Providers

CUA Provider

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CUA Provider

Read when:

  • evaluating the experimental provider: cua integration;
  • checking CUA SDK, authentication, or account inventory;
  • inspecting an existing CUA sandbox;
  • changing internal/providers/cua.

CUA support is experimental and read-only. Crabbox can run diagnostics, list existing account sandboxes, and inspect an existing sandbox. It cannot create, modify, stop, or delete a CUA sandbox.

The upstream CUA create API does not currently accept an idempotency key or a client-assigned unique identity returned by create, list, and get. If a create succeeds remotely but the client times out before receiving the generated sandbox ID, Crabbox cannot identify or delete the billed resource safely. warmup and every run mode therefore fail closed before the Python bridge or CUA SDK can issue a create request. Deletion is also disabled: the upstream API cannot atomically bind a delete to an immutable sandbox identity, so a verify-then-delete sequence could delete a replacement with the same name. Track both requirements in https://github.com/openclaw/crabbox/issues/381.

#Setup And Doctor

Install the CUA SDK in a Python 3.12 or 3.13 environment. Point cua.bridgeCommand or --cua-bridge-command at that environment's Python executable when it is not the default python3:

python3.13 -m venv ~/.venvs/crabbox-cua
~/.venvs/crabbox-cua/bin/pip install cua
crabbox doctor --provider cua --cua-bridge-command ~/.venvs/crabbox-cua/bin/python --json

The smaller cua-sandbox fallback supports Python 3.11 through 3.13. The doctor result always reports experimental=true and provisioning=false, plus a warning linked to the tracking issue. With credentials configured, doctor verifies them through a read-only inventory request. It does not create, modify, stop, or delete a sandbox.

CUA credentials are passed to the SDK through environment only. Set either CRABBOX_CUA_API_KEY or CUA_API_KEY; the Crabbox-specific name wins when both exist. Crabbox does not store either value in config or accept it on argv. The SDK bridge uses an isolated home directory, so it does not consume credentials from ~/.cua/credentials. It also sets CUA_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false for every diagnostic subprocess. Standard HTTP proxy, no-proxy, and SSL certificate-store environment settings are forwarded to the isolated subprocess; unrelated ambient variables remain excluded.

The API URL is trusted local input only. It can come from --cua-api-url, CRABBOX_CUA_API_URL, or SDK-compatible CUA_BASE_URL. Repository YAML cannot set it. Overrides must use HTTPS, except loopback HTTP for local development, and cannot contain userinfo, query parameters, or fragments. A terminal /v1 is removed because the SDK adds its own API version path.

#Available Commands

These commands are read-only:

crabbox doctor --provider cua --json
crabbox list --provider cua
crabbox status --provider cua --id <existing-cua-sandbox-id>
crabbox status --provider cua --id <claimed-lease-or-slug>

list returns existing CUA account inventory and labels each entry claimed=true|false. status accepts a raw CUA sandbox ID for read-only inspection. Neither command creates a local claim or adopts the resource.

Every run, including run --id <claimed-lease-or-slug>, and every warmup fails with the upstream idempotency guard. stop and cleanup fail with the immutable-identity guard. No flag or config value enables remote mutation.

#Config

provider: cua
target: linux
cua:
  image: ubuntu:24.04
  kind: container
  region: ""
  workdir: /workspace/crabbox
  vcpus: 0
  memoryMB: 0
  diskGB: 0
  startupTimeoutSecs: 0
  execTimeoutSecs: 600
  bridgeCommand: python3
  sdkPackage: cua
  sdkImport: cua
  sdkFallbackImport: cua_sandbox

Image, kind, region, and sizing settings are retained for configuration compatibility and future use after the upstream safety gate is satisfied. They do not enable provisioning.

Provider flags:

--cua-api-url
--cua-image
--cua-kind
--cua-region
--cua-workdir
--cua-vcpus
--cua-memory-mb
--cua-disk-gb
--cua-startup-timeout-secs
--cua-exec-timeout-secs
--cua-bridge-command
--cua-sdk-package
--cua-sdk-import
--cua-sdk-fallback-import

Environment overrides use the matching CRABBOX_CUA_* names. CUA_BASE_URL is also accepted for the API URL. --class and --type are rejected for provider=cua.

#Existing Claims

Crabbox lease IDs use the cuabx_ prefix. Exact claims bound to the normalized API endpoint and a non-secret fingerprint of the current environment credential can label matching inventory as claimed=true. Changing credentials fails closed, even on the same endpoint. Legacy URL-only claims are not adopted. Crabbox never synthesizes a claim from inventory or timestamps, and claims do not enable mutation in this mode.

#Diagnostic Smoke

The CUA smoke is non-mutating and requires no live opt-in:

scripts/live-cua-smoke.sh

It builds a temporary binary, proves that warmup is rejected before the SDK bridge, and runs doctor. Missing SDK or credentials are reported as environment_blocked; a ready diagnostic environment reports diagnostic_only. The smoke never creates a billable resource.

Keep provider tokens out of repository config, command arguments, timing JSON, logs, claim files, and documentation examples.