· AI Engineering · 2 min read
A Safe Setup for Using AI Tools
Keep your local machine clean and let a throwaway server take the risks. Give full permissions and let agents run.
The image is someone complaining about AI tools deleting their whole hard drive. That can indeed happen often. When using AI tools, you usually choose between:
- Give it full permission on your device, and it may destroy your data
- It needs to ask for your approval every time it does something
Many choose the first option, as the second is annoying and time-consuming. I found a setup that can get the best of both worlds.
I have 2 machines:
- my local Mac
- My throwaway cloud machine
The connection is (1) —> (2) via SSH, and each plays a different role.
(1) My local Mac contains all important things, so it must be secured. It is as important as my smartphone. You can imagine it is a big hassle when you lose your phone and all accounts, apps coming with it. So messing up with the local machine is an invitation for trouble.
(2) My throwaway server is where all coding and running happens. LLM models are installed there and are given full permission to do whatever they like. In the worst case, if an LLM destroys my whole server, I just spawn another one. Data there are regularly synced to GitHub or locally for backup, so I can afford to go wild here.
If you want to use AI tools, a setup like this would mostly suit your needs. The server could be AWS/GCP ($20/month) or cheaper ones like Hetzner, or some spare PCs in your home.
