Ona environments use persistent storage attached to the underlying VM. Everything on disk persists across environment stops and starts.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ona.com/docs/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
What persists
/workspaces/<repository-name>- your cloned repository and any changes/home/gitpod- home directory, shell history, installed tools- System packages installed during setup
- Files created anywhere on the filesystem
Dev Container rebuilds
Rebuilding your Dev Container recreates most of the filesystem from the image. Your repository at/workspaces/<repository-name> persists via a bind mount - code and uncommitted changes remain intact.
To persist other directories across rebuilds, add bind mounts in your devcontainer.json:
Prebuilds and storage
Prebuilds snapshot the entire Dev Container filesystem - installed dependencies, built artifacts, and all files. New environments load from this snapshot instead of running setup from scratch.Storage size
Storage size is configured through environment classes. Each runner type (Ona Cloud, AWS, GCP) provides classes with different disk sizes. Use storage larger than RAM.Storage lifecycle
| State | Storage |
|---|---|
| Stopped | Persists - resume anytime |
| Archived (after 2ā7 days inactive, by plan) | Persists - can be unarchived |
| Deleted | Permanently removed |
Ephemeral vs persistent
For agents, the recommended workflow is ephemeral environments - one fresh environment per task for isolation. With prebuilds, starting fresh is fast enough that persistence is not needed. For human developers, persistent environments work well for longer-running tasks where you want to maintain state across sessions.Troubleshooting
"No space left on device"
"No space left on device"
Check usage with
df -h. On the Free plan, select the Regular environment class (80 GB). The Core plan provides access to larger classes.