Vercel Sandbox Python SDK

Create and manage Vercel Sandboxes with synchronous and asynchronous APIs.

from vercel import sandbox
from vercel.api import session

async with session():
    async with sandbox.create_sandbox() as instance:
        process = await instance.run_process("echo", ["hello"], capture_output=True)
        print(process.stdout)

The package can be installed independently with pip install vercel-sandbox.

To attach a sandbox to a Secure Compute private network, pass its connect network ID at creation:

async with session():
    instance = await sandbox.create_sandbox(network_id="network_123")
    print(instance.network_id)
    await instance.update(network_id=None)  # Disconnect from Secure Compute

network_id is also accepted by fork_sandbox() and the synchronous APIs.

When no image is provided, the Sandbox API uses vercel/sandbox/universal:latest.

The same promoted API is available synchronously:

from vercel.api import session
from vercel.sandbox import sync as sandbox

with session():
    with sandbox.create_sandbox() as instance:
        process = instance.run_process("echo", ["hello"], capture_output=True)
        print(process.stdout)

Standalone clients

Applications that use dependency injection can create a service-specific client without configuring the ambient vercel.api.session context:

from vercel.sandbox import SandboxClient, SandboxServiceOptions

client = SandboxClient.create(
    options=SandboxServiceOptions(region="iad1"),
)

try:
    async with client.create_sandbox() as instance:
        ...
finally:
    await client.aclose()

Client construction is synchronous and performs no I/O. The client can be stored and shared by application components; the application that creates it must call aclose() during shutdown. The synchronous API follows the same ownership model:

from vercel.sandbox.sync import SandboxServiceOptions, SyncSandboxClient

client = SyncSandboxClient.create(options=SandboxServiceOptions(region="iad1"))
try:
    with client.create_sandbox() as instance:
        ...
finally:
    client.close()

Standalone clients expose the same service operations as their module-level counterparts. They do not read or modify the active SDK session.

Custom images

Create a sandbox from a Vercel Container Registry (VCR) image with the image keyword. The image reference is sent to the Sandbox API unchanged; the backend validates access, resolves the image, and waits for it to be ready.

from vercel import sandbox
from vercel.api import session

async with session():
    async with sandbox.create_sandbox(image="my-repository:latest") as instance:
        result = await instance.run_process("my-command", capture_output=True)
        print(result.stdout)
        print(instance.image)  # The resolved digest-pinned image reference

The same option is available synchronously:

from vercel.api import session
from vercel.sandbox import sync as sandbox

with session():
    with sandbox.create_sandbox(image="my-repository:latest") as instance:
        result = instance.run_process("my-command", capture_output=True)
        print(result.stdout)
        print(instance.image)  # The resolved digest-pinned image reference

Image references may be a bare repository (my-repository), a tagged image (my-repository:latest), a digest-pinned image (my-repository@sha256:<digest>), or a fully qualified VCR reference such as vcr.vercel.com/team-slug/project-slug/my-repository:latest. The backend resolves the selected image, and Sandbox.image contains the resolved image reference.

Installing this package also provides the vercel-sandbox and sandbox console commands. Both are aliases that delegate all arguments to npx sandbox; they require Node.js with npm and npx installed. Node.js is not required when using the Python API directly.

Creating, forking, and restoring

Create a sandbox from a runtime, Git repository, tarball, or snapshot with create_sandbox(...). A snapshot source restores that snapshot's filesystem into a new sandbox:

from vercel import sandbox
from vercel.sandbox import SnapshotSource

restored = await sandbox.create_sandbox(
    name="restored-workspace",
    source=SnapshotSource(snapshot_id="snap_123"),
)

Use fork_sandbox(...) when the source is an existing named sandbox. The server restores the fork from the source's current snapshot, or from its runtime or image when no snapshot exists. It also copies the source's ports, execution time limit, resources, image, persistence, network policy, environment variables, tags, snapshot expiration, and snapshot retention. Only pass values that should override the inherited configuration:

forked = await sandbox.fork_sandbox(
    source_sandbox="production-agent",
    name="debug-agent",
    resources=sandbox.SandboxResources(vcpus=4, memory=8192),
    tags={"purpose": "debug"},
)

Both creation and fork operations can be used as async context managers for automatic stop and destroy. The synchronous mirror uses the same arguments:

from vercel.sandbox import sync as sandbox

with sandbox.fork_sandbox(source_sandbox="production-agent") as forked:
    result = forked.run_process("python", ["script.py"], capture_output=True)

Sandbox Drives

Sandbox Drives are named persistent filesystems. A Drive belongs to one project and one region. Create or retrieve a Drive, then mount it when you create a sandbox:

from pathlib import PurePosixPath

from vercel import sandbox
from vercel.sandbox import DriveMount

cache, _ = await sandbox.get_or_create_drive(
    name="cache",
    region="sfo1",
    max_size_bytes=10 * 1024**3,
)
async with sandbox.create_sandbox(
    region=cache.region,
    mounts={
        # Mount a read-write drive
        "/cache": cache,
        # You can mount an existing drive by name as a point-in-time read-only snapshot
        "/readonly": DriveMount("shared-source", mode="snapshot"),
        # You can also provide a PurePosixPath as the mount point
        PurePosixPath("/scratch"): "scratch",
    },
) as workspace:
    print(cache.id)
    print(workspace.mounts)

await cache.delete()

Drives must be unmounted from any running Sandbox before they are able to be deleted. You can either call the delete method on the Drive handle, or use the delete_drive(name=...) function to delete a drive by name if you do not have a drive handle already.

By default, a Drive handle or Drive name mounts it read-write. Use drive.snapshot() or DriveMount(name, mode="snapshot") for a point-in-time read-only mount.

Forks cannot inherit the source sandbox's mounts. Pass a non-empty mapping to attach Drives explicitly to the fork. A read-write Drive still attached to another sandbox causes the API to return 409 drive_attached.

Use query_drives(...) with DriveQueryByCreatedAt, DriveQueryByUpdatedAt, or DriveQueryByName to list Drives in a project. get_or_create_sandbox(..., mounts=...) uses mounts only when it creates or recreates the sandbox. If the sandbox already exists, the call leaves its mounts unchanged. Use await box.update(mounts=...) to replace the mount map for the next session. Pass None to leave mounts unchanged or {} to remove all mounts.

The SDK canonicalizes repeated slashes, trailing slashes, and . components. Paths must be absolute and non-overlapping. They cannot contain .. or NUL characters, target /, or exceed 256 characters after canonicalization. Each Drive name may appear only once. Mounted sandboxes cannot use failover regions, and each Drive must use the sandbox region. Drives default to iad1 when region is omitted.

Session lifecycles

Sandbox-level process and filesystem operations resume a stopped sandbox lazily. The original sandbox handle adopts the replacement current session:

box = await sandbox.get_sandbox(name="workspace")
result = await box.run_process("python", ["script.py"])

Use box.session() when the session boundary should be explicit. Direct acquisition leaves the acquired session running, while managed acquisition stops exactly the session it yielded:

active = await box.session()

async with box.session() as exact_session:
    await exact_session.run_process("python", ["script.py"])

The synchronous forms are active = box.session() and with box.session() as exact_session:. Operations through an explicit session remain pinned to its identity and never auto-resume. Operations through box may adopt a replacement; that replacement is not stopped by an older managed session scope.

Managed sandbox and session exit does not wait for concurrent operations. Callers must join sandbox work before leaving a context when deterministic cleanup is required.