> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.trymonte.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Run on a real box

> The box contract, bootstrap, and the two storage tiers

Real evals and real training run on a single-GPU Linux box. Monte does not know any box by name. Any host that passes the contract below works.

## The box contract

* One GPU with about 80 GB of VRAM and a working NVIDIA driver.
* At least 350 GB of free disk on the home filesystem.
* Persistent storage for the durable data root.
* Outbound network to GitHub, PyPI, Hugging Face, NVIDIA NGC (`nvcr.io`), and `astral.sh` for the uv installer.
* For training: Docker with the NVIDIA container toolkit. The training stack runs only inside the pinned NeMo-RL container. Bare-metal training is a dead end, not a shortcut.

`scripts/setup-remote.sh` asserts this contract before it changes anything.

## Bootstrap

Bootstrap is idempotent. Run it again at any time. It asserts the contract, installs uv and the repo, clones the pinned NeMo Gym, downloads the base-model snapshot, and runs `monte env install --all`. A cold box takes about 25 minutes. A warm one takes about 7.

## Two storage tiers

| Tier       | Root                              | Holds                                                  | Survives a box loss       |
| ---------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------- |
| Disposable | `MONTE_LOCAL` (default `~/monte`) | repo, venvs, caches, scratch rollouts                  | no. Bootstrap rebuilds it |
| Durable    | `MONTE_ROOT` data root            | Measurements, frozen Splits, the Ledger, Run artifacts | yes. This is the record   |

`monte config` prints the resolved data root and where the value came from.

## Crossing from laptop to box

A Run is real when the serving or container stack is present on the box, and mock when it is not. Monte refuses to guess silently:

* On a GPU machine without the stack, a Run refuses instead of silently mocking. Bootstrap installs the stack.
* Once a Measurement holds real evidence, Monte refuses a mock Run into it.
* Training preflight checks free disk and refuses below its floors. The refusal names the exact floor and which filesystem is short.

Two knobs help imperfect boxes. `MONTE_GPU_MEM_UTIL` caps the fraction of GPU memory the eval server can claim (default `0.9`). `MONTE_DOCKER` overrides the docker command, for example `sudo docker`.

<Note>
  Box addresses, SSH configuration, and host names are operational details. They stay out of these docs on purpose.
</Note>