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DAIV Sandbox

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What is daiv-sandbox?

daiv-sandbox is a FastAPI application designed to securely execute arbitrary commands within a controlled environment. Each execution is isolated in a transient Docker container ensuring a clean and secure execution space. It is designed to be used as a bash commands executor for DAIV.

This is very useful to increase the capabilities of an AI agent with bash commands execution capabilities. For instance, you can use it to apply formatting changes to a repository codebase like running black, isort, ruff, prettier, or update dependencies, lock files, etc...

To enhance security, daiv-sandbox leverages gVisor as its container runtime. This provides an additional layer of protection by restricting the running code's ability to interact with the host system, thereby minimizing the risk of sandbox escape.

While gVisor significantly improves security, it may introduce some performance overhead due to its additional isolation mechanisms. This trade-off is generally acceptable for applications prioritizing security over raw execution speed.

Getting Started

daiv-sandbox is available as a Docker image on GitHub Container Registry.

You can run the container using the following command:

$ docker run --rm -d -p 8000:8000 -e DAIV_SANDBOX_API_KEY=my-secret-api-key ghcr.io/srtab/daiv-sandbox:latest

You can also configure the container using environment variables. See the Configuration section for more details.

For usage examples, see the Usage section.

Security (Optional)

To enhance security, daiv-sandbox can be used with gVisor as its container runtime. This provides an additional layer of protection by restricting the running code's ability to interact with the host system, thereby minimizing the risk of sandbox escape.

To benefit from this additional layer of protection, you need to install gVisor on the host machine. Follow the instructions here and here. You will need to configure gVisor with a shared root filesystem to allow daiv-sandbox copy files to the container, see the gVisor documentation for more details.

Tip

If you're getting an error "overlay flag is incompatible with shared file access for rootfs", you need to add --overlay2=none flag to the gVisor configuration.

After installing gVisor, you need to define the DAIV_SANDBOX_RUNTIME environment variable to use runsc when running the container:

$ docker run --rm -d -p 8000:8000 -e DAIV_SANDBOX_API_KEY=my-secret-api-key -e DAIV_SANDBOX_RUNTIME=runsc ghcr.io/srtab/daiv-sandbox:latest

Configuration

All settings are configurable via environment variables. The available settings are:

Environment Variable Description Options/Default
DAIV_SANDBOX_API_KEY The API key required to access the sandbox API.
DAIV_SANDBOX_API_V1_STR Base path for API routes. Default: "/api/v1"
DAIV_SANDBOX_ENVIRONMENT The deployment environment. Options: local, production
Default: "production"
DAIV_SANDBOX_SENTRY_DSN The DSN for Sentry error tracking. Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_SENTRY_ENABLE_LOGS Whether to enable Sentry log forwarding. Default: False
DAIV_SANDBOX_SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE Sentry traces sampling rate. Default: 0.0
DAIV_SANDBOX_SENTRY_PROFILES_SAMPLE_RATE Sentry profiles sampling rate. Default: 0.0
DAIV_SANDBOX_SENTRY_SEND_DEFAULT_PII Send default PII to Sentry. Default: False
DAIV_SANDBOX_RUNTIME The container runtime to use. Options: runc, runsc
Default: "runc"
DAIV_SANDBOX_RUN_UID UID for sandbox command execution. Default: 1000
DAIV_SANDBOX_RUN_GID GID for sandbox command execution. Default: 1000
DAIV_SANDBOX_NETWORK Upstream Docker network the egress sidecar's NIC joins for outbound connectivity; falls back to Docker's default bridge when unset. The sandbox is never attached to it directly — a session that carries an egress block reaches the internet only through the proxy. A session created without an egress block stays isolated (network_mode=none). Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_IMAGE Docker image for the mitmproxy sidecar. Default: ghcr.io/srtab/daiv-sandbox-egress:latest
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_PORT Port the sidecar proxy listens on. Default: 8080
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_RUNTIME Container runtime for the sidecar. The sidecar runs trusted code and stays on runc by default even when sandboxes use runsc. Options: runc, runsc
Default: "runc"
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_NETWORK Egress-side Docker network the sidecar's upstream NIC joins. Falls back to DAIV_SANDBOX_NETWORK, then Docker's default bridge. Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_MEMORY_BYTES Memory limit for the sidecar container (bytes). Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_PROXY_CPUS CPU quota for the sidecar container. Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_CERT_FILE Path to the shared egress CA certificate. Installed into every egress sandbox automatically. Required to enable network egress; set both or neither. Required to enable network egress (set both, or neither)
DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_KEY_FILE Path to the shared egress CA private key. Provided only to sidecars, never to the sandbox. Required to enable network egress; set both or neither. Required to enable network egress (set both, or neither)
DAIV_SANDBOX_FS_PRUNE_DIRS Comma-separated directory basenames/globs pruned by default from fs/glob/fs/grep (caches/metadata/build output). Excludes dependency-source dirs so agents can read deps. Setting this replaces the baseline entirely. Default: .git,__pycache__,…
DAIV_SANDBOX_COMMAND_TIMEOUT Default per-command timeout in seconds. 0 disables the default. Overridable per request via timeout. Default: 0
DAIV_SANDBOX_REDIS_URL Redis URL used for cross-replica per-session locking. When unset, an in-process lock is used. Optional
DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_LOCK_TTL_SECONDS TTL (seconds) of the per-session lock when Redis-backed. Default: 900
DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_LOCK_WAIT_SECONDS Max time (seconds) a request waits to acquire a busy session lock before returning 409. Should comfortably outlast a typical op so a client's concurrently-dispatched ops queue instead of failing, while staying under the client's request timeout. Default: 30.0
DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_LOCK_REFRESH_SECONDS Interval (seconds) at which a held session lock is refreshed. Default: 30.0
DAIV_SANDBOX_REAPER_ENABLED Enable the background reaper that removes stopped session containers. Default: true
DAIV_SANDBOX_REAPER_INTERVAL_SECONDS Reaper sweep cadence in seconds. Default: 600
DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_GRACE_SECONDS Age (since stop) after which a stopped session container is removed. Default: 43200 (12h)
DAIV_SANDBOX_MAX_STOPPED_SESSIONS LRU cap on retained stopped session containers. Default: 50
DAIV_SANDBOX_RUNNING_SESSION_MAX_IDLE_SECONDS Age (since the last request touched it) after which a running session container is removed. Requires DAIV_SANDBOX_REDIS_URL; 0 disables. Default: 14400 (4h)
DAIV_SANDBOX_STOP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS docker stop grace before SIGKILL when stopping a session. Default: 2
DAIV_SANDBOX_HOST The host to bind the service to. Default: "0.0.0.0"
DAIV_SANDBOX_PORT The port to bind the service to. Default: 8000
DAIV_SANDBOX_LOG_LEVEL The log level to use. Options: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL
Default: "INFO"

