Code & AI agent sandboxes: read the guide

Boat

HostedSandbox

Persistent Linux VMs for AI agents with SSH, Docker, and fast fork.

Homepage Docs Pricing

Scanned 12 Oct 2026 · Schema v5 · features v21

From: $20/mo per seat
Monthly prepaid compute allowance plus non-expiring $20 packs; per-second machine billing
Free tier: Yes
25 compute-hour trial; not an ongoing free tier
Isolation: Virtual machine
hypervisor, or nothing at all
Regions: 3
Germany · Finland · France
Capabilities: 25 / 61
5 partial · 31 fail · 0 not assessed
Agent readiness: 11/11 · 10/11
read · drive, pre-login surface

Advertised for

Coding agents · Long running development · Docker · Browser and desktop automation · Nested virtualization on standard machines

Built for

Developers

· CLI/SSH/API-first
· Ubuntu VMs, Docker and snapshots
· Per-second compute billing

01 Pricing Monthly prepaid compute allowance plus non-expiring $20 packs; per-second machine billing

Tier	Entry$20 plan	$100 plan	$500 plan	Top$2000 plan
Price	$20/monthper seat	$100/monthper seat	$500/monthper seat	$2000/monthper seat
Includes	100 concurrent; starts/min/hour/day 12/60/200	300 concurrent; starts/min/hour/day 30/210/840	1000 concurrent; starts/min/hour/day 65/420/1680	2000 concurrent; starts/min/hour/day 90/600/2400
Compute hours	555.5555555555555 h	2777.777777777778 h	13888.88888888889 h	55555.55555555556 h
Compute hours overage	$0.036/h	$0.036/h	$0.036/h	$0.036/h

Free tier: 25 compute-hour trial; not an ongoing free tier

Running VM-second; small $0.018/h, default $0.036/h, large $0.072/h, xlarge $0.200/h·Card required: Yes·docs.boat.dev

Overages: Same machine rates using $20 packs; included credit expires monthly. Stopped machines free. 24-hour billing grace then snapshot and stop.

02 Website design Desktop public website · assessed 14 Oct 2026

Complete assessment.

The landing page blends Swiss-inspired editorial minimalism with retro-computing controls and delicate nautical line art. Pricing and docs instead use a restrained, conventional documentation layout with side navigation and blue accents.

Editorial minimalism
Swiss-inspired
Retro-computing

Landing page: captured
Pricing: captured
Docs: captured

03 Runtime Each fact carries its source; dots show confidence. Open a row for the evidence.

Isolation & lifecycle

Isolation primitive

Virtual machinehypervisor, or nothing at all

Persistence

Automatic disk snapshots every minute; stopped instances retain files without machine-time charges.

Snapshots / forks

Stop/resume, fork, named templates, download and delete snapshots.

Resources & limits

Storage

12 / 50 / 125 / 251 GB by size; automatic snapshots free, first 10 named snapshots free, then $1.70 each/month.

Limits & quotas

Paid concurrency 100/300/1000/2000; starts per minute/hour/day 12/60/200, 30/210/840, 65/420/1680, 90/600/2400. Trial: 2 concurrent, small/default only.

GPU

Access

Deploy interface

cliapidashboardtemplate

SDK languages

PythonTypeScript/JavaScript

Network & secrets

Egress controls

Root-configurable iptables/ufw within the guest

Secrets

Environment variables and secret files; optional AI credentials proxy replaces real provider keys with placeholders.

Bring your own cloud

Not documented

Placement & use

Jurisdiction

US legal entity; workloads and snapshots in Germany, Finland and France

Advertised workloads

Coding agentsLong running developmentDockerBrowser and desktop automationNested virtualization on standard machines

04 Capabilities 25 pass · 5 partial · 31 fail · 61 of 61 assessed

Supported — Documented on the public surface and verified.
Partially supported — Exists with caveats: gated, thin, or enterprise-only.
Not supported — Checked and not offered.
Not assessed — Scanned before this capability was tracked. Not a lack.

Compute & storage 5/11

Persistent diskStorage that survives restart/stop (not ephemeral-only).

Supported

Object storageManaged S3-compatible / blob object store the platform PROVIDES to a user's workloads (buckets, presigned URLs). DISTINCT from persistent-disk (block/volume attached to an instance) and from a self-host dependency (source.self_host.deps[]=["object-storage"] is an infra dep to RUN an OSS tool — the opposite direction). SCOPE varies and matters: native first-class (Railway Buckets, Cloudflare R2) vs a sibling SKU / extension (Fly Tigris, Bunny Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces) — record which in the evidence quote / note. Admitted v15.

Not supported

Snapshots / forkingSnapshot or copy-on-write fork of a running instance (filesystem-only counts). Whether the snapshot also restores memory + running processes is recorded separately by memory-snapshot (v19).

