:
    image: "daytonaio/workspace-node:latest"

Available images include:

• daytonaio/workspace-node — Node.js, npm, yarn
• daytonaio/workspace-python — Python, pip, uv
• daytonaio/workspace-go — Go toolchain
• daytonaio/workspace-rust — Rust, cargo

Workspace lifecycle

Ephemeral (default)

Workspaces are created per-command and destroyed after:

terminal:
  daytona:
    keep_alive: false

Persistent

Keep workspaces warm for faster execution:

terminal:
  daytona:
    keep_alive: true
    max_idle: 600    # Keep alive for 10 minutes of idle

Cost optimization

• Use ephemeral workspaces for one-off commands
• Enable keep_alive only for interactive sessions
• Choose smaller CPU/memory configs for light tasks
• Destroy unused workspaces promptly

Troubleshooting