Shell

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

The workspace path defaults 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'"

Default startup command

Without extra args, the sandbox runs bash -l. Args after -- replace -l rather than being appended. To preserve login-shell behavior, include -l yourself:

$ sbx run shell -- -l -c "echo hi"

Set your API keys as environment variables so the sandbox proxy can inject them into API requests automatically. Credentials are never stored inside the VM:

$ export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxxx
$ export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxxxx

Once inside the shell, you can install agents using their standard methods, for example npm install -g @continuedev/cli. For complex setups, build a custom template 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.