# ShellBox

Instant Linux boxes via SSH — create, duplicate, scale to zero; pay per minute running, $0.50/mo parked, no subscription

Source: https://wheredoirunthis.com/products/shellbox · JSON: https://wheredoirunthis.com/api/products/shellbox · Read on 2026-10-15

## At a glance

- Type: Persistent environment
- Kind: Hosted
- Isolation: Firecracker microVM
- Free tier: No
- Starting price: Not disclosed
- GPU: No
- Regions: 1
- Coverage: 16 of 61 assessed capabilities supported
- Agent readiness: read 7 of 11 signals, drive 7 of 11 signals

## Links

- Homepage: https://shellbox.dev/
- Docs: https://shellbox.dev/#api
- Pricing: https://shellbox.dev/#pricing
- Repository: https://github.com/skariel/shellbox

## Pricing

- Model: Pre-paid balance; per-minute billing while running + flat monthly while stopped (parked); no subscription
- Unit: running $/hr by slot size (per-minute, rounded up) + stopped $/mo by slot size
- Free tier: No

| Tier | Price | Includes | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pay-as-you-go (per slot size) | x1 $0.02/hr running · $0.50/mo parked (sizes scale linearly to x8) | no subscription; pre-paid balance (min $10 top-up); 16 running / 64 total slots; per-minute billing; auto-stop < $5, auto-delete at $0; no backups, no SLA; No subscription/base fee — pure usage. x1 = 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 50 GB; xN = N × those (slot-based). |  [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

- Overages: x1 $0.02/hr running / $0.50/mo parked; doubling per size to x8 ($0.16/hr / $4.00/mo); per-minute billing rounded up
- Card required: Not documented
- Source: https://shellbox.dev/

## Website design

Desktop public website · assessed 2026-10-15

Complete assessment.

A centered amber-on-black terminal interface unifies landing, pricing and API tabs, with ASCII branding, monospace command examples, fine rectangular borders and animated falling glyphs. All three public desktop roles captured on one official document.

- Styles: Retro-computing
- Landing page: captured
- Pricing: captured
- Docs: captured

## Runtime

- **GPU & accelerators**: No — "No GPU offering mentioned anywhere." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **BYOC (Bring your own cloud)**: No — "Hosted single-region (Helsinki); no bring-your-own-cloud." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Secrets management**: none managed — SSH key fingerprint is the only credential; no secrets vault/injection — "Account = SSH key fingerprint; `key add/remove/list` for multi-device. No first-class secrets management." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: medium)
- **Storage options**: 50 GB SSD baseline (x1) → 400 GB (x8); fixed at box creation (delete+recreate to resize); no backups — "Fresh rendered price table x1=50 GB to x8=400 GB; sizes fixed. Legal explicitly disclaims guaranteed persistence and backups." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Supported workloads**: dev-environments, ci-runners, daemons-bots, ai-agent-sandbox, scheduled-jobs-cron, web-services-scale-to-zero — "Pitched for dev boxes, CI runners, always-on daemons (Gitea/n8n/bots), AI agent sandboxes (Claude Code/Codex), cron jobs, and wakeup-mode web services. Docker pre-installed on stock Ubuntu 24.04 boxes." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Persistence**: Persistent boxes; pause-on-disconnect (120s grace) → memory snapshot to disk → resume (~3s) restores processes/shell-history/files; stopped boxes parked at $0.50/mo (x1) — "Manage: Snapshot saves processes, shell history, and TCP state; restored on next connect. Legal: We do not guarantee data persistence and do not perform backups." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Data jurisdiction**: EU — Hetzner Finland; one workload region — "Bare metal in Hetzner Finland (EU). One region today; more on demand. Terms governed by Finland; no claimed office location." [source](https://shellbox.dev/#infra) (confidence: high)
- **Resource limits & quotas**: 16 running slots / 64 total slots per account (xN box = N slots); 200 SSH connections/min/IP; per-minute billing rounded up; auto-stop < $5 balance, auto-delete at $0 — "Per-account slot quotas + SSH rate limit (raised 100→200/min in March 2026) + balance-driven auto-stop/delete." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **SDK languages**: Not documented — "No language SDK — 'No REST endpoints, no API tokens, no SDK.' The SSH verbs ARE the interface (with a stable --json contract)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Network & egress controls**: No — "No outbound egress allowlist/firewall feature documented — boxes have full internet access. (Ingress is via the per-box HTTPS proxy + optional direct IPv6.)" [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: medium)
- **Snapshots & forks**: Yes — "Manage: Filesystem cloned. Memory snapshot copied. API: duplicate copies a stopped box; full process state resumes on connect." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)
- **Deployment methods**: cli, container-image — "Official CLI is SSH verbs; create and create-from-oci launch stock or public OCI-derived microVMs. SSH is the transport, not an extra deploy-interface token." [source](https://shellbox.dev/#create) (confidence: high)
- **Isolation**: Firecracker microVM — "Firecracker is the default backend; Cloud Hypervisor available per-box via `--ch` (nested virt, /dev/kvm exposed inside the box, for running QEMU/FC/CI inside). Backend is per-box, no migration. (Homepage + April 2026 blog + FAQ.)" [source](https://shellbox.dev/) (confidence: high)

