Sandboxes

Check out the Sandboxes guide to learn how to use them.

Sandbox

class huggingface_hub.Sandbox

( id: str server: _SandboxServer local_id: str | None owns_sandbox: bool owns_server: bool )

An isolated cloud machine running on Hugging Face Jobs.

Create a dedicated one with Sandbox.create() (one job per sandbox), or get many cheap shared ones from a SandboxPool.

Reattach to a running sandbox from anywhere with Sandbox.connect(). Use as a context manager to terminate it on exit:

>>> from huggingface_hub import Sandbox
>>> with Sandbox.create(image="python:3.12") as sbx:
...     print(sbx.run("python --version").stdout)

close

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( )

Release the local HTTP client without terminating the sandbox. Idempotent.

No-op for pool sandboxes (the client belongs to the pool’s host).

connect

< source >

( sandbox_id: str namespace: str | None = None token: str | None = None )

Reattach to a running sandbox from anywhere, using only its id.

create

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( image: str = 'python:3.12' flavor: str = 'cpu-basic' idle_timeout: int | float | str | None = 600 env: dict[str, typing.Any] | None = None secrets: dict[str, typing.Any] | None = None volumes: typing.Optional[typing.List[huggingface_hub._space_api.Volume]] = None namespace: str | None = None forward_hf_token: bool = False start_timeout: float = 120.0 token: str | None = None )

Parameters

image (str, optional, defaults to "python --3.12"): Any Docker image with /bin/sh (Docker Hub or hf.co/spaces/...).
flavor (str, optional, defaults to "cpu-basic") — Hardware flavor, e.g. "cpu-basic", "a10g-small". See hf jobs hardware.
idle_timeout (int or float or str, optional, defaults to 600) — Auto-shutdown after this much inactivity (no API calls, no running processes). Defaults to 10 minutes; pass None to disable.
env (dict[str, Any], optional) — Environment variables available in the sandbox.
secrets (dict[str, Any], optional) — Secret environment variables (encrypted server-side).
volumes (List[Volume], optional) — HF repos/buckets to mount, see Volume.
namespace (str, optional) — User or org namespace to run under (defaults to current user).
forward_hf_token (bool, optional, defaults to False) — If True, your HF token is injected as HF_TOKEN (opt-in).
start_timeout (float, optional, defaults to 120.0) — Max seconds to wait for the sandbox to become ready.
token (str, optional) — HF token override.

Create a dedicated sandbox (one HF Job) and block until it is ready (~7s on cpu-basic).

Each sandbox is a full isolated VM, so this is the right choice for GPU workloads or untrusted code. To fan out many cheap CPU sandboxes instead, use SandboxPool.

The job runs with a fixed 24h maximum lifetime; idle_timeout is the real keeper — an idle sandbox shuts itself down well before that.

The image only needs /bin/sh. The sandbox server is downloaded at startup with wget/curl if available, otherwise read off an always-mounted server bucket (which adds ~2-3s to cold start, so shipping wget/curl keeps it fast).

run

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( cmd: typing.Union[str, typing.List[str]] shell: bool | None = None env: dict[str, typing.Any] | None = None cwd: str | None = None timeout: float | None = None stdin: str | None = None on_stdout: typing.Optional[typing.Callable[[str], NoneType]] = None on_stderr: typing.Optional[typing.Callable[[str], NoneType]] = None check: bool = True )

Parameters

cmd (str or List[str]) — A shell command string (run with /bin/sh -c) or an argv list (exec’d directly).
shell (bool, optional) — Force the execution mode instead of inferring it from the type of cmd. True runs through /bin/sh -c and requires cmd to be a string; False exec’s cmd directly and requires it to be an argv list. None (default) infers from the type. Set it explicitly to avoid the type-driven footgun (e.g. ["echo hi"] being exec’d as a single program named "echo hi").
env (dict[str, Any], optional) — Extra environment variables for this command.
cwd (str, optional) — Working directory.
timeout (float, optional) — Kill the command (whole process group) after this many seconds.
stdin (str, optional) — Data to write to the command’s stdin.
on_stdout (Callable[[str], None], optional) — Callback invoked with stdout chunks as they arrive.
on_stderr (Callable[[str], None], optional) — Callback invoked with stderr chunks as they arrive.
check (bool, optional, defaults to True) — If True, raise SandboxCommandError on non-zero exit.

Run a command in the sandbox and wait for it, streaming output live.

Returns: SandboxCommandResult with exit_code, stdout, stderr, duration_ms.

SandboxPool

class huggingface_hub.SandboxPool

< source >

A fleet of shared “host” jobs, each packing many landlock-isolated sandboxes.

One host is one billed HF Job (a VM); it runs the sandbox server and multiplexes up to sandboxes_per_host lightweight sandboxes, isolated from each other by uid + the Landlock LSM. This makes large fan-outs cheap (the VM cost is shared across all its sandboxes) and fast (creating a sandbox is ~one proxy round-trip once a host is warm). Best for many parallel CPU sandboxes such as RL rollouts; for GPU or strong VM-level isolation between mutually-distrusting workloads, use Sandbox.create() instead.