Usage

daiv-sandbox provides a REST API to interact with. Here is a quick overview of the available endpoints:

  • POST /session/: Start a sandbox session.
  • POST /session/{session_id}/seed/: Seed the initial /workspace/repo and/or /workspace/skills state from tar archives (one-shot per session).
  • POST /session/{session_id}/fs/{op}: Python-free file operations across /workspace (ls, read, grep, glob, write, edit, delete).
  • POST /session/{session_id}/: Run commands on the sandbox session.
  • GET /session/{session_id}/: Check session status — 204 if it exists (restarting it if stopped), else 404.
  • DELETE /session/{session_id}/: Close the sandbox session (stops the container by default; ?force=true removes it).
  • PUT /session/{session_id}/egress/: Refresh an egress session's policy and secrets without recreating the container (204 success / 404 no session / 409 session has no egress proxy / 422 invalid policy body / 503 proxy sidecar not running, retryable).
  • GET /-/health/: Healthcheck endpoint.
  • GET /-/version/: Current application version.

Starting a Sandbox Session

To start a sandbox session, you need to call the POST /session/ endpoint. A Docker image is pulled from the registry and used to create the sandbox container.

After the image is pulled, the container is created and started.

Here is an example using curl:

$ curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: notsosecret" \
  -d "{\"base_image\": \"python:3.12\"}" \
  http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/

The response will be a JSON object with the following structure containing the session ID:

{
  "session_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
}

The following table describes the parameters for the session/ endpoint:

Parameter Description Required Valid Values
base_image The base image to use for the container. Yes Any valid Docker image
egress Egress policy block. When present, the session is routed through the per-session egress proxy with the given policy; omit for an isolated sandbox (network_mode=none). No Egress policy object (see Network Egress Proxy)
environment Environment variables to set at container start. No Object of string pairs
memory_bytes Memory limit for the container (bytes). No Integer (bytes)
cpus CPU quota for the container. No Float (e.g. 0.5, 1.0)

Note

For security reasons, building images from arbitrary Dockerfiles is not supported by this service. Provide a base_image.

Warning

The base_image need to be a distro image. Distroless images will not work as there is no shell available in the container to maintain the image running indefinitely.

