Part H — What Claude Code can do directly on your VPS
Once the SSH key from Part C2 is set up, Claude Code can run commands directly on your VPS through that same secure connection. In practice, that means almost none of the server admin work needs you to log into your hosting provider's website and open its browser-based console yourself. Here's what that covers, based on everything demonstrated while actually setting up a real site this way:
Each category below shows the task, and an example of plain-English wording you could actually type to Claude Code to get it done — you don't need to know any commands yourself, just describe what you want.
Explore and diagnose the server
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Confirm what's installed | "Check what version of Docker and Docker Compose are installed on my VPS." |
| List running containers and networks | "SSH into my VPS and show me every container that's currently running, and what Docker networks exist." |
| Find a project's location | "I don't remember where my project folder is on the VPS — can you find it?" |
| Inspect a container's config | "Check what network my site's container is on, and show me its routing labels and whether it's healthy." |
Check on a project already sitting on the VPS
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Check the server's git state | "Is the code on the VPS up to date with GitHub? What commit is it on right now?" |
| Read env var names safely | "Show me what environment variables are configured on the VPS for this project — just the names, not the values." |
| Confirm live routing | "What domain(s) is this site actually routed to right now, according to the live config?" |
Deploy changes
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Full deploy | "I've merged my PR — go ahead and deploy it." |
| Pull only, no rebuild yet | "Pull the latest code onto the VPS, but don't rebuild the container yet." |
| Rebuild and restart | "Rebuild and restart the container with the current code on the VPS." |
Verify a deploy actually worked
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Health check | "Check that the container came back up healthy after that deploy." |
| Confirm it's really live | "Confirm the live site is actually serving the new version, not a cached old copy." |
Recover specific details for documentation
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Pull a live setting | "What's the exact routing rule for this site right now? I want to put it in the docs." |
Troubleshoot and recover from problems
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Read logs after a failure | "The site seems down — check the container logs on the VPS and tell me what's wrong." |
| Roll back a bad deploy | "That last deploy broke something — roll back to the previous commit and redeploy." |
None of this requires opening hPanel or starting a manual SSH session yourself — it's the same handful of SSH commands Claude Code runs on your behalf either way, just aimed at whatever question or task is in front of you. The one thing it will never do unasked is anything covered by the checkpoints in Part G above — you'll still get a "want me to go ahead?" before anything that actually changes the live server.
Published