Supported

Live-state (memory) snapshotsA snapshot / checkpoint / pause captures a running instance's MEMORY and PROCESS state and restores it, so running processes continue where they left off instead of a freshly booted instance with the same files. Counts whether user-triggered (snapshot, checkpoint, pause-to-storage) or used to restore pre-initialised state (memory snapshots for fast cold starts). Distinct from snapshots-forks (any snapshot or fork, including filesystem-only; a product passing that key may still fail this one) and from scale-to-zero (an idle-cost property; suspension may or may not keep memory). Actor multiplexing (see scale-to-zero) records its live-state half here — only when the suspended actor's MEMORY/process state is what comes back, not a freshly booted worker with the actor's files.

Not supported

Scale to zeroIdle instances suspend at no / negligible cost. ACTOR MULTIPLEXING (many suspended stateful actors sharing a small pool of pre-warmed workers, woken on request — Agent Substrate, AX, kagent; Rivet's hibernating actors) has NO key of its own (proposal REJECTED v20) — score the idle-cost half HERE and the live-state half under memory-snapshot; the oversubscription ratio / density is a performance characteristic the registry does not key.

Supported

GPU computeGPU-backed instances available.

Not supported

Multi-regionCompute placeable in more than one geographic region.

Partially supported

Sandbox templates / custom imagesBuild reusable sandbox/VM images from an OCI image or Dockerfile (a base you fork instances from).

Supported

Cloud-init / ignition configCustomise a VM / microVM / instance at boot via cloud-init (or ignition) user-data — the same boot-metadata interface as AWS/Azure/GCP. Inject packages, users, SSH keys, files, and run-commands declaratively at launch. Distinct from sandbox-templates (a PREBUILT image you fork instances from) — this is PER-LAUNCH declarative customisation, not a baked image.

Partially supported

Desktop / computer-use sandboxA virtual desktop (GUI) for LLM computer-use — browser + desktop automation, often via noVNC/VNC.

Supported

Selectable isolation runtimeThe user chooses the isolation runtime per workload / environment / sandbox from more than one option (e.g. microVM vs gVisor vs plain container, native namespaces vs gVisor, gVisor vs VM). Records the CHOICE; the isolation_primitive facet still records the best-evidenced primary. A platform that switches runtime automatically without a user choice (e.g. gVisor forced for GPU) does not pass on that alone.

Not supported

Networking & delivery 4/9

Automatic HTTPSTLS endpoints provisioned automatically per workload.

Supported

Built-in reverse proxyPlatform routes external traffic to workload services.

Supported

Custom domainsBring-your-own domain via CNAME/DNS.

Not supported

Public preview URLsShareable per-deploy / per-branch URLs.

Supported

Direct public IPv6Per-instance stable public IPv6 for raw TCP/UDP (beyond a managed HTTPS proxy) — e.g. mosh / raw sockets.

Supported

Egress controlsConfigurable OUTBOUND network policy — egress firewall / allowlist / egress proxy on traffic LEAVING a workload. Scoped to OUTBOUND only (v15): private-network REACHABILITY between a user's own services is private-networking, not this. Static-egress-IP belongs here (an outbound concept).

Partially supported

Private networkingA platform-internal private network between a user's OWN services — service-to-service connectivity, VPC, service mesh, and/or service discovery, not exposed to the public internet. DISTINCT from egress-controls (OUTBOUND firewall/allowlist), reverse-proxy (PUBLIC inbound ingress), and direct-ipv6 (per-instance PUBLIC addressing). Admitted v15.

Not supported

Email send / receiveSend and/or receive email from the workload.

Not supported

Edge KV storeA globally-replicated key-value store read from WITHIN an edge runtime at the PoP (low-latency, eventually-consistent) — Cloudflare Workers KV, Deno KV, Fastly KV Store, Akamai EdgeKV, Vercel Edge Config. Distinct from first-party-db (a managed DATABASE service you provision and connect to) and from http-query-api (HTTP access to an external store) — edge-kv is colocated with the edge compute and read at the edge.

Not supported

Developer access 6/10

Public APIDocumented programmatic API.

Supported

OpenAPI specMachine-readable OpenAPI / Swagger spec published.

Supported

CLIOfficial command-line tool.

Supported

SDKOfficial client library/libraries.

Supported

SSH accessDirect SSH into workloads.

Supported

Filesystem APIRemote file operations over the API (list/read/write/watch/copy/upload) without SSH.

Supported

Git deployDeploy from a Git repo / push-to-deploy.

Not supported

Private container registryHosted private image registry.

