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System

Common Software

The sandbox runs a Debian/Ubuntu base image. You can install software with apt-get via the Process API or by customizing your Docker image. This page covers commonly needed packages and how to install them.

Browsers

Section titled “Browsers”

Chromium

Section titled “Chromium”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "chromium", "chromium-sandbox"],
});


// Launch headless
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "chromium",
  args: ["--headless", "--no-sandbox", "--disable-gpu", "https://example.com"],
});

Firefox

Section titled “Firefox”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "firefox-esr"],
});

Playwright browsers

Section titled “Playwright browsers”

Playwright bundles its own browser binaries. Install the Playwright CLI and let it download browsers for you.

await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "npx",
  args: ["playwright", "install", "--with-deps", "chromium"],
});

Languages and runtimes

Section titled “Languages and runtimes”

Node.js

Section titled “Node.js”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "nodejs", "npm"],
});

For a specific version, use nvm:

await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash && . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install 22"],
});

Python

Section titled “Python”

Python 3 is typically pre-installed. To add pip and common packages:

await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "python3", "python3-pip", "python3-venv"],
});


await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "pip3",
  args: ["install", "numpy", "pandas", "matplotlib"],
});

Go

Section titled “Go”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "curl -fsSL https://go.dev/dl/go1.23.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar -C /usr/local -xz"],
});


// Add to PATH for subsequent commands
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin && go version"],
});

Rust

Section titled “Rust”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y"],
});

Java (OpenJDK)

Section titled “Java (OpenJDK)”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "default-jdk"],
});

Ruby

Section titled “Ruby”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "ruby-full"],
});

Databases

Section titled “Databases”

PostgreSQL

Section titled “PostgreSQL”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "postgresql", "postgresql-client"],
});


// Start the service
const proc = await sdk.createProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "su - postgres -c 'pg_ctlcluster 15 main start'"],
});

SQLite

Section titled “SQLite”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "sqlite3"],
});

Redis

Section titled “Redis”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "redis-server"],
});


const proc = await sdk.createProcess({
  command: "redis-server",
  args: ["--daemonize", "no"],
});

MySQL / MariaDB

Section titled “MySQL / MariaDB”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "mariadb-server", "mariadb-client"],
});

Build tools

Section titled “Build tools”

Essential build toolchain

Section titled “Essential build toolchain”

Most compiled software needs the standard build toolchain:

await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "build-essential", "cmake", "pkg-config"],
});

This installs gcc, g++, make, cmake, and related tools.

Desktop applications

Section titled “Desktop applications”

These require the Computer Use desktop to be started first.

LibreOffice

Section titled “LibreOffice”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "libreoffice"],
});

GIMP

Section titled “GIMP”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "gimp"],
});

VLC

Section titled “VLC”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "vlc"],
});

VS Code (code-server)

Section titled “VS Code (code-server)”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh"],
});


const proc = await sdk.createProcess({
  command: "code-server",
  args: ["--bind-addr", "0.0.0.0:8080", "--auth", "none"],
});

CLI tools

Section titled “CLI tools”

Git

Section titled “Git”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "git"],
});

Docker

Section titled “Docker”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "bash",
  args: ["-c", "curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh"],
});

jq

Section titled “jq”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "jq"],
});

tmux

Section titled “tmux”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "tmux"],
});

Media and graphics

Section titled “Media and graphics”

FFmpeg

Section titled “FFmpeg”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "ffmpeg"],
});

ImageMagick

Section titled “ImageMagick”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "imagemagick"],
});

Poppler (PDF utilities)

Section titled “Poppler (PDF utilities)”
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "apt-get",
  args: ["install", "-y", "poppler-utils"],
});


// Convert PDF to images
await sdk.runProcess({
  command: "pdftoppm",
  args: ["-png", "document.pdf", "output"],
});

Pre-installing in a Docker image

Section titled “Pre-installing in a Docker image”

For production use, install software in your Dockerfile instead of at runtime. This avoids repeated downloads and makes startup faster.

FROM ubuntu:22.04


RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    chromium \
    firefox-esr \
    nodejs npm \
    python3 python3-pip \
    git curl wget \
    build-essential \
    sqlite3 \
    ffmpeg \
    imagemagick \
    jq \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*


RUN pip3 install numpy pandas matplotlib

See Docker deployment for how to use custom images with Sandbox Agent.