Barge: run your coding agent in the cloud
Suspend a laptop running a local coding-agent CLI and the work stops until the machine wakes. A long build or review loop needs somewhere else to run if you want to close the lid.
Barge is the tool I built for that. It runs agent development sessions on disposable cloud workers. A session starts from an active local repository or a GitHub ref. The worker restores the workspace, runs any configured workspace commands, then runs the agent and opens a draft pull request for review.
The interface is three moves
- Start. Hand off the current repository and uncommitted changes with the CLI, or point Barge at a repository and a task (or a Linear issue) and let it start fresh in the cloud.
- Follow. Watch logs, test output, and progress in the dashboard. If you want follow-up messaging, start the session with
--alive. - Review. Read the draft pull request and its verification results. Fixes from the review loop land on the same branch. You control the merge.
For example, barge cloud owner/repo main "fix the failing tests" --alive enables queued follow-ups. Messages do not interrupt the initial build: the worker processes them after the PR and initial verification, using a resumable agent thread. The window ends within the session’s runtime budget, which defaults to 120 minutes. Completed sessions cannot accept messages.
Once Barge accepts the session and returns its URL, the laptop can disconnect. The session may still be queued or provisioning; neither needs the laptop to remain online.
What a handoff preserves
The local handoff packages reachable commits, a binary-safe patch of tracked changes, and non-ignored untracked files. Its secret scanner checks the tracked patch and eligible untracked text files up to 1 MiB. It does not scan committed history or comprehensively check binary, oversized, or unreadable files.
A detected secret stops packaging by default, with its kind and location reported rather than its value. The CLI has an explicit --allow-secrets override; do not enable it automatically. This check cannot prove that an archive contains no secrets. Uploaded archives are encrypted at rest.
Each session runs in an isolated worker. Barge attempts to destroy the worker when the session ends and reconciles failed cleanup attempts. Worker disposal is separate from data retention: logs remain available, and a failed local handoff can retain its encrypted workspace artifact for retry.
What Barge is not
Barge is not a hosted IDE or an unattended merge service. Each session has a worker and a bounded review loop. You still need to read the diff and decide whether to merge.
The series index collects the articles as they ship: session anatomy, agents and authentication, getting started, and an illustrative day using Barge.
Barge is in private beta. Join the waitlist to get an invitation.