Running Cowork / Claude Code on a Cloud VM for Always-On Scheduling
How to move Claude Code scheduled tasks off a local Windows PC onto a persistent cloud VM so tasks fire reliably without needing to leave a laptop running.
Why / When to Use
Cowork desktop app and Claude Code both require the host machine to be on, not sleeping, and logged in for scheduled tasks to execute. On a Windows laptop this means:
- Scheduled tasks silently fail if the machine sleeps
- You need to keep the PC on 24/7
- Wake timers are unreliable on modern hardware
A cloud VM sidesteps all of this.
Core Concept / Commands
Option 1 — Disable sleep (quick fix, local machine)
Control Panel → Power Options → Change plan settings → Never (Sleep/Hibernate)
Leaves machine running 24/7. Simple but increases power consumption and hardware wear.
Option 2 — Windows Wake Timers (fiddly)
Control Panel → Power Options → Change advanced settings → Sleep → Allow wake timers → Enable
Then create a Windows Scheduled Task with a “Wake the computer to run this task” trigger. Unreliable on modern laptops — sleep/wake cycle can interfere with running processes.
Option 3 — Cloud VM (recommended for reliability)
Provision a cheap Linux VPS. Claude Code runs perfectly headless on Linux with no GUI required.
Recommended providers:
| Provider | Cheapest tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | ~€4/month (CX22, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) | Fastest EU option, very reliable |
| DigitalOcean | ~$6/month (Basic Droplet, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | Easy UX, wide region choice |
| Vultr | ~$5/month | Similar to DigitalOcean |
Basic setup:
# 1. Provision Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
# 2. SSH in
ssh root@<your-vps-ip>
# 3. Install Node.js (required for Claude Code)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs
# 4. Install Claude Code CLI
npm install -g @anthropic/claude-code
# 5. Authenticate
claude login
# 6. Set up cron for scheduled tasks (example: 5 PM UTC+7 = 10 AM UTC)
crontab -e
# 0 10 * * 1-5 cd /home/user/workspace && claude run --prompt "run daily PKM"Key Options / Variants
- tmux / screen — keep Claude Code sessions alive across SSH disconnections:
tmux new-session -s pkm # run claude code inside tmux # detach: Ctrl+B, D - systemd timer — more robust than cron for complex schedules; logs to journald
Gotchas
- Claude Code authentication tokens expire; store the token securely and handle re-auth in your startup scripts
- Outbound network access is required for Claude.ai API calls — check VM firewall rules
- Cowork desktop app (GUI) cannot run on a headless VM — Claude Code CLI is the correct tool for cloud deployments
- SSH key authentication preferred over password for security
Source
Conversation “Using Claude desktop on multiple computers” — 2026-05-22