Configuration & Defaults¶

VM launch form¶

Every field in the launch form, with its default:

Field	Default	Description
Project ID	auto-detected from `gcloud config get-value project`	GCP project to deploy into
VM name	—	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens; also names the local state directory
Username	your gcloud account name (falls back to OS username)	Account created on the VM
User domain	your gcloud account's email domain	Combined with the username to grant IAP access (`user:<username>@<domain>`)
Password	auto-generated (30-char random hex)	For services like RStudio; change it on the VM with `sudo passwd`
Image	first available image	Your configured image project (see Settings) is listed first (starred, alphabetical), then the standard public GCP images; an image available in both is shown only once
Region	`us-central1`	Chosen from regions fetched live from the Compute API
Zone	`us-central1-a`	Chosen from the selected region's zones
Machine type	`e2-highmem-2`	Fetched per-zone and filtered to the image's CPU architecture (ARM64/x86_64); live hourly cost estimate shown while choosing
Boot disk size	`20` GB
Port mapping	`8787:8787`	Comma-separated `local:remote` pairs, one tunnel each

Regions, zones, and machine types are read live from the Compute API rather than being hard-coded, so the lists reflect what's actually available to your project. Selecting a region updates the zone list, and selecting an image restricts the machine-type list to that image's CPU architecture.

Completing the form shows a review screen summarizing the VM; the instance is only created after you confirm (press Y / Yes). Choosing No or pressing Esc returns to the form with your entries intact, so an accidental Enter can't launch a VM.

Values are written to terraform.tfvars in the VM's state directory, so E (edit) reopens the form with exactly what you launched with.

Disk creation form¶

Field	Default	Description
Disk name	—	Also names the local state directory
Project ID	auto-detected
Zone	`us-central1-a`	Must match the VMs it will attach to
Disk type	`pd-balanced`	`pd-standard` \| `pd-balanced` \| `pd-ssd`
Size	`50` GB	Can grow later, never shrink

Local state layout¶

~/.vmup/
├── bin/
│   └── terraform                 # pinned Terraform, auto-installed on first run
├── projects/
│   └── <vm-name>/
│       ├── main.tf               # embedded Terraform config, written at launch
│       ├── terraform.tfvars      # your form values
│       ├── terraform.tfstate     # state for this VM's infrastructure
│       └── .terraform/           # providers
├── disks/
│   └── <disk-name>/              # same structure per disk
└── settings.json

Each VM and each disk is a fully isolated Terraform project — operations on one can never affect another. The Terraform configuration itself is embedded in the vmup binary (go:embed) and written out at launch time, so there is nothing to keep in sync.

Settings¶

Persistent settings live in ~/.vmup/settings.json and are editable from the Settings screen.

Setting	Description
Data directory	Where `projects/` and `disks/` are stored (default `~/.vmup`). Changing it can migrate existing projects/disks.
Image project	Optional GCP project whose images are listed first (above the standard public images) when creating a VM. Leave blank to show only the standard public GCP images.

Image project access

When you create a VM, vmup lists images from your configured image project followed by the standard public GCP images. The setting ships preset to vds-infrastructure (Vindhya Data Science's image project). If your account can't access it, vmup shows a one-time "no access to image project vds-infrastructure" notice on the first run, falls back to the standard images, and clears the setting so it won't try again. See Settings → Shipped default for the full behavior. Set your own image project in Settings to surface your custom images.

Cost estimates¶

When you pick a machine type, vmup shows an estimated hourly price. The estimate is:

Fetched live from the Cloud Billing Catalog API (per-vCPU and per-GB RAM rates for your region, on-demand pricing), keyed by machine family (e2, n1, n2, c2, …)
If the API is unavailable or you lack permission, vmup falls back to built-in rates (us-central1 on-demand)

Estimates cover the machine only — disks, network egress, and sustained-use discounts are not included. They are a guide, not a bill.

Terraform version¶

vmup installs Terraform 1.12.1 to ~/.vmup/bin/ on first run via HashiCorp's hc-install. It never uses or modifies a system-wide Terraform installation.