Not supported

E2B-compatible APIDrop-in compatibility with the E2B sandbox API/SDKs — existing E2B client code runs against this product by changing the endpoint/domain + key, with no business-code changes. E2B itself passes as the reference implementation. Distinct from public-api / sdk (the product has its own API — this key says it also speaks another vendor's) and from self-host-oss (a self-hosted E2B-compatible server is scored on both).

Not supported

HTTP data APIQuery / read / write the stored DATA over plain HTTP/REST (or GraphQL) WITHOUT the native protocol driver (Postgres wire / Redis RESP) — agent- and edge-friendly data access via fetch(). The DATA plane; distinct from public-api (a control-plane / management API). Auto-generated-from-schema REST/GraphQL (PostgREST, pg_graphql) is a flavour of this.

Not supported

AI & agents 6/12

Built-in coding agentShips a first-party AI coding agent in the product.

Supported

Agent skillsInstallable / declarable agent skills or tools.

Supported

AI app builderPrompt-to-app / vibe-coding generation surface.

Not supported

MCP serverExposes a Model Context Protocol server for agents.

Not supported

MCP clientActs as an MCP client / consumes MCP tools.

Supported

MCP-server hostingRun/host MCP servers as a workload on the platform (distinct from exposing a first-party MCP control server — that is mcp-server).

Partially supported

LLM gatewayRoutes LLM API calls through the platform (multi-provider).

Not supported

BYOK for LLMsBring-your-own LLM provider keys.

Supported

Model inference API (first-party)A FIRST-PARTY hosted LLM/model inference API — the provider serves its OWN catalogue of (usually open-weight) models behind a (typically OpenAI-compatible) endpoint, billed per token. Distinct from llm-gateway (a multi-PROVIDER proxy/router for YOUR calls to external providers like OpenAI/Anthropic) and from byok-llm (bring your own provider keys) — here the platform IS the inference provider, serving its own models.

Not supported

Autonomous QA agentA first-party AUTONOMOUS AI agent that QA-TESTS a running app / implementation — exercising it like a real user (clicking through flows, checking behaviour) and reporting bugs/defects (often back to a coding agent, or before a human review). Distinct from built-in-agent (a code-AUTHORING agent — this one VERIFIES the result, it does not write the feature; a product can ship both), from ai-guided-code-review (organises a diff for a HUMAN to review — not an autonomous tester), and from observability (runtime metrics/logs, not active testing).

Not supported

Credential-injection proxyThe platform holds real secrets OUTSIDE the workload and injects them on the wire (an egress / broker proxy swaps a placeholder or phantom token for the real credential on matching outbound requests), so code running in the sandbox — e.g. an untrusted agent — never sees or can exfiltrate the real key. Distinct from secrets-management (storage + injection INTO the workload as env vars/files — the workload holds the secret) and from egress-controls (outbound allow/deny POLICY; a product can have an allowlist without injecting credentials, and vice versa).

Supported

Preinstalled coding agentThe platform installs and launches a THIRD-PARTY coding agent (a harnesses.yml entry — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi ...) inside a workspace/sandbox it provisions, with the agent's auth wired in (your own account or API key), so you start an agent session rather than an empty box. Distinct from built-in-agent (a FIRST-PARTY agent the vendor ships) and from harnesses[] (which records that a harness CAN target the product, not that the product runs it for you).

Supported

Data 0/4

First-party databasePlatform-provided managed database.

Not supported

Database branchingCopy-on-write branch of a DATABASE (schema + data) as a dev-lifecycle primitive — branch your data like code, usually instant via a metadata operation. Distinct from snapshots-forks (forks a running compute INSTANCE / VM state) and from preview-environments (a full per-PR environment that may USE a DB branch). For a data product a CoW branch maps HERE, not to snapshots-forks.

Not supported

Vector searchFirst-class storage, indexing, and similarity search of vector embeddings — a native vector type/index or a managed vector DB. The data-layer primitive for RAG / semantic retrieval.

Not supported

Ephemeral instant DB (no-signup)Provision a working, usable instance via a single command / HTTP call with NO account, signup, or card — typically time-boxed (expires unless claimed). A zero-onboarding path an agent can hit directly.

Not supported

Platform & operations 1/6

Scheduled tasksCron / scheduled job primitive.

Partially supported

Durable workflowsDurable execution / long-running workflow primitive.

Not supported

Preview environmentsA full EPHEMERAL environment spun up per PR / branch — compute + addons + (often) a DB branch — torn down on merge. More than preview-urls (which is just a shareable URL for one deploy).

Not supported

Built-in observabilityFirst-party metrics / logs / tracing / APM / profiling included in the platform (no third-party stack required to see what a workload is doing).

Supported

Managed CI/CD runnersPlatform-hosted, drop-in CI/CD runner VMs (GitHub Actions / GitLab), typically faster and cheaper than the CI vendor's own hosted runners, billed per runner-minute; isolated + ephemeral per job. Distinct from git-deploy (push-to-deploy of an APP) and scheduled-tasks (cron) — this is managed CI COMPUTE you point your existing pipelines at.

