Getting Started: Your First Sandbox in Minutes

How do you install the CLI?

Run the installer for your system. It puts a single binary called sbx on your PATH, then starts sbx onboard.

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://sandboxer.com/install | sh

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://sandboxer.com/install.ps1 | iex

Onboarding opens your browser to sign in with GitHub, Google, an email code, or an email and password, and shows a short code to approve. The CLI never sees your password. For a new account, it then offers to open checkout for the $20/month plan. There's no free trial: the first month is charged when you subscribe, and the plan renews monthly until you cancel. Signing up, the docs and the dashboard need no card. On another computer, run sbx login instead.

How do you create your first sandbox?

Run sbx new. It prints the sandbox id, a three-word subdomain, its URL and IPv6 address, and returns when the machine is ready.

sbx new

Per Sandboxer's quickstart, what you get is:

What	Details
Machine	A full Ubuntu 24.04 VM with root and systemd
Size	`default`: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 50 GB disk
Installed	Docker, Node, Python, Go, Rust, Chrome, `gh` and coding agents
Billing	Per second while it runs, nothing while it is stopped
Auto-stop	After one hour unless you extend it

Any command that takes a sandbox id also accepts current, meaning the last sandbox you created in this shell.

What can you do with it?

Open a shell, run single commands over the API, publish a port, or hand a task to an agent inside:

sbx ssh                          # interactive shell, sudo works without a password
sbx exec current "uname -a"      # one command, no SSH needed
sbx host current 3000            # HTTPS URL for port 3000
sbx prompt "add a /health route and a test for it"

To start a dev server and leave it running:

sbx ssh -- 'cd ~ && npx create-vite@latest app -t react-ts && cd app && npm i && nohup npm run dev -- --host 0.0.0.0 &'
sbx host current 5173

Hosted URLs are private by default and need their token; add --public for an open link.

How do you stop it and bring it back?

Stopping saves memory and disk and stops billing. Resuming restores memory, so the dev server is still running.

sbx stop
sbx resume

If you resume with a bigger size, such as --type large, the sandbox cold-boots from its disk instead. Learn more in pause and resume.

How do you make copies and templates?

sbx fork current                 # an independent copy
sbx snapshot current web-stack   # save a named template
sbx new --from web-stack         # start new sandboxes from it

A fork copies the disk and boots fresh, without the source's memory. See forking sandboxes.

How do you use it from code?

Create an API key on the dashboard, or with the CLI, and export it as SANDBOXER_API_KEY. Then call the API directly or use an SDK.

sbx api-key create my-app --preset ci
export SANDBOXER_API_KEY=<the key it prints>

curl -sS -X POST https://sandboxer.com/api/v1/sandboxes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SANDBOXER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"type":"default","ttlSeconds":3600}'

The create call returns 202 while the machine boots. The TypeScript and Python SDKs, both published as sandboxer-sdk, wait until ready for you. See SDKs, CLI and API, or connect an agent through the MCP server.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a card to start?

Not to sign up or read the docs. Running sandboxes needs a plan, from $20/month, charged when you subscribe. There is no free trial.

Which sizes can I use?

All four, small, default, large and xlarge, on every plan. Every size is the same machine with the same features.

How fast is a new sandbox ready?

Sandboxer's docs report a median of 0.18 seconds in us-east and 0.32 seconds in eu-central, measured from Virginia on 2026-10-28, and about 1.3 to 2 seconds when no pre-booted sandbox of that size is ready.

How do I keep a sandbox running past one hour?

Run sbx extend with --hours, or create it with --ttl or --no-auto-stop. Auto-stop can be set up to 30 days.