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Local, remote and cloud

Where your code, git and the new AI coding tools actually run, and what that means for who can see your work. Start here if the other pages use words you have not met yet.

Three places

Everything in software work happens in one of three places. Each has its own icon, and the same icons appear throughout these pages.

Your computer

  • Your files and your editor
  • git, and your branches until you push them
  • The app while you try it out (localhost)
  • AI agents in your terminal: Claude Code, Codex CLI

push and pull

GitHub

  • The shared copy of the repository
  • Every branch someone has pushed
  • Pull requests and reviews
  • Automated checks (GitHub Actions)

clone, push, deploy

The cloud

  • AI agents on the web: Claude Code on the web, Codex cloud
  • Preview copies of the app, and the live site
  • The database and backend the app talks to
For code, GitHub sits in the middle. Your computer and the cloud agents both start from what is on GitHub, and both send their work back there.

What the words mean

Local
On the computer in front of you. Only you can see it, and it stops when you close the laptop.
Remote
Git’s word for another copy of the repository, almost always the one on GitHub. Pushing to it is how work gets shared.
Cloud
Computers someone else runs for you, reached over the internet. They keep going when your laptop is closed.

AI coding agents

Tools like Claude Code and Codex come in two kinds, and the difference between them is exactly where they run.

In your terminal
Claude Code or the Codex CLI, started on your own computer. It reads and edits your files and runs commands there, just as you would, and sees work you have not committed yet. Nothing reaches GitHub until it, or you, pushes.
On the web
Claude Code on the web or Codex cloud. Each task gets a fresh computer in the cloud, which clones the repository from GitHub, works on its own branch, pushes it and can open a pull request. Your laptop can be closed the whole time.
Your branch starts on your computer, the agent’s in the cloud, and both end up on GitHub’s main. To git, a cloud agent is just another teammate whose work arrives as a pull request, reviewed like anyone else’s.

Where the app itself runs

The same three places apply to the app you are building:

localhost
A copy running on your computer for trying changes. Only you can open it.
Preview
A temporary copy in the cloud, built from a branch, with its own link you can send to someone.
Production
The live site your users open, built from main once a pull request is merged.