Appearance

Environment Variables ​

This page covers how to set environment variables in a sandbox and the default environment variables available inside it.

Default environment variables ​

When a sandbox is created, SandBase sets useful metadata as environment variables so processes inside the sandbox can detect their context:

VariableDescription
E2B_SANDBOXSet to true inside a sandbox VM
E2B_SANDBOX_IDThe sandbox ID
E2B_TEMPLATE_IDThe template the sandbox was created from
python
sandbox = Sandbox.create(api_url="https://api.sandbase.ai")
result = sandbox.commands.run("echo $E2B_SANDBOX_ID")
print(result.stdout)
javascript
const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ apiUrl: 'https://api.sandbase.ai' })
const result = await sandbox.commands.run('echo $E2B_SANDBOX_ID')
console.log(result.stdout)

Compatibility

SandBase keeps the E2B_* variable names for drop-in compatibility with the E2B SDK and existing tooling.

Setting environment variables ​

There are two ways to set environment variables.

1. Global — at sandbox creation ​

Set environment variables that apply to all commands run in the sandbox.

python
sandbox = Sandbox.create(
    envs={"MY_VAR": "my_value"},
    api_url="https://api.sandbase.ai",
)
javascript
const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({
  envs: { MY_VAR: 'my_value' },
  apiUrl: 'https://api.sandbase.ai',
})

REST API ​

When creating a sandbox over REST, pass envVars:

bash
curl -X POST https://api.sandbase.ai/sandboxes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-sb-YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateID": "code_interpreter",
    "timeout": 300,
    "envVars": { "MY_VAR": "my_value" }
  }'

2. Per-command — when running a command ​

Set environment variables scoped to a single command. These override a global variable of the same name for that command only.

python
sandbox = Sandbox.create(api_url="https://api.sandbase.ai")
sandbox.commands.run("echo $MY_VAR", envs={"MY_VAR": "123"})
javascript
const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ apiUrl: 'https://api.sandbase.ai' })
await sandbox.commands.run('echo $MY_VAR', { envs: { MY_VAR: '123' } })

WARNING

Per-command environment variables are scoped to that command but are not private at the OS level — other processes in the sandbox may be able to read them.

Next steps ​