## Capabilities

### AI & agents

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Agent skills | Not supported | "No installable agent-skills system." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| AI app builder | Not supported | "No prompt-to-app builder." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Autonomous QA agent | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Built-in coding agent | Not supported | "No first-party coding agent — you run your own agent inside a box over SSH." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| BYOK for LLMs | Not supported | "Generic Linux VM host, not a first-party model application or managed LLM-key integration." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Credential-injection proxy | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| LLM gateway | Not supported | "No LLM gateway." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| MCP client | Not supported | "Does not act as an MCP client." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| MCP-server hosting | Not supported | "Managed HTTPS can expose arbitrary software, but hosting customer MCP servers is not specifically advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| MCP server | Not supported | "No MCP server; /.well-known/mcp 404 (SSH-only control plane)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/.well-known/mcp) |
| Model inference API (first-party) | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Preinstalled coding agent | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Networking & delivery

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic HTTPS | Supported | "Every box gets https://{name}-{id}.shellbox.dev with auto-TLS, proxied to box port 80 (Caddy)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Custom domains | Supported | "`domain add` → DNS CNAME (DNS-only, NOT CDN-proxied) → `domain verify` → live; one box ↔ many domains." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Direct public IPv6 | Supported | "Every new box gets direct public IPv6 for ssh / mosh / raw TCP-UDP. Direct IPv6 does not wake stopped boxes." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Edge KV store | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Egress controls | Not supported | "No outbound egress allowlist/firewall — boxes have full internet access." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Email send / receive | Supported | "Per-box inbound email endpoint {name}-{id}@in.shellbox.dev → Cloudflare email routing → POST to /email on the box (receive)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Public preview URLs | Supported | "Per-box public HTTPS URL ({name}-{id}.shellbox.dev) is immediately shareable." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Private networking | Not supported | "Per-box public IPv6 and public HTTPS ingress are documented; no private service-to-service network advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Built-in reverse proxy | Supported | "Caddy edge proxies external traffic to the box's port 80 (also powers HTTP-wakeup)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Organisation & security

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built-in auth | Not supported | "SSH key fingerprint authenticates the ACCOUNT; no auth-as-a-service / IAM for your workloads." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| BYOC | Not supported | "Hosted single-region; no bring-your-own-cloud." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Deploy into customers' VPCs | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Secrets management | Not supported | "No managed secrets vault/injection." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Self-host / OSS core | Not supported | "Fresh gh licenseInfo is null and repository root has no LICENSE; no licensed redistributable core established." [source](https://github.com/skariel/shellbox) |
| Sharing | Partially supported | "Every box has a public HTTPS endpoint; no team/invite or gated collaborator access primitive advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| SSO / SAML | Not supported | "No SSO/SAML (single-operator, SSH-key identity)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Teams | Not supported | "Each unique public key fingerprint constitutes a separate account; key add/remove is credential management, not a team model." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Workload identity | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Developer access

