RagnaLab Part 5: Remote Dev Environment, Claude Code and Caddy

This post wraps up the core setup with two things: a persistent remote dev environment you can SSH into with Claude Code and JetBrains Gateway, and Caddy as a reverse proxy so every service gets a clean local domain name instead of an IP and port.

CT 201 — Remote dev environment and Claude Code

CT 201 serves double duty: a persistent remote dev environment and a Claude Code host for AI-assisted development in the terminal.

pct create 201 local:vztmpl/ubuntu-26.04-standard_26.04-1_amd64.tar.zst \
  --hostname claude-host \
  --memory 4096 \
  --cores 2 \
  --rootfs local-lvm:20 \
  --net0 name=eth0,bridge=vmbr0,ip=dhcp

Install essentials

pct start 201
pct enter 201

apt update && apt install -y \
  curl wget git vim nano htop \
  build-essential python3 python3-pip \
  nodejs npm zsh unzip default-jdk \
  openssh-server

Java (default-jdk) is required for the JetBrains Gateway backend.

Enable SSH

Ubuntu 26.04 disables root SSH login by default:

sed -i 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl enable ssh
systemctl restart ssh
passwd

For a more secure setup, switch to SSH key auth. Don’t forget to disable root login again. Also create a local user to follow the least privilege principle.

mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh
# paste your public key into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Install Claude Code

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | sh

For API key auth in headless or CI environments:

echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Verify:

claude --version

Set up a workspace

mkdir -p ~/projects ~/scripts ~/tools

JetBrains Gateway

Download JetBrains Gateway from jetbrains.com/remote-development/gateway on your local machine. Connect via SSH to CT 201’s IP-Gateway automatically installs the IDE backend on the remote host. You get a full PyCharm or IntelliJ experience running locally but executing remotely. No heavy IDE installation needed in the container itself.

CT 206 — Caddy reverse proxy

Caddy sits in front of all your services and routes *.homelab.local traffic to the right container. Simpler config than Traefik, and automatic HTTPS when you need it later.

replace all CT-IP placeholders with the actual IPs of your LXC containers.*

pct create 206 local:vztmpl/ubuntu-26.04-standard_26.04-1_amd64.tar.zst \
  --hostname caddy \
  --memory 512 \
  --cores 1 \
  --rootfs local-lvm:8 \
  --net0 name=eth0,bridge=vmbr0,ip=dhcp

Install Docker, then deploy:

mkdir -p /opt/stacks/caddy
cd /opt/stacks/caddy

cat > Caddyfile << 'EOF'
{
  admin off
  auto_https off
}

portainer.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT200-IP:9000
}

falkordb.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT200-IP:3000
}

tools.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT200-IP:8082
}

jellyfin.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT202-IP:8096
}

sonarr.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT203-IP:8989
}

radarr.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT203-IP:7878
}

prowlarr.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT203-IP:9696
}

homepage.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT205-IP:3000
}

uptime.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT205-IP:3001
}

claude.homelab.local {
  reverse_proxy CT201-IP:8080
}
EOF

cat > compose.yml << 'EOF'
services:
  caddy:
    image: caddy:latest
    container_name: caddy
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
      - caddy_data:/data
      - caddy_config:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  caddy_data:
  caddy_config:
EOF

docker compose up -d

DNS

Until your router’s local DNS is configured, you can add static entries on any machine. On Linux or macOS edit /etc/hosts, on Windows edit C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts as Administrator:

CADDY-IP    portainer.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    falkordb.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    tools.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    jellyfin.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    sonarr.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    radarr.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    prowlarr.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    homepage.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    uptime.homelab.local
CADDY-IP    claude.homelab.local

Still to do

• Set static IP reservations on your network for all containers, if an IP changes, Caddy routes break right now
• Move DNS to your networks’ local DNS records and remove the static host overrides
• Enable SSL using Cloudflare DNS challenge
• Configure VPN for external access
• Restrict Docker TCP port 2375 to LAN only via firewall rules
• Add the Caddy container to Watchtower

That’s the core RagnaLab stack. Everything is running, monitored, auto-updated, and accessible by name.