Here is an example using python:

import httpx

response = httpx.post(
    "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/", headers={"X-API-Key": "notsosecret"}, json={"base_image": "python:3.12"}
)

response.raise_for_status()
resp = response.json()

print(resp["session_id"])

Seeding a Session

A freshly-started session has empty /workspace/repo and /workspace/skills directories. Before running commands or operating on files, seed the workspace by calling POST /session/{session_id}/seed/ with one or both archives as multipart/form-data fields. repo_archive is extracted into /workspace/repo (e.g. a repository snapshot) and skills_archive is extracted into /workspace/skills (auxiliary tooling, prompts, etc.).

Both fields are optional individually, but at least one must be provided — a request with neither returns 422. Seeding is one-shot per session — a second call returns 409 Conflict.

Archives may be plain tar or compressed with gzip, bzip2, xz, or zstd; the compression is auto-detected. They are sanitised and streamed into the container without being fully buffered in memory.

Parameter Description Required Valid Values
repo_archive Tar archive that becomes the initial state of /workspace/repo. At least one of tar (optionally gz/bz2/xz/zst)
skills_archive Tar archive that becomes the initial state of /workspace/skills. repo_archive or tar (optionally gz/bz2/xz/zst)
skills_archive
$ curl -X POST \
  -H "X-API-Key: notsosecret" \
  -F "repo_archive=@django-webhooks-master.tar.gz" \
  -F "skills_archive=@skills.tar.gz" \
  http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000/seed/

The response is an empty body with status 204.

Workspace File Operations

To inspect or modify files without spawning a shell, use the POST /session/{session_id}/fs/{op} endpoints. They operate anywhere under /workspace (repo/, skills/, tmp/) and are Python-free — content moves via the Docker archive API and search/listing uses POSIX grep/find/ls/rm, so they work even on base images without a Python interpreter (e.g. alpine).

Op Body Returns
ls {path} directory entries + error?
read {path, offset?, limit?} utf-8 text or base64 binary + error?
grep {pattern, path, glob?, exclude?} literal-substring matches + error?
glob {pattern, path, exclude?} paths matching the glob + error?
write {path, content, mode?} {ok, error?}
edit {path, old, new, replace_all?} {occurrences, error?}
delete {path} {ok, removed, error?}

path must be absolute and under /workspace; the file ops (write/edit/read/delete) target a file, while the directory ops (ls/grep/glob) may also target the /workspace root itself. content is base64-encoded.

fs/grep and fs/glob prune common cache/build directories by default (configurable via DAIV_SANDBOX_FS_PRUNE_DIRS) so results aren't swamped by .git, __pycache__, .ruff_cache, target, obj, and similar tooling artifacts. Dependency source directories (node_modules, .venv, vendor, packages) are not pruned by default so an agent can still read dependency implementations; pass exclude (e.g. ["node_modules"]) to prune them per request. Prune matching is by directory basename at any depth, so a glob pattern that descends into a pruned directory returns nothing.

Every response carries an error field with the shape {code, message} when the operation fails — null on success. code is one of the stable FsErrorCode values:

Code Meaning
invalid_path Path is malformed (.., NUL, newline) or outside /workspace.
not_found Path does not exist (distinct from an empty directory / no-match).
not_a_directory ls or glob was called on a file path.
is_a_directory read, edit, or delete was called on a directory path.
not_a_text_file edit target is not valid UTF-8 text.
string_not_found edit found no occurrence of old.
multiple_occurrences edit found more than one occurrence and replace_all was not set.
already_exists write target already exists (create-only).
too_large Content exceeds the 512 KB read cap.
invalid_offset read offset is beyond the file length.
permission_denied Filesystem permission error inside the container.
exec_failed The underlying shell command failed unexpectedly.

fs/delete additionally returns a removed boolean: true if the file was deleted, false if it was already absent.

fs/ls, fs/grep, and fs/glob return HTTP 200 with error.code=invalid_path for malformed paths (no longer 400), keeping all fs ops consistent: HTTP status codes are reserved for session/transport concerns (404 missing session, 409 lock, 503 infra, 403 auth).

read has a few additional behaviors: an empty file returns a human-readable sentinel string (with encoding: "utf-8"); an offset beyond the file length returns an error; a single response is capped at 512000 bytes — a larger text page is truncated with a marker (continue with a larger offset/smaller limit), and a binary file over the cap returns an error rather than a base64 blob.

A successful text read also reports its line window, so a paging client never has to re-derive one by counting the returned text — which would also count the truncation marker's lines. total_lines is the file's total source lines, end_line is the 1-indexed last complete line in content, and truncated is true when the byte cap cut the body. When the cap lands mid-line the text past end_line is a partial line, so resuming at end_line re-reads it whole; a single line longer than the cap yields no complete line at all, and end_line equals the request's offset. Binary reads, the empty-file sentinel, and every error leave total_lines/end_line at null and truncated at false.

