First things first, setup your environment:

zsh, tmux

https://www.codementor.io/linux/tutorial/configure-linux-toolset-zsh-tmux-vim

the oh-my-zsh-prompt:

┌─[yusufm@ubuntu-512mb-lon1-01-hacksaw] - [~/gitwork/ghost-data] - [Fri 
Mar 24, 23:43]
└─[$] <>

git

http://kbroman.org/github_tutorial/pages/init.html

What I did need to do was setup my SSH keys. However, instead of storing it locally on the VM, I use SSH agent forwarding to forward my key from my laptop

ssh-add -K .ssh/id_rsa
ssh-add -L
echo "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK"

ufw