Features

E2B

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E2B

Read when:

  • choosing provider: e2b;
  • reviewing delegated sandbox execution behavior;
  • changing E2B provider sync, status, or command streaming.

provider: e2b delegates Linux sandbox lifecycle and command execution to E2B. Crabbox creates E2B sandboxes with Crabbox metadata, syncs the local Git-managed working set as a gzipped archive, and streams remote command output through E2B's process API.

#Auth

export E2B_API_KEY=e2b_...

Optional overrides:

export E2B_API_URL=https://api.e2b.app
export E2B_DOMAIN=e2b.app

#Config

provider: e2b
target: linux
e2b:
  template: base
  workdir: crabbox
  user: ""

Relative e2b.workdir values resolve inside the selected E2B user's home. The default user home is /home/user, user: ubuntu resolves under /home/ubuntu, and user: root resolves under /root. Absolute workdirs are used as-is. e2b.user must be a login name, not a path; values such as ../tmp or team/dev are rejected before sandbox or process calls.

Equivalent one-off flags:

crabbox warmup --provider e2b --e2b-template base
crabbox run --provider e2b --e2b-workdir repo -- pnpm test
crabbox status --provider e2b --id <slug>
crabbox stop --provider e2b <slug>

#Behavior

  • warmup creates an E2B sandbox from e2b.template, stores Crabbox metadata,

    • and records a local cbx_... lease claim.

  • run creates or reuses a sandbox, syncs the manifest into

    • <e2b user home>/<e2b.workdir> unless the workdir is absolute, streams stdout/stderr, and returns the remote exit code.

  • --sync-only performs only the archive upload and extraction.
  • Workdirs must resolve to dedicated absolute directories. Broad roots such as

    • /, /home, and /tmp are rejected before sandbox creation or sync touches the sandbox filesystem.

  • --checksum is rejected because E2B does not expose a Crabbox SSH target.
  • --script, --script-stdin, --fresh-pr, local captures,

    • --capture-on-fail, and --download are rejected because E2B owns command transport.

  • --keep-on-failure keeps a newly created failed sandbox until its timeout

    • instead of deleting it immediately.

  • list, status, and stop operate only on Crabbox-owned E2B sandboxes.

E2B is not an SSH lease backend today. Commands that require a Crabbox SSH target, such as ssh, vnc, code, and Actions runner hydration, should use Hetzner, AWS, static SSH, or Daytona instead.