The sandbox is the single source of truth: edits under /workspace/repo (via bash or fs/*) land directly on the container's workspace, while skills/ and tmp/ stay container-local.

Path confinement is lexical. The path validator rejects .. traversal, NUL, and newlines and requires the path to be under /workspace, but it does not resolve symlinks. Code executed in the container (via POST /session/{id}/) can create a symlink under /workspace pointing elsewhere, which fs/read would then follow. This grants no capability beyond running commands in the container — the container (gVisor / non-root) is the trust boundary, not the /workspace prefix.

$ curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: notsosecret" \
  -d '{"path": "/workspace/repo/hello.txt", "content": "aGVsbG8=", "mode": 420}' \
  http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000/fs/write
{ "ok": true, "error": null }

Running Commands

To run commands on a sandbox session, call POST /session/{session_id}/ using the session ID returned when starting the session. Commands execute against the container's persistent /workspace/repo workspace, which carries state across calls in the same session (seed → file ops → commands → more commands…).

By default, all commands are executed sequentially regardless of their exit codes. Set fail_fast to true to stop on the first non-zero exit code. Pipelines run with pipefail, so a failing stage in cmd1 | cmd2 correctly propagates a non-zero exit code.

Set timeout (seconds) to cap each command's wall-clock time. A command that exceeds the timeout is terminated with exit code 124 and any remaining commands in the request are skipped. Omitting timeout falls back to the server default (DAIV_SANDBOX_COMMAND_TIMEOUT, 0 = no timeout).

Commands mutate the container workspace in place. To recover the changes made during a session, run git (or any diff tool) inside /workspace/repo — e.g. git diff / git status — through this same endpoint; the workspace is the single source of truth.

Parameter Description Required Valid Values
commands The commands to execute. Yes List of strings
fail_fast Stop execution if any command fails. No true or false (default: false)
timeout Per-command timeout in seconds. Overrides DAIV_SANDBOX_COMMAND_TIMEOUT. 0 = no timeout. No Integer ≥ 0

Here is an example using curl:

$ curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: notsosecret" \
  -d '{"commands": ["ls -la"], "fail_fast": true, "timeout": 60}' \
  http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000/

The response will be a JSON object with the following structure:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "command": "ls -la",
      "output": "total 12\ndrwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 20 20:28 .\ndrwxrwxrwt 1 root root 4096 Nov 20 20:28 ..\ndrwxrwxr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 14 14:39 django-webhooks-master\n",
      "exit_code": 0
    }
  ]
}

Here is an example using python that seeds a session and then runs commands:

import io
import tarfile

import httpx

API = "http://localhost:8000/api/v1"
HEADERS = {"X-API-Key": "notsosecret"}

# 1. Start a session.
session_id = (
    httpx
    .post(f"{API}/session/", headers=HEADERS, json={"base_image": "python:3.12"})
    .raise_for_status()
    .json()["session_id"]
)

# 2. Seed /workspace/repo (and optionally /workspace/skills) from tar archives via multipart upload.
tarstream = io.BytesIO()
with tarfile.open(fileobj=tarstream, mode="w:gz") as tar:
    # Add files to tar...
    pass
tarstream.seek(0)
httpx.post(
    f"{API}/session/{session_id}/seed/",
    headers=HEADERS,
    files={"repo_archive": ("repo.tar.gz", tarstream, "application/gzip")},
).raise_for_status()

# 3. Run commands. Changes mutate the container workspace in place.
resp = (
    httpx
    .post(
        f"{API}/session/{session_id}/", headers=HEADERS, json={"commands": ["ls -la"], "fail_fast": True, "timeout": 60}
    )
    .raise_for_status()
    .json()
)

print(resp["results"][0]["output"])

Note

When DAIV_SANDBOX_REDIS_URL is set, requests against the same session are serialised across replicas. A request that cannot acquire the per-session lock within DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_LOCK_WAIT_SECONDS returns 409 Conflict.

Closing a Sandbox Session

To close a sandbox session, you need to call the DELETE /session/{session_id}/ endpoint using the session ID returned when starting the session.

DELETE /session/{id}/ stops the container (kept warm for reuse); pass ?force=true to remove it immediately. A background reaper removes stopped containers after DAIV_SANDBOX_SESSION_GRACE_SECONDS (default 12h) or once the DAIV_SANDBOX_MAX_STOPPED_SESSIONS LRU cap is exceeded. A session left running because its close never arrived is removed once it has been idle for DAIV_SANDBOX_RUNNING_SESSION_MAX_IDLE_SECONDS (default 4h). A request in flight holds the session lock, and each operation refreshes the idle timer when it finishes as well as when it starts, so a long-running command is not interrupted.

