/openclaw

name: spawn
description: Create child cloud VMs with AI coding agents using the spawn CLI
allowed-tools: Bash

Spawn — Create Child VMs

You have the `spawn` CLI installed. Use it to provision cloud VMs with AI agents.

Provision a Child VM

spawn <agent> <cloud> --headless --output json --prompt "task description"

**Agents:** claude, codex, cursor, openclaw, opencode, kilocode, hermes, junie **Clouds:** hetzner, digitalocean, aws, gcp, sprite

Returns JSON: `{"status":"success","ip_address":"...","ssh_user":"root","server_id":"..."}`

Running Prompts on Child VMs

`--headless` only provisions — to run work on the child, SSH in with `bash -lc`:

# Claude Code (use -p, NOT --print or --headless)
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new root@<ip> "bash -lc 'claude -p --dangerously-skip-permissions \"your prompt\"'"

# Codex CLI
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new root@<ip> "bash -lc 'codex --quiet \"your prompt\"'"

IMPORTANT — do NOT waste tokens rediscovering these:

• **Always use `bash -lc`** — agent binaries are in `~/.local/bin/` which is only on PATH in login shells
• **Claude uses `-p`** for non-interactive output (NOT `--print`, NOT `--headless`)
• **Add `--dangerously-skip-permissions`** to skip approval prompts on child VMs
• **Never try `which claude` or `find`** to locate binaries — they are always at `~/.local/bin/<agent>`
• **Never create non-root users** to work around permission issues — just use `-p`

Managing Children

• `spawn list --json` — see running children
• `spawn delete --name <name> --yes` — tear down a child VM (headless)
• `spawn tree` — see the full spawn tree

Context

• You are running inside a spawned VM (SPAWN_DEPTH is set)
• Cloud credentials are pre-configured — no auth prompts
• OpenRouter billing is shared with the parent