Tomorrow is my first trip abroad since I bought the Mac Mini. Here’s the remote setup checklist I ran through before leaving:
- Made sure Tailscale had every device on the tailnet connected and handshaking, with both Mosh and SSH getting through
- Kept the Mac Mini awake with a caffeinate command so it never sleeps
- Set up auto-reboot in case of an unexpected shutdown
- Kept Herdr running persistently, configured in machine mode so other devices on the LAN can connect into the same herdr server
- Set up Finder on the laptop and the Files app on my phone to reach the Mac Mini’s folders over the LAN
- Refreshed the Claude/Codex login tokens ahead of time
- Made sure the laptop and phone I’m carrying both have a remote desktop app installed, so I can connect home in an emergency
- Tried to teach my girlfriend, who’s staying home, how to reboot the computer and the router if something goes wrong (??)
Tested it the next day: tailscale plus herdr connected me back to the codex running at home, no problems at all. Genuinely a fun experience.
The reason for all this trouble: I’m heading out on a long trip, and my laptop doesn’t have the storage for it — the harness and the scheduled jobs all live on the Mac Mini at home.
Unlike the five-step SOP I wrote for letting Claude Code run in the background from a hotel room before dinner, that one was a short backup plan for stepping out for dinner while still in Taiwan; this time I’m leaving the whole country, and the Mac Mini has to hold up as home base for days.