$ curl -X DELETE \
  -H "X-API-Key: notsosecret" \
  http://localhost:8000/api/v1/session/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000/

The response will be an empty body with a status code of 204.

Tip

Why closing a sandbox session is important? By default it stops the container so the next turn can reuse it warm; the background reaper later removes it to free resources. Pass ?force=true to remove it right away.

Network Egress Proxy

Sessions that carry an egress block on POST /session/ are built as a triad. Egress is enabled by configuring the shared CA (DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_CERT_FILE + DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_KEY_FILE); without it, a POST /session/ carrying an egress block is rejected with 400. There is no direct-network attach that bypasses the proxy.

  1. An internal Docker network with no gateway (the sandbox can only talk to the sidecar).
  2. A mitmproxy sidecar dual-homed on the internal network and an egress-side network — it is the sole gateway to the internet.
  3. The sandbox attached only to the internal network, with its HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY environment variables pointing at the sidecar.

Credentials (API tokens, bearer headers) live in the sidecar and never enter the sandbox container.

Configuring egress at session create time

Pass an egress block in the POST /session/ body to route the session through the per-session egress proxy. Example:

{
  "base_image": "python:3.12",
  "egress": {
    "policy": {
      "default": "deny",
      "intercept": "credentialed",
      "rules": [
        {
          "host": "*.github.com",
          "methods": ["GET", "POST"],
          "inject": "github-token"
        },
        {
          "host": "pypi.org",
          "methods": ["*"]
        }
      ]
    },
    "secrets": {
      "github-token": { "header": "Authorization", "value": "Bearer ghp_…" }
    }
  }
}
  • policy.default"deny" (allowlist; only hosts with a matching rule are reachable) or "allow" (denylist; all hosts are reachable unless blocked).
  • policy.intercept"all" (MITM every connection) or "credentialed" (MITM only hosts that inject credentials or carry a methods restriction; tunnel the rest untouched).
  • policy.rules — list of per-host rules. host is a glob (e.g. *.github.com), matched case-insensitively. methods restricts which HTTP methods are permitted (["*"] allows all). inject names a secret (from secrets) whose configured header is set on requests to this host.
  • secrets — named { "header", "value" } pairs injected by the sidecar. Keys are referenced from inject in rules; the header name is arbitrary (e.g. Authorization, PRIVATE-TOKEN), and values are redacted in logs and never forwarded to the sandbox.

Note

A rule with methods set to anything other than ["*"] causes that host to be intercepted (MITM'd) regardless of the intercept mode, so the method can be enforced after TLS termination. Such hosts require the shared CA, which is installed into every egress sandbox automatically.

Refreshing egress policy on a live session

PUT /session/{id}/egress/ accepts the same body as the egress field on POST /session/ and rewrites the sidecar's config.json atomically; the proxy hot-reloads it on the next request — no container restart needed. Returns 204 on success, 404 if the session is gone, 409 if the session has no egress proxy (a network-isolated session has nothing to refresh), 422 if the policy body is invalid, or 503 if the proxy sidecar is not running (retryable — the sidecar may have been stopped by a daemon restart and the session can be retried). Use this to rotate credentials (e.g. a short-lived git token) without rebuilding the session.

CA generation (operator one-time step)

TLS interception requires a shared CA. Generate it once and mount the files into the service:

# One-time: generate the shared egress CA (operator step). Mount the files and point the settings at them.
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -keyout egress-ca.key -out egress-ca.crt -days 3650 -subj "/CN=daiv-sandbox-egress"

Then set:

  • DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_CERT_FILE — path to egress-ca.crt (installed into every egress sandbox).
  • DAIV_SANDBOX_EGRESS_CA_KEY_FILE — path to egress-ca.key (provided only to sidecars).

Limitations

  • Cert-pinned clients will fail — the proxy terminates and re-signs TLS, so any client that pins the upstream certificate will reject it.
  • SSH-based git and other non-HTTP(S) protocols are not proxied and are blocked by the internal network isolation.
  • Non-HTTP egress (raw TCP, UDP, etc.) is out of scope.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Whether you want to fix a bug, add a new feature, or improve documentation, please refer to the CONTRIBUTING.md file for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

Support & Community

For questions or support, please open an issue in the GitHub repository. Contributions, suggestions, and feedback are greatly appreciated!

Happy Coding!

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Runtime sandbox to empower DAIV agents to run arbitrary commands.

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