The Mac mini should stop being both the reasoning layer and the browser-control workstation. Move cortextOS brains to a small dedicated-vCPU VPS, keep local browser hands on the Mac, and Zach gets disk, RAM, CPU, and swap headroom back without losing local app control.
Measured on this run. That is firefighting territory for a machine doing nightly automation, local indexes, Chrome, and build artifacts.
Measured with `vm.swapusage`. Nightly load pushes harder, which makes the whole box feel unstable even when individual agents are fine.
Known structural hogs: ChromaDB around 10 GiB, Codex state around 1.9 GiB, cortextOS git pack around 1 GiB, plus service logs/cache growth.
The model calls still run in vendor clouds, but local orchestration is not free. Moving long-lived brains off the Mac removes the memory pressure from daemon processes, vector DB processes, task scans, cron work, and Codex/session state handling. The Mac keeps Chrome, which is exactly the part that must stay local.
Fewer disk/swap crises means fewer emergency cleanups, fewer slow browser runs, fewer false “agent broke” diagnoses, and more confidence that a late-night cron can finish without making the Mac unusable by morning.
For the fleet brains, the fit is modest RAM/CPU with predictable cores. Browser hands and Chrome profiles stay on the Mac, so we are not buying a big remote desktop workstation.
| Provider / tier | Specs | Monthly | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean CPU-Optimized `c-2` | 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 25 GiB disk, 4 TB transfer | $42 | Best current fit if we keep ChromaDB lean or attach storage later. |
| Hetzner Cloud CCX13, US | 2 dedicated vCPU class, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GB local disk class | $50.99 excl. IPv4/VAT | Best headroom-per-dollar among the cited dedicated-vCPU options after the June 15 price change. |
| Akamai/Linode G6 Dedicated 4GB | 2 dedicated vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, 4 TB transfer | $36 | Cheapest dedicated CPU option, but less RAM than Hetzner; still viable for a lean control plane. |
At 2x agents/throughput, run two small dedicated nodes or step up to the next tier. That keeps failure domains small and avoids turning one VPS into the same choke point the Mac is today.
DigitalOcean `c-4` is $84/mo. Hetzner 2x CCX13 is $101.98/mo. Linode 2x G6 Dedicated 4GB is $72/mo, or one G6 Dedicated 8GB is $72/mo. All are cheaper than repeated operator time spent babysitting disk and swap.
The practical buy is one modest VPS for brains. Add backups/storage only after measuring steady-state disk.
Still small relative to the value of always-on operations and the avoided Mac maintenance burden.
This matches the David Hunter resale angle: a repo-level subscription plus a done-with-you install tier is easier to sell when the architecture is clean.
Recommendation: Use the VPS for persistent cortextOS brains and keep the Mac as hands. The monthly dollars are small; the value is stopping the Mac from choking, removing disk/swap firefights, creating room to scale, and making AgenticChiro installable for another clinic without asking them to run the whole brain stack on their personal computer.