Persistence & Kill Switch

What persists and why

The linuxserver images map /config to the abc user's home directory. This means:

What	Where	Persists across rebuilds?
nvm + Node versions	/config/.nvm	✅ Forever
npm global packages	/config/.npm-global	✅ Forever
pip packages (pip install)	/config/.local	✅ Forever
Go packages	/config/go	✅ Forever
Claude Code	/config/.npm-global	✅ Forever
Git config (user.name, etc.)	/config/.gitconfig	✅ Forever
Shell config (.bashrc, .zshrc)	/config	✅ Forever
VS Code extensions (code-server)	/config (code-server)	✅ Forever
Project files	/projects (separate volume)	✅ Forever
System packages (gcc, make, docker CLI, etc.)	System dirs	❌ Reinstalled at boot by init script

The golden rule

If it lands in /config, it survives forever. If it needs sudo or apt, add it to the init script (/DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/init.d/99-ssh.sh).

Kill switch

If the container gets too messy (too many installed packages, broken config), reset it.

Nuclear reset

Wipes ALL user state (tools, packages, configs, VS Code extensions). Projects are safe:

rm -rf /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/*
rm -rf /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/vscode-config/*
docker restart dev-desktop dev-vscode

After restart, the init script runs cleanly: reinstalls system packages, nvm, Node, Claude Code. The container is fresh. Your project files at /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/projects are untouched.

Surgical reset

Wipe just one thing:

# Just nuke nvm + Node versions
rm -rf /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/.nvm

# Just nuke Python packages
rm -rf /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/.local

# Just nuke npm global packages + Claude Code
rm -rf /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/.npm-global

# Just nuke shell config (rebuilt next boot by init script)
rm /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/.bashrc /DATA/AppData/cloud-dev/config/.zshrc

Then restart the container: docker restart dev-desktop.

Forcing installs to /config

The init script already sets these in your .bashrc and .zshrc:

export PIP_USER=yes              # pip always installs to ~/.local
export PIP_BREAK_SYSTEM_PACKAGES=1  # allows pip in non-venv
export GOPATH=~/go               # go install → ~/go
export PATH=~/go/bin:~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH  # makes npm global + go bins available

Plus ~/.npmrc has prefix=~/.npm-global for npm.

This means a bare pip install matplotlib goes to /config/.local, no --user flag needed. Same for npm global installs.

Adding a new language or tool permanently

Two-step process:

1. If it needs apt: edit 99-ssh.sh, add the package to the apt-get install line, restart the container.
2. If it installs to your home directory: just install it inside the container normally (pip install, npm install -g, go install, etc.). It persists automatically in /config.

Example: adding Go:

# Edit 99-ssh.sh, add 'golang-go' to the apt-get line
# Restart: docker restart dev-desktop
# Go is now available every boot.
# Packages you go install will live in /config/go → persist forever.