REQUIREMENTS
What you need.
Omarchy and Tailscale on every computer, and an agent that can use MCP tools. Two computers is the setup ibara is built for. The spare doesn’t run the model, so it doesn’t need to be fast.
Updated
Requirements#
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Omarchy 4 with its Quattro shell, on every computer you add. No other system is supported. |
| Processor | 64-bit Intel or AMD (x86_64). |
| Network | Tailscale on every computer. |
| Spare state | Powered on, logged in and unlocked. |
| Account | Run the installer as yourself on each computer. Your account needs sudo; the installer asks for your password when it needs it. |
| Browser | Google Chrome or Chromium on the spare, for web tasks. ibara sets them up for agents by itself. |
| Agent | Any agent that can use MCP tools: Claude Code, Codex, opencode, omp or your own. Connecting agents. |
| Live Video (Preview) | Optional, and off by default. It needs a hardware H.264 encoder (VA-API) on the spare, and the package installs wf-recorder. The console needs qt6-multimedia and qt6-multimedia-ffmpeg, which the package installs too. |
| Installed with ibara | Cua’s driver (cua-driver-bin 0.28.2 or newer), Tailscale, the Mousepad editor and the foot terminal, if they aren’t there already. ibara’s 3 packages are about 15 MB to download. |
Will my machine work?#
If it can run Omarchy and the apps you want your agent to use, it’s probably enough. Check:
- It runs Omarchy 4 and stays logged in and unlocked.
- It has enough memory for your apps plus ibara (about 120 MiB while an agent works).
- It can stay on its network, wired or Wi-Fi, with Tailscale signed in.
- No mouse or monitor needed. Your agent clicks and types on a computer with no mouse plugged in, and a computer with no screen connected gets a virtual one.
- It can restart on its own. An encrypted disk asks for its password at the keyboard after a restart, unless you turn on Start without the disk password (see Troubleshooting). Once the computer is back, ibara resumes its agents by itself, unless a person paused them or Resume agents after a restart is off.
The two tested machines are five-year-old mini PCs with a 10-watt Celeron and 4–8 GB of memory.
Resource use#
Memory of every ibara process, plus the console’s share of the Omarchy shell, on tater0 with its full 7.6 GB of memory, 28 September, ibara 0.1.0-9. The targets are ibara’s own limits.
| State | Measured | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle, console not opened | 17.8 MiB | 40 MiB | Pass |
| Idle, console open on the fleet | 58.2 MiB | 40 MiB | Over |
| Agent working, console closed | 117.0 MiB | 120 MiB | Pass |
Someone has control of this computer (ibara-stream) | 71.3 MiB | 100 MiB | Pass |
You have control of another computer (ibara-view) | 80 MiB average, 105 MiB peak | 150 MiB | Pass |
On a machine limited to 2 GB of RAM (ibara 0.1.0-7 on tater1, 27 September, one run per state):
| State | Measured | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle, console not opened | 18.6 MiB | 40 MiB | Pass |
| Agent working, console closed | 121.6 MiB | 120 MiB | Over |
| Idle after every part of the console has been opened | 48.8 MiB | 40 MiB | Over |
| Agent working with the console open | 187.1 MiB | 120 MiB | Over |
Every result over target is accepted for this release. Lowering them is on the roadmap.
Live Video (Preview) costs more. Measured during development, 29 September, on a Celeron J3455 spare, with the encoder run by hand with Live Video’s settings, at card size: 4–10 % of a core and about 92 MB on the spare being watched, and about 25–260 kbit/s per card (a still screen sends almost nothing). On the console it takes about 53 MB for the first card and about 8 MB for each card after it.
Known limits#
- After a Hyprland or GCC update, the input plugin is rebuilt automatically. The new build loads at the next sign-in.
- Keys are refused on the spare while Caps Lock is on, a key is held down or latched, or its keyboard layout isn’t English (US).
- An encrypted spare asks for its disk password at the keyboard after a restart unless Start without the disk password is on. That option is tested in a virtual machine so far, not yet on real hardware.
- Memory is over target while the console is open (see Resource use).
- A power cut hasn’t been tested. When a monitor reconnected during a task on tater0, the typing stopped part way. The fix, which keeps typing going through a display change, hasn’t been checked on the test machines yet.