A Raspberry Pi dev server reduced pressure to upgrade laptop RAM
A 16 GB laptop struggled when , Codex and Claude extensions, many browser windows, and debugging tools ran at the same time. AI tools and Electron apps used a lot of memory, pushing total use to about 20 GB and causing frequent swap. A spare with 8 GB of memory became a separate development machine by running code-server.
Tailscale made it possible to connect from work, and the same setup also worked from an Android tablet using Samsung DeX. Running AI agents inside a container made it easier to give them broad permissions while keeping the work environment separated. stayed at home and could be backed up regularly to a NAS.
The setup had some learning friction, but no unsolved blocker so far.
Key points
- A 16 GB laptop ran out of memory when normal development tools and AI agent extensions were open together.
- A with 8 GB of memory was reused as a remote code-server machine.
- Tailscale allowed access to the home development setup from work and from a tablet.
- A container helped isolate AI agents while still allowing broad permissions inside that environment.
- A NAS made routine backups of home-based easier.