← Back to celdrive.com

The CelDrive cheat sheet

A one-page guide. Every step shows the visual app first, then the terminal version for power users.

In this guide
  1. Sign up & pick a plan
  2. Install on each computer
  3. Use the CelDrive folder (storage)
  4. Free up RAM (memory expansion)
  5. Run heavy work elsewhere (compute)
  6. Spin up a GPU on demand
  7. The dashboard at a glance
  8. Manage your subscription
  9. When something goes wrong

1Sign up & pick a plan

Go to app.celdrive.com and create an account with email + password (or with Google / GitHub if your work uses SSO). The Starter tier is free forever: 10 GB of cloud-extended storage, no credit card. Upgrade later from the dashboard if you outgrow it; your data and devices come with you.

Pick by what you want to expand, not by seat count:

2Install on each computer

You can use CelDrive on as many computers as your plan allows. Installation takes about a minute per device.

In the app
  1. Sign in at app.celdrive.com
  2. Click "Set up a device"
  3. Pick your OS: Mac, Windows, Linux
  4. Follow the on-screen steps
  5. The wizard turns green when your device is connected
In the terminal

macOS / Linux:

$ curl -fsSL https://celdrive.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

PS> iwr -useb https://celdrive.com/install.ps1 | iex

3Use the CelDrive folder (storage)

After install, you'll see a new folder on your computer:

Drop files in, take files out, edit them in place. It works exactly like a normal folder. Files live in your private cloud bucket; the folder shows them on demand and caches the ones you've used recently for offline access.

Move 240 GB off your disk in five minutes

In the app
  1. Open the CelDrive app → "Reclaim space"
  2. The app shows the biggest folders on your computer (Downloads, Pictures, Movies, Documents).
  3. Pick which ones to extend into the cloud.
  4. Click "Extend". Each file moves atomically into your CelDrive folder via rsync; the original location becomes a symlink so apps that hardcode paths keep working.
In the terminal
$ celdrive reclaim scan
~/Pictures 84 GB
~/Downloads 62 GB
~/Movies 94 GB
$ celdrive reclaim wizard
→ confirm picks → atomic move + symlink
✓ 240 GB freed locally

Reversible: celdrive reclaim restore moves everything back.

Skip rules built in: caches, build artifacts, virtualenvs, and dotfiles are never moved. Your CelDrive folder stays clean.

4Free up RAM (memory hibernation)

Your computer probably has 8 or 16 GB of RAM. CelDrive pauses idle background apps via POSIX SIGSTOP, freeing the OS to compress and page out their memory. On a typical laptop with idle Slack, Spotify, Mail, etc. you'll get back 1–4 GB of RAM and noticeably less fan and battery drain. macOS and Linux today; Windows on the roadmap.

In the app
  1. Open the CelDrive app
  2. Toggle "Memory hibernation" on
  3. Apps idle for 30 minutes pause and free their RAM
  4. Click any paused app. It wakes in under a second
In the terminal
$ celdrive swap enable
✓ daemon installed (LaunchAgent / systemd user)
✓ idle apps → SIGSTOP, click to wake
$ celdrive swap wake Slack
✓ Slack resumed
Safety rails: CelDrive never pauses foreground apps, system processes (PID < 100), terminals, audio apps, or anything with a listening TCP socket.

Tune the list: skip and keep-awake

Never pause this app
$ celdrive swap skip add Spotify
✓ Spotify will be ignored by the hibernator
Always keep this one hot
$ celdrive swap keep add Slack
✓ Slack will be woken if it's ever paused

5Run heavy work elsewhere (compute)

Big builds, big exports, AI runs (anything that pegs your CPU and roasts the fan) can run on a faster cloud VM. CelDrive doesn't intercept your shell silently; you decide what runs remote with an explicit celdrive compute run <command>. We provision a Hetzner Cloud VM (default cx32, ~$0.013/hr, billed hourly with a 1-hour minimum), upload your current directory, run the command, and download the results.

In the app
  1. Open "Compute" in the dashboard
  2. Pick a region (closer = faster network; default Falkenstein, Germany)
  3. Click "Start session". Hetzner provisions a cx32 in ~30 s
  4. Run commands from the panel, or use the CLI; click "Stop" when done
In the terminal
$ celdrive compute start
✓ cx32 ready · fsn1 · $0.013/hr
$ celdrive compute run npm run build
→ uploading cwd · running on remote · pulling results
✓ done in 14s
$ celdrive compute stop
✓ host destroyed · billed 1 hr (min)
Hetzner billing: 1-hour minimum, then by the hour. Stop the session as soon as you're done. Leaving it idle still bills.

6Spin up a GPU on demand

Available on Pro and above. Useful for AI fine-tuning, Stable Diffusion, video transcoding, or anything that needs a real GPU. We provision a RunPod pod with a PyTorch image, billed by the second, no monthly minimum. The CLI fetches live prices, but typical community-cloud rates are:

In the app
  1. Open "GPU" in the dashboard
  2. Pick a GPU type (T4, A100, H100)
  3. Click "Start session". Pod boots in 60–90 seconds with PyTorch ready
  4. SSH in or use the run panel; click "Stop" when done. Billing stops on termination
In the terminal
$ celdrive gpu start --type T4
✓ ssh celdrive-gpu ($0.39/hr · billed by the second)
$ celdrive gpu run python train.py
→ uploading · running on T4 · pulling output
$ celdrive gpu stop
✓ pod terminated · billed 23 min ($0.15)

7The dashboard at a glance

Open app.celdrive.com/dashboard.html any time to check:

8Manage your subscription

Everything billing-related lives in the Stripe Customer Portal. We don't keep our own billing UI to avoid duplicating it.

  1. Dashboard → click "Manage subscription"
  2. You're sent to the Stripe portal (you stay signed in)
  3. Switch tiers (proration is handled automatically; no double-charge)
  4. Update card · view invoices · cancel any time
Cancel any time: Access continues through your current paid period. Your data stays available for 30 days after cancellation in case you want to come back, then is permanently deleted.

9When something goes wrong