The constructor pre-provisions warm_up hosts (default 1) and blocks until they are ready; further hosts are then provisioned on demand as sandboxes are requested, and all

are torn down on close() (or when idle, via idle_timeout). The user never manages jobs:

>>> from huggingface_hub import SandboxPool
>>> with SandboxPool(image="python:3.12", flavor="cpu-basic", warm_up=2) as pool:
...     boxes = [pool.create() for _ in range(100)]   # packed across the warm hosts
...     print(boxes[0].run("echo hi").stdout)
hi

create() makes one sandbox at a time: it reuses a host that still has free capacity before booting a new one, so you grow on demand as work arrives. To avoid a cold start on the first few calls, pre-provision hosts with warm_up (or warm). Warm hosts are discovered via job labels, so reuse works across processes too (a fresh pool with the same image/flavor/name attaches to

hosts an earlier run left behind):

>>> pool = SandboxPool(image="python:3.12")
>>> sbx = pool.create()    # finds a warm host (here or in another process), else boots one

close

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( )

Release the pool. Idempotent.

For a pool we created, this terminates all host jobs (and therefore all their sandboxes). For a connect()‘d handle it only releases the local HTTP clients: the shared hosts may be serving other clients, so — like Sandbox.connect() — leaving a with block must not tear them down. Terminate a connected pool’s hosts explicitly with hf sandbox pool delete <id>.

connect

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( pool_id: str namespace: str | None = None token: str | None = None )

Parameters

pool_id (str) — The id returned when the pool was first created.
namespace (str, optional) — Namespace to search for the pool’s hosts (defaults to yours).
token (str, optional) — HF token override.

Reattach to a running pool by id, from any machine — no local state needed.

Finds a running host labelled with pool_id and rebuilds the pool’s config (image/flavor/density/host-idle) from that host job’s spec and env vars, returning a SandboxPool ready to create() more sandboxes — packing onto the running hosts, or booting a duplicate (same config) when they are full.

Raises SandboxError if no running host is found (a pool stops existing once all of its hosts are gone — idle-timed-out or killed).

create

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( env: dict[str, typing.Any] | None = None idle_timeout: int | float | str | None = 600 forward_hf_token: bool = False )

Parameters

env (dict[str, Any], optional) — Environment variables for this sandbox (each sandbox gets its own).
idle_timeout (int or float or str, optional, defaults to 600) — Per-sandbox idle timeout — a sandbox is evicted from its host after this much inactivity (no API calls, no running process). Distinct from the host idle timeout. Pass None to disable.
forward_hf_token (bool, optional, defaults to False) — If True, inject your HF token as HF_TOKEN in the sandbox (opt-in). Unlike a dedicated sandbox’s secrets, a pooled sandbox’s env is delivered to the host server at creation (never stored in the host job), so it doesn’t appear in any job’s metadata.

Create one sandbox, provisioning a host if needed.

Reuses a host with free capacity (this pool’s, or a warm host found via job labels / the local cache) before booting a new one, so a create() against a warm host costs ~one round-trip. Call it repeatedly to fan out; use warm_up (or warm) to pre-provision hosts and avoid a cold start on the first calls. If a host fills up under us (another process packed it) or a cached host is gone, the sandbox is re-placed on another host (or a fresh one).

warm

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( num_hosts: int = 1 )

Ensure num_hosts empty host(s) are running and leave them running. Returns the pool’s host job ids.

Used to “create” a pool up front: the hosts carry the pool label and config (in their env vars), so a later SandboxPool.connect(pool_id) (even from another machine) finds them and spawns sandboxes without a cold start. The hosts keep billing until killed or idle.

Adopts hosts already running for this pool (found via job labels) before booting, so a warm() after connect() — or a repeated warm() — tops up to num_hosts instead of duplicating live hosts and blowing past max_hosts.

Data structures

SandboxCommandResult

class huggingface_hub.SandboxCommandResult

< source >

( exit_code: int | None stdout: str stderr: str signal: int | None = None timed_out: bool = False duration_ms: int = 0 )

Result of a command executed in a sandbox with Sandbox.run().

FileEntry

class huggingface_hub._sandbox.FileEntry

< source >

( name: str path: str type: typing.Literal['file', 'dir', 'symlink'] size: int mtime_ms: int | None = None mode: str = '' )

A file or directory inside a sandbox.

Errors

SandboxError

class huggingface_hub.errors.SandboxError

< source >

( message: str status_code: int | None = None )

Parameters

status_code — The HTTP status returned by the in-sandbox server, if the error originated from an API response (e.g. 404 for a missing file). None otherwise.

Base exception for sandbox operations (see huggingface_hub.Sandbox).

SandboxCommandError

class huggingface_hub.errors.SandboxCommandError

< source >

( cmd result )

Parameters

cmd — The command that failed.
result — The full SandboxCommandResult (exit_code, stdout, stderr, …).

Raised when a command run in a sandbox exits with a non-zero code.

Update on GitHub

Hub Python Library

Sandboxes

Sandbox

class huggingface_hub.Sandbox

close

connect

create

run

SandboxPool

class huggingface_hub.SandboxPool

close

connect

create

warm

Data structures

SandboxCommandResult

class huggingface_hub.SandboxCommandResult

FileEntry

class huggingface_hub._sandbox.FileEntry

Errors

SandboxError

class huggingface_hub.errors.SandboxError

SandboxCommandError

class huggingface_hub.errors.SandboxCommandError