Shell

This page describes local sandboxes. For cloud behavior and limitations, see Compare local and cloud sandboxes.

sbx run shell drops you into a Bash login shell inside a sandbox with no pre-installed agent binary. It's useful for installing and configuring agents manually, testing custom implementations, or inspecting a running environment.

$ sbx run shell ~/my-project

sbx run defaults the workspace to the current directory. To run a one-off command instead of an interactive shell, pass it after --:

$ sbx run shell -- -c "echo 'Hello from sandbox'"

To create a mountless sandbox, use sbx create without a workspace path, then attach by name:

$ sbx create --name scratch shell
$ sbx run --name scratch

Default startup command

Without extra args, the sandbox runs bash -l. When the first argument after -- is a flag (begins with -), it's added after -l, so login-shell behavior is preserved:

$ sbx run shell -- -c "echo hi"   # runs bash -l -c "echo hi"

When the first argument is a bare word, it replaces -l instead.

Store credentials using stored secrets before running the sandbox. The proxy injects them into outbound API requests; credentials are never stored inside the VM:

$ sbx secret set anthropic
$ sbx secret set openai

Once inside the shell, you can install agents using their standard methods, for example npm install -g @continuedev/cli. For complex setups, build a workload kit instead of installing interactively each time.

Base image

The shell sandbox uses the shell base image — the common base environment without a pre-installed agent.