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mold lambda — Lambda Cloud web UI

mold lambda deploys mold to Lambda Cloud as a private, Docker-first web UI. The local CLI creates or reuses Lambda resources, starts the mold container on the instance, opens an SSH tunnel to 127.0.0.1:7680, and prints the matching MOLD_HOST export.

Setup

Create a Lambda Cloud API key in the Lambda console, then configure mold:

bash
mold config set lambda.api_key <your-key>
# or, for shell-only use:
export LAMBDA_API_KEY=<your-key>

mold lambda doctor

Lambda access stays private by default. The remote container binds mold to 127.0.0.1:7680 on the instance, and your laptop reaches it through SSH:

bash
mold lambda deploy --instance-type gpu_1x_a10 --region us-west-1
eval "$(mold lambda tunnel)"
open http://127.0.0.1:7680

Discovery

bash
mold lambda availability
mold lambda availability --json

Availability shows the Lambda instance type, region, GPU description, GPU count, generation_slots, price per hour, memory/storage, and the selected Docker image tag. Slots equal GPU count: mold keeps one GPU-resident engine per worker/GPU and does not claim extra parallel slots on a single large GPU.

Image selection follows the GPU family:

GPU familyImage tag
Ampere / A100:latest-sm80
Ada / L40 / RTX 4090:latest
Hopper / H100 / H200:latest-sm90
Blackwell / B200 / RTX 5090:latest-sm120

GH200 Lambda instances are not currently supported by the published mold container images: Lambda's GH200 hosts are linux/arm64, while the mold CUDA images are published for linux/amd64.

Persistent Storage

mold lambda deploy creates or reuses one Lambda filesystem per region. The default name is mold-<region>, mounted at /data/mold and bound into the container as /workspace, so models, LoRAs, cache, the metadata DB, and gallery outputs survive instance replacement.

bash
mold lambda filesystems
mold lambda filesystems --json

Filesystems continue billing while they exist. Use mold lambda reset --to-zero when you want all mold-managed Lambda storage removed.

Secrets

Secrets are not forwarded by default. To copy local HF_TOKEN and CIVITAI_TOKEN into the remote service env, opt in explicitly:

bash
mold lambda deploy --instance-type gpu_1x_a10 --region us-west-1 --forward-secrets

The CLI writes a root-readable env file over SSH and restarts the remote mold-lambda.service.

Lifecycle

bash
mold lambda status
mold lambda logs --follow
mold lambda ssh
mold lambda terminate

terminate stops the instance and local tunnel but leaves the regional filesystem. To remove mold-managed instances, tunnels, and filesystems:

bash
mold lambda reset --to-zero

The reset command requires typing delete mold lambda resources unless you pass that exact phrase through --confirm.

Configuration

toml
[lambda]
# api_key = "..."                         # Prefer LAMBDA_API_KEY for shells
endpoint = "https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1"
image_repository = "ghcr.io/utensils/mold"
ssh_key_name = "mold-laptop"
ssh_private_key_path = "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"
filesystem_prefix = "mold"
filesystem_mount_path = "/data/mold"
confirm_hourly_usd = 5.0
local_port = 7680

All keys are settable with mold config set lambda.<key> <value>.