Deno Sandbox

Deno Sandbox brings instant Linux microVMs to Deno Deploy. Each sandbox boots in under a second, is API driven from the @deno/sandbox SDK, and is torn down as soon as you are done. The result is on-demand compute that feels like opening a terminal, yet ships with production-grade isolation and observability.

What is a Deno Sandbox? Jump to heading#

• Individual Linux microVMs orchestrated by Deno Deploy
• Designed for running untrusted code
• Instantly available; boot times measured in milliseconds
• Ephemeral by default but able to persist beyond the current connection lifetime
• Able to access durable storage via volumes
• Fully API driven: create, run commands, and tear down from code

Ideal use cases Jump to heading#

Deno Sandbox specializes in workloads where code needs to be generated, evaluated, or safely executed on behalf of an untrusted user. They are ideal for:

• AI agents and copilots that need to run code as they reason
• Secure plugin or extension systems
• Vibe-coding and collaborative IDE experiences
• Ephemeral CI runners and smoke tests
• Customer supplied or user generated code paths
• Instant dev servers and preview environments

This is compute built not just for developers, but for software that builds software.

Run real workloads Jump to heading#

Once the Deno Sandbox exists, you get a full Linux environment with files, processes, package managers, and background services:

import { Sandbox } from "@deno/sandbox";
await using sandbox = await Sandbox.create();
await sandbox.sh`ls -lh /`;

from deno_sandbox import DenoDeploy

def main():
  sdk = DenoDeploy()

  with sdk.sandbox.create() as sandbox:
    process = sandbox.spawn("ls", args=["-lh"])
    process.wait()

from deno_sandbox import AsyncDenoDeploy

async def main():
  sdk = AsyncDenoDeploy()

  async with sdk.sandbox.create() as sandbox:
    process = await sandbox.spawn("ls", args=["-lh"])
    await process.wait()

Security policies Jump to heading#

Provision a sandbox so that it can only talk to approved hosts:

await Sandbox.create({
  allowNet: ["google.com"],
});

sdk = AsyncDenoDeploy()

async with sdk.sandboxes.create(allowNet=["google.com"]) as sandbox:
  print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

sdk = DenoDeploy()

with sdk.sandboxes.create(allowNet=["google.com"]) as sandbox:
  print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

Secrets never enter the sandbox environment. The real value is substituted only when the sandbox makes outbound requests to approved hosts.

await Sandbox.create({
  allowNet: ["api.openai.com"],
  secrets: {
    OPENAI_API_KEY: {
      hosts: ["api.openai.com"],
      value: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
    },
  },
});

sdk = AsyncDenoDeploy()

async with sdk.sandboxes.create(
  allowNet=["api.openai.com"],
  secrets={
    "OPENAI_API_KEY": {
      "hosts": ["api.openai.com"],
      "value": os.environ.get("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
    }
  },
) as sandbox:
  print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

sdk = DenoDeploy()

with sdk.sandboxes.create(
  allowNet=["api.openai.com"],
  secrets={
    "OPENAI_API_KEY": {
      "hosts": ["api.openai.com"],
      "value": os.environ.get("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
    }
  },
) as sandbox:
  print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

Built for instant, safe compute Jump to heading#

Developers and AI systems now expect compute that is instant, safe, and globally accessible. Deno Sandbox delivers:

• Instant spin-up with no warm pool to manage
• Dedicated isolation with strict network egress policies
• Full observability alongside Deno Deploy logs and traces
• Region selection, memory sizing, and lifetime controls per sandbox
• Seamless hand-off to Deno Deploy apps when code is production ready

Together, Deno Deploy and Deno Sandbox form a single workflow: code is created, proved safe in a sandbox, and deployed globally without new infrastructure or orchestration layers.

Runtime support Jump to heading#

The Deno Sandbox SDK is tested and supported on:

• Deno: Latest stable version
• Node.js: Version 24+
• Python: >=3.10

You can use Deno Sandbox from any environment that can make outbound HTTPS requests to the Deno Deploy API. The JavaScript SDK is available as @deno/sandbox on both jsr and npm (the JSR package is optimized for Deno usage). The Python SDK is available as deno-sandbox on PyPI. For direct API access, see the REST API documentation.

import { Sandbox } from "@deno/sandbox";

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create();
try {
  // ... use sandbox ...
} finally {
  await sandbox.close();
}

Limits Jump to heading#

Deno Sandbox has the following limits:

• Memory: 768 MB to 4096 MB (1.2GB default) configurable per sandbox
• CPU: 2 vCPU
• Lifetime: Configurable per sandbox and bound to a session, up to 30 minutes
• Disk: 10 GB of ephemeral storage
• Concurrency: 5 concurrent sandboxes per organization (This is the default concurrency limit during the pre-release phase of Deno Sandbox. Contact deploy@deno.com to request a higher limit.)

Exceeding these limits may result in throttling or termination of your sandbox.

Regions Jump to heading#

Regions currently supported are:

• ams - Amsterdam, Netherlands
• ord - Chicago, USA

You can specify the region where the sandbox will be created when creating a new sandbox:

import { Sandbox } from "@deno/sandbox";

await using sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ region: "ams" });

from deno_sandbox import DenoDeploy

def main():
  sdk = DenoDeploy()

  with sdk.sandboxes.create(region="ams") as sandbox:
    print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

from deno_sandbox import AsyncDenoDeploy

async def main():
  sdk = AsyncDenoDeploy()

  async with sdk.sandboxes.create(region="ams") as sandbox:
    print(f"Sandbox {sandbox.id} is ready.")

If not specified, the sandbox will be created in the default region.

Learn more Jump to heading#

Ready to try it? Follow the Getting started guide to create your first sandbox, obtain an access token, and run code on the Deploy edge.