Running extra labs
You normally get one lab of each type. When a template allows it, you can run extra copies — separate machines from the same environment, each with its own address, settings and lifecycle.
Use them to keep a stable setup untouched while you experiment, to run one lab per project, or to give each of several apps its own machine.
Create a copy
On the lab's page choose Deploy a copy.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | How you recognise it in your list, up to 60 characters |
| Run as user | The login inside this copy, up to 32 characters, lowercase, not root |
| Isolated storage | Give this copy its own home instead of the shared one |
| Install all my SSH keys | Or pick specific keys |
Copies count against your running-labs limit like any other lab.
Shared storage or isolated
This is the decision that matters, because it changes what the copy can see.
Shared (the default). The copy mounts your normal account storage. Every lab you own sees the same files. Good when the copies are all yours and you want one set of files.
Isolated. The copy gets its own separate home. Nothing you write in it appears in your other labs. Choose the seed:
| Seed | What you start with |
|---|---|
| Fresh empty home (default) | Nothing, like a brand-new account |
| Clone my home | A copy-on-write copy of your existing files |
A clone shares its blocks with the original at first and costs almost nothing — you are only charged for what you then change. On storage that cannot do this, the option is unavailable and the copy starts with an empty home instead.
Duplicating an existing copy
Duplicate clones a copy's configuration — run-as user, keys, proxies, passwords, storage choice — into a new one.
Domains and reserved addresses are deliberately not copied, since two labs cannot serve the same domain.
Storage counts once
Extra copies do not get their own quota. Your account has one storage allowance, and isolated copies count against it — but only for the data that has actually diverged from the original.
See Storage for how usage is measured.
Deleting a copy
Copies can be terminated, which frees the slot. Your main lab of each type cannot — it is stopped instead. See Stop, pause and delete.
Do it with an AI assistant
You can also do this by asking an AI assistant connected to your account — see Connect an AI assistant to set one up.
| Ask | What the assistant does |
|---|---|
| “Make a second copy of my ubuntu lab called testing” | deploy_lab with a new copy, then wait_for_deploy |
| “Rebuild my copy in slot 1” | Checks the slot with list_labs, then deploy_lab on that slot |
| “Rename that copy to staging” | rename_lab |
| “Delete the testing copy” | list_labs for its id, then terminate_lab |
Each copy has its own id. The assistant should read it from list_labs before acting on a copy — otherwise it acts on your standard instance instead. The number of copies you can run is capped by your plan.
Next
- Replicas and load balancing — several copies behind one URL