Not supported

Project template marketplaceA marketplace / gallery of prebuilt PROJECT STARTER templates (apps or websites) a user clones or launches a new project from and then customises — the "start from a template" surface of a builder / PaaS. Distinct from sandbox-templates (a COMPUTE base IMAGE you fork runtime INSTANCES from — Dockerfile / OCI), from app-builder (the prompt-to-app GENERATION surface — a product can have both), and from one-click OSS-app catalogues / helm-addon-marketplace (deploy a FINISHED app as-is, not a starter you build on).

Not supported

Organisation & security 3/9

Built-in authPlatform-provided authentication / IAM for workloads.

Not supported

SSO / SAMLEnterprise single sign-on.

Not supported

Secrets managementFirst-class secrets storage / injection.

Supported

TeamsMulti-user team accounts.

Supported

SharingShare a running workload/resource via link (optionally gated).

Supported

BYOCRuns inside the customer's own cloud account.

Not supported

Deploy into customers' VPCsA SaaS vendor uses the platform to deploy and operate ITS software inside ITS CUSTOMERS' cloud accounts / VPCs (nested or "customer BYOC"), managed from the vendor's control plane. Distinct from byoc (your own workloads in your own cloud account).

Not supported

Workload identityThe platform gives each workload its own verifiable identity (OIDC token, SPIFFE SVID, cloud IAM federation) that it exchanges for short-lived credentials, so no long-lived static secret is stored or injected. Distinct from secrets-management (stores / injects static secrets) and credential-injection-proxy (swaps real secrets in on the wire).

Not supported

Self-host / OSS coreOpen-source core that can be self-hosted.

Not supported

05 Agent readiness Pre-login surface · counts, not a grade

Can an agent read it?

parse-ability · docs, metadata, machine-readable surfaces

11/11

10 full · 1 partial · 100% of applicable checks

llms.txt
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt — substantive index”
llms-full.txt
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/llms-full.txt — 502700 bytes; retained pointer”
robots.txt AI policy
Supported
“https://boat.dev/robots.txt — explicit AI user-agent Allow: /”
JSON-LD
Supported
“https://boat.dev/ — SoftwareApplication with Offer”
Sitemap
Supported
“https://boat.dev/sitemap.xml — nontrivial URL list”
Meta tags
Supported
“https://boat.dev/ — title, description and OpenGraph”
Markdown negotiation
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/quickstart — Accept: text/markdown returns text/markdown”
Content efficiency
Partially supported
“Readable text / homepage HTML bytes = 3.51%, excluding script/style”
Docs discoverable
Supported
“https://boat.dev/ — documentation links in raw HTML”
Machine-readable pricing
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/pricing — structured size and plan tables”
No anti-bot wall
Supported
“No public-content challenge observed on retained sources”

Can an agent drive it?

act-ability · APIs, SDKs, MCP, credentials, webhooks

10/11

9 full · 1 partial · 91% of applicable checks

Public API
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/api/v1”
OpenAPI spec
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/openapi/boat-v1.yaml — fetched spec; retained pointer”
MCP server
Not supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt — no Boat lifecycle MCP server found; integrated computer-use MCP is not fleet control”
SDK packages
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/sdks/overview — Python and TypeScript”
Auth documented
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/api/v1 — bearer tokens and key scopes”
Self-serve credentials
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/agent-auth — programmatic issuance; human claim and card required for workload use”
Webhooks
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/webhooks — HMAC-SHA256 signing”
CLI tool
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/quickstart — official CLI”
Error model
Supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/api/v1 — JSON envelope and status/code table”
Rate limits documented
Partially supported
“https://docs.boat.dev/pricing — starts/minute/hour/day limits; response headers not established”
Agent config files
Supported
“https://boat.dev/auth.md and https://docs.boat.dev/integrated-agents/customize — agent registration and boat skill”

06 Coding harnesses Which agents and IDEs are documented to run here

Advertised integrations 7

Claude Code Anthropic
Supported
“Claude Code”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
Codex CLI OpenAI
Supported
“OpenAI Codex”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
Pi earendil-works
Supported
“pi”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
OpenCode opencode
Supported
“OpenCode”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
Prime agent
Supported
“Prime Agent”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
Kimi code
Supported
“Kimi Code CLI”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.
Mistral vibe
Supported
“Mistral Vibe”
Source docs.boat.dev
Vendor-documented integrated harness; not executed in this capture.

Plausible compatibility 11

Derived, not stored: the product passes SSH access, so any CLI coding agent is installable inside it. This is plausible compatibility, not a supported integration.