Dev Environments | Modbox

Modbox can power ephemeral development environments — fully functional, isolated cloud workspaces that spin up in seconds and disappear when no longer needed.

Use cases

PR preview environments — Each pull request gets its own live environment
Pair programming sessions — Share a live environment URL with a teammate
Workshops and tutorials — Each participant gets their own pre-configured workspace
Feature testing — QA engineers get isolated environments for testing branches

Example: PR preview environments

Trigger a sandbox provisioning from your CI/CD pipeline when a PR is opened:

1 # .github/workflows/preview.yml
2 name: PR Preview
3 
4 on:
5   pull_request:
6     types: [opened, synchronize]
7 
8 jobs:
9   provision-preview:
10     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
11     steps:
12       - name: Provision sandbox
13         run: |
14           RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST https://api.modbox.run/sandboxes/provision \
15             -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.MODBOX_API_TOKEN }}" \
16             -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
17             -d '{
18               "task_id": "pr-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}",
19               "image_id": "${{ vars.DEV_IMAGE_ID }}",
20               "ttl_seconds": 86400,
21               "env_vars": {
22                 "GIT_BRANCH": "${{ github.head_ref }}",
23                 "PR_NUMBER": "${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}"
24               }
25             }')
26           SANDBOX_ID=$(echo $RESPONSE | jq -r '.sandbox_id')
27           echo "SANDBOX_ID=$SANDBOX_ID" >> $GITHUB_ENV
28 
29       - name: Wait for ready
30         run: |
31           curl -s -X POST https://api.modbox.run/sandboxes/wait \
32             -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.MODBOX_API_TOKEN }}" \
33             -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
34             -d '{"task_id": "pr-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}", "timeout": 120}'
35 
36       - name: Get sandbox URL
37         run: |
38           SANDBOX=$(curl -s https://api.modbox.run/sandboxes/detail/$SANDBOX_ID \
39             -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.MODBOX_API_TOKEN }}")
40           URL=$(echo $SANDBOX | jq -r '.sandbox_url')
41           echo "Preview ready: $URL" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
42 
43       - name: Comment on PR
44         uses: actions/github-script@v7
45         with:
46           script: |
47             github.rest.issues.createComment({
48               issue_number: context.issue.number,
49               owner: context.repo.owner,
50               repo: context.repo.repo,
51               body: '**Preview environment ready!**\n\nYour sandbox is live and accessible. It will auto-destroy after 24 hours.'
52             })

Cleanup on PR close

1 # Destroy sandbox when the PR is closed
2 on:
3   pull_request:
4     types: [closed]
5 
6 jobs:
7   destroy-preview:
8     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
9     steps:
10       - name: Destroy sandbox
11         run: |
12           curl -s -X POST https://api.modbox.run/sandboxes/destroy \
13             -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.MODBOX_API_TOKEN }}" \
14             -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
15             -d '{"task_id": "pr-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}"}'

Workshop environments

Provision environments for all participants at once:

1 import { ModboxClient } from "modbox-sdk";
2 
3 const modbox = new ModboxClient({ token: process.env.MODBOX_API_TOKEN });
4 
5 const participants = ["alice", "bob", "carol", "dave"];
6 
7 // Provision all environments in parallel
8 const sandboxes = await Promise.all(
9   participants.map((name) =>
10     modbox.provisionSandbox({
11       taskId: `workshop-${name}`,
12       imageId: process.env.WORKSHOP_IMAGE_ID,
13       ttlSeconds: 14400, // 4 hours
14       envVars: { PARTICIPANT: name },
15     })
16   )
17 );
18 
19 // Wait for all to be ready
20 await Promise.all(
21   participants.map((name) =>
22     modbox.waitForSandbox({ taskId: `workshop-${name}`, timeout: 60 })
23   )
24 );
25 
26 // Print the access URLs
27 for (const name of participants) {
28   const sandbox = await modbox.getSandbox(`workshop-${name}`);
29   console.log(`${name}: ${sandbox.sandboxUrl}`);
30 }
31 // alice: https://workshop-alice.sandbox.modbox.run
32 // bob:   https://workshop-bob.sandbox.modbox.run
33 // ...