Instance

An instance is a virtual machine created and managed by Electros LaunchPad (elpd), exposed in the GUI under Compute → Instances and on the CLI as elp targets.

Procedures: Compute

Primary instance

The CLI provides shortcuts using a special primary instance (default name primary).

When invoked without positional arguments, start, restart, stop, suspend, and shell operate on primary. start and shell create it if missing. On create, the client often auto-mounts the user’s home directory (platform-dependent; mounts may be off by default on Windows).

Change the primary name with the client.primary-name setting.

Instances vs deployments vs models

Kind	Where in the GUI	What it is
Instance	Compute → Instances	General-purpose VM you launched from Images
Deployment	Services → Deployments	Marketplace pack VM managed as a service
Running model	AI → Running models	Loaded LLM process (not a full guest OS)

Compositions can group all three. See Compositions.