| Type | DigitalOcean droplet |
|---|---|
| Size | 2 vCPUs, 4 GB memory, 80 GB disk (since October 16, 2026) |
| Reached by | SSH from ThinkPads running Linux Mint |
| Runs | Blackbox, site builds, Lighthouse |
Pinebox is the server behind most of Chris Abraham's projects: a DigitalOcean droplet he reaches over SSH from his ThinkPads. Blackbox lives there, along with its data, its sign-in tokens, and its timers. The four GitHub Pages sites and this weblog are built there with Claude Code before they are pushed.
What runs on it
- Blackbox, with its SQLite database and the writing folders it may read.
- Timers: the sign-in keepalive at 6:45 and 18:45, the 11:45 PM day close, and the nightly encrypted backup at about 3:30 AM.
- Alpine, the mail program Blackbox hands drafts to; Chris presses Ctrl+X to send.
- Site builds for hillmole.com, thechrisabrahamshow.com, christopherabraham.com, gerriscorp.com, and chrisabraham.net.
- Lighthouse in a micromamba environment. Until October 16, 2026, the droplet had 1 GB of memory and Lighthouse ran one page at a time; it now has 4 GB.
Habits
Secrets live in files on pinebox with owner-only permissions and never in chat or git. Because laptop and server windows look alike, instructions that must run on the server start with a hostname check. Commands that need sudo are run by Chris in his own terminal.