Vercel Sandbox

Vercel Sandbox allows you to run arbitrary code in isolated, ephemeral Linux VMs. View the documentation here.

Packages

• @vercel/sandbox - The SDK for programmatic access to Vercel Sandbox. Source | Documentation
• sandbox - The CLI for interacting with Vercel Sandbox from the command line. Source | Documentation

What is a sandbox?

A sandbox is an isolated Linux system for your experimentation and use. Internally, it is a Firecracker MicroVM that is powered by the same infrastructure that powers 2M+ builds a day at Vercel.

Getting started

To get started using Ubuntu with Node.js 24, create a new project:

mkdir my-sandbox-app && cd my-sandbox-app
npm init -y
vercel link

Pull your authentication token:

vercel env pull

Install the Sandbox SDK:

pnpm i @vercel/sandbox

Install the Sandbox Skill:

npx skills add vercel/sandbox

Create a index.mts file:

import { Sandbox } from "@vercel/sandbox";
import { setTimeout } from "timers/promises";
import { spawn } from "child_process";

async function main() {
  const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({
    source: {
      url: "https://github.com/vercel/sandbox-example-next.git",
      type: "git",
    },
    resources: { vcpus: 4 },
    ports: [3000],
  });

  console.log(`Installing dependencies...`);
  const install = await sandbox.runCommand({
    cmd: "npm",
    args: ["install", "--loglevel", "info"],
    cwd: "sandbox-example-next",
    stderr: process.stderr,
    stdout: process.stdout,
  });

  if (install.exitCode != 0) {
    console.log("installing packages failed");
    process.exit(1);
  }

  console.log(`Starting the development server...`);
  await sandbox.runCommand({
    cmd: "npm",
    args: ["run", "dev"],
    cwd: "sandbox-example-next",
    stderr: process.stderr,
    stdout: process.stdout,
    detached: true,
  });

  await setTimeout(500);
  spawn("open", [sandbox.domain(3000)]);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Run it:

node --experimental-strip-types --env-file .env.local index.mts

This will:

• Start a sandbox, seeding it with a git repository.
• Install dependencies.
• Run a next dev server
• Open it in your browser

All while streaming logs to your local terminal.

Authentication

Vercel OIDC token

The SDK uses Vercel OIDC tokens to authenticate whenever available. This is the most straightforward and recommended way to authenticate.

When developing locally, you can download a development token to .env.local using vercel env pull. After 12 hours the development token expires, meaning you will have to call vercel env pull again.

In production, Vercel manages token expiration for you.

Access token

If you want to use the SDK from an environment where VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN is unavailable, you can also authenticate using an access token:

• Go to your team settings, and copy the team ID.
• Go to a project's settings, and copy the project ID.
• Go to your Vercel account settings and create a token. Make sure it is scoped to the team ID from the previous step.

Set your team ID, project ID, and token to the environment variables VERCEL_TEAM_ID, VERCEL_PROJECT_ID, and VERCEL_TOKEN. Then pass these to the create method:

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({
  teamId: process.env.VERCEL_TEAM_ID!,
  projectId: process.env.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID!,
  token: process.env.VERCEL_TOKEN!,
  source: {
    url: "https://github.com/vercel/sandbox-example-next.git",
    type: "git",
  },
  resources: { vcpus: 4 },
  // Defaults to 5 minutes. The maximum is 24 hours for Pro/Enterprise, and 45 minutes for Hobby.
  timeout: ms("5m"),
  ports: [3000],
});

Workflow DevKit integration

Sandbox and CommandFinished support serialization with the Workflow DevKit. When a sandbox instance crosses a step boundary the SDK serializes sandbox metadata and routes, then rehydrates synchronously from that snapshot. Deserialized instances lazily recreate an API client using OIDC or environment credentials when needed.

Limitations

• Max resources: 8 vCPUs on Hobby/Pro, 32 vCPUs on Enterprise. You will get 2048 MB of memory per vCPU.
• Sandboxes have a maximum duration of 24 hours for Pro/Enterprise and 45 minutes for Hobby, with a default of 5 minutes. This can be configured using the timeout option of Sandbox.create().

Sudo access

The default image allows users to run commands as root. This can be used to install packages and system tools:

import { Sandbox } from "@vercel/sandbox";

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create();
await sandbox.runCommand({
  cmd: "apt-get",
  args: ["update"],
  sudo: true,
});
await sandbox.runCommand({
  cmd: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "golang-go"],
  sudo: true,
});

Sandbox runs sudo in the following configuration:

• HOME is set to /root – Executed commands will source root's configuration files (e.g. .gitconfig, .bashrc, etc).
• Environment variables are not reset before executing the command.
• PATH is left unchanged – sudo won't change the value of PATH, so local or project-specific binaries will still be found.

The skill provides comprehensive guidance on using the @vercel/sandbox SDK, including code patterns, best practices, and API reference.

Default image

Sandboxes use vercel/sandbox/universal:latest by default. This Ubuntu-based image includes Node.js 24, Bun, Python 3.14, coding agents, and common development and debugging utilities. It runs as the ubuntu user with passwordless sudo.

Vercel Managed Images

Vercel provides several public images optimized to use in Sandbox. The Dockerfiles for Vercel Managed Images published under vercel/sandbox/* live in images/:

• vercel/sandbox/universal:latest: Default image with Node.js, Python, coding agents, and utilities.
• vercel/sandbox/node:22|24|26: Node.js with pnpm.
• vercel/sandbox/python:3.14: Python with pip, venv, and uv.
• vercel/sandbox/ubuntu:latest: Minimal Ubuntu base.
• vercel/sandbox/arch:latest: Arch Linux with yay/AUR support.

See the images README for build instructions.

Custom images

A sandbox can boot from any OCI image by pushing it to Vercel Container Registry (VCR) and passing image to Sandbox.create().

Build and push a linux/amd64 image to VCR:

vercel vcr login docker
vercel vcr build docker . my-repository:latest --push

The CLI uses the linked project, defaults to linux/amd64, and constructs the full VCR reference automatically.

VCR implements the Docker Registry API, so any OCI compatible tooling can also be used, such as buildah or podman.

Then start a sandbox from it:

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({
  image: "my-repository:latest",
});

See the images documentation for more details.

Authors

This library is created by Vercel team members, with contributions from the Open Source Community welcome and highly appreciated.