See the complete route index at https://crusible.dev/llms.txt before following links.

# Connect a compute provider

Where the machines a workspace runs on are connected — Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes or SSH — and what the Providers pane under Account is for.

<!-- https://crusible.dev/docs/admin/connect-a-compute-provider/ · doctype: how-to · role: admin · reviewed: 2026-09-05 -->


Every <a class="docs-term" href="/docs/reference/glossary/#channel">channel</a> that opens a shell,
mounts a repo or hands an <a class="docs-term" href="/docs/reference/glossary/#agent">agent</a> a
worktree needs a machine to run it on. Those machines are
<a class="docs-term" href="/docs/reference/glossary/#compute-provider">compute providers</a>, and they
are connected once, for the whole workspace, by an admin.

**Planned.** The **Providers** pane carries no rows and no
**Connect** control yet: it opens on a blurred picture of the pane, the sentence
“Connect a compute provider, then choose where each run lands.”
and a disabled **Coming soon** control.
 The steps
below are the procedure that pane is designed for, and none of them can be
carried out today.


1. <p>Select <strong>Settings</strong> at the bottom of the channel list.</p>
 (Result: Settings opens on your profile. The left column carries two groups: the upper one, which is personal to whoever is signed in, and “Account”, below it, which is the workspace.)


1. <p>Under <strong>Account</strong>, open <strong>Providers</strong>.</p>
 (Result: The pane lists the kinds of compute provider a workspace can use — Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes and SSH — one row each. A connected row reads “Connected” and names what it points at, such as `docker · localhost` or an SSH login. An unconnected row reads “Not connected”, with a second line saying what is missing: “No vendor configured”, “Not configured”.)


1. <p>Select <strong>Connect</strong> on the kind of machine you want the workspace to use, and
give it the details it asks for.</p>
 (Result: Each kind asks for what identifies it: a vendor for Cloud, a host for Docker or SSH, a cluster for Kubernetes.)


1. <p>Read the row back.</p>
 (Result: The row's status changes to “Connected” and names what it points at, such as `docker · localhost` or an SSH login. The row is now selectable wherever a Workspace channel is created.)


- **If this doesn't work:** <p>If <strong>Account</strong> does not appear in Settings, or <strong>Providers</strong> is missing from
it, your sign-in does not hold the permission that opens it: a pane you may not
open is absent rather than shown and disabled, so ask whoever created the
workspace to grant it. If a row stays at <strong>Not connected</strong> after you save it,
the details it was given did not reach the machine — re-open the row and check
the host or vendor line it shows. If a provider connects and then drops later,
<strong>Inbox</strong> names the machine that dropped off and says whether it is retrying.
Open <strong>Inbox</strong> at the bottom of the channel list to see which of the two it is.
If a step still does not match what you see,
<a href="/docs/troubleshooting/">Troubleshooting</a>
 is written for that moment.</p>





The workspace then has somewhere to run, and the Providers pane is the whole
record of it: every row that reads **Connected** names the machine it reached
and the account it reached it as, and every row that does not is a kind nobody
has set up yet. Nothing else in the workspace needs to know which one you chose.

- [Invite people and set roles](https://crusible.dev/docs/admin/invite-and-set-roles/) — Bring people into the workspace and read the role each one holds, from the Directory pane under Account in Settings.- [Connect a provider](https://crusible.dev/docs/admin/connect-a-provider/) — Where an outside tool is connected to the surface it backs, how it is authorised, and what settles the writes agents may make to it.