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CLI | Supported | "The SSH verbs ARE the official CLI: `ssh shellbox.dev <verb> [args]` with --json output." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| E2B-compatible API | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Filesystem API | Not supported | "File transfer uses standard SCP/SFTP through SSH; no separate remote filesystem API without SSH is documented." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Git deploy | Not supported | "No push-to-deploy — you SSH in and build." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| HTTP data API | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| OpenAPI spec | Not supported | "No OpenAPI/Swagger spec (SSH-only; --json schema discoverable via `ssh shellbox.dev help --json`)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Private container registry | Not supported | "`image prepare <ref>` pulls PUBLIC OCI images into a bootable rootfs; no hosted private registry (public, linux/amd64, apt-based images only)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Public API | Supported | "Programmatic Linux VM management over SSH. Your SSH key authenticates every call. Add --json for structured output. Command-by-command response schemas and additive-only compatibility guarantee are public." [source](https://shellbox.dev/#api) |
| SDK | Not supported | "'No ... SDK.' SSH is the only interface." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| SSH access | Supported | "SSH is the entire product — direct SSH into every box; PQ-hybrid KEX, DNSSEC SSHFP; port forwarding (local/remote/SOCKS); mosh via IPv6." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Compute & storage

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cloud-init / ignition config | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Desktop / computer-use sandbox | Not supported | "MicroVM shell access is documented; no managed GUI/computer-use desktop offering advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| GPU compute | Not supported | "No GPU offering." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Live-state (memory) snapshots | Supported | "Snapshot saves processes, shell history, and TCP state; restored on next connect." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Multi-region | Not supported | "One region today; more on demand." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Object storage | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Persistent disk | Supported | "50 GB SSD baseline (x1) up to 400 GB (x8); state persists across stop/park and resume." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Sandbox templates / custom images | Supported | "Public linux/amd64 Ubuntu-like OCI images can be prepared into bootable microVM root filesystems." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Scale to zero | Supported | "Pause-on-disconnect, HTTP-wakeup mode (wake on request, idle-stop after 5 min), cron mode; parked boxes cost $0.50/mo (x1). Scale-to-zero is the product's spine." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Selectable isolation runtime | Supported | "Firecracker remains the default backend; create a box on Cloud Hypervisor with --ch. Backend choice is per box, no migration." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Snapshots / forking | Supported | "`duplicate` clones a box via btrfs reflinks (O(1), copy-on-write); memory-mmap snapshots back pause/resume." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Data

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Database branching | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Ephemeral instant DB (no-signup) | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| First-party database | Not supported | "No managed database (run your own in a box)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Vector search | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

### Platform & operations

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Managed CI/CD runners | Not supported | "Blog demonstrates provisioning a box from CI scripts; no drop-in managed GitHub/GitLab runner service advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Built-in observability | Partially supported | "show/list expose lifecycle metadata and billing reports usage; no general workload logs, metrics, traces or APM advertised." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Preview environments | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Scheduled tasks | Supported | "Cron mode: `cron <name> <interval_min> [runtime_min]` periodically wakes the box → POST http://localhost:80/cron → runs → stops." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Project template marketplace | Not supported | "Not advertised in freshly fetched homepage, API, FAQ, infrastructure, pricing or blog; no first-party capability established." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |
| Durable workflows | Not supported | "No durable-execution/workflow engine (cron is a wake primitive, not durable workflows)." [source](https://shellbox.dev/) |

## Agent readiness

### Read: 7 of 11 signals present

7/11 signals (3 full, 4 partial)

- Llms txt: fail — "GET /llms.txt 404"
- Llms full txt: fail — "GET /llms-full.txt 404"
- Robots AI policy: partial — "Fresh robots.txt: User-agent: *; empty Disallow; no AI-specific policy, default allow."
- JSON LD: fail — "0 application/ld+json blocks on the homepage"
- Sitemap: partial — "sitemap.xml present but trivial (single URL — the homepage)"
- Meta quality: partial — "Fresh homepage has descriptive title and description but no OG metadata; not the complete title+description+OG required for full credit."
- Markdown negotiation: fail — "Accept: text/markdown returns the same HTML (server ignores header); no .md variant"
- Content efficiency: pass — "Raw HTML 112552 bytes contains substantive inline API/FAQ/legal/blog content (>5% readable text), not an empty app shell; fresh rendered evidence retained."
- Docs discoverable: partial — "API/FAQ are prominent tab buttons; API text is inline in HTML, but selecting hidden tab panels requires JavaScript. No ordinary docs nav anchor without JS."
- Pricing machine readable: pass — "Fresh browser-rendered structured slot table x1–x8 and calculator; raw table rows generated by inline JS rather than present as rows in initial HTML."
- Anti bot: pass — "Fresh homepage and anonymous browser role views fetched without a challenge; missing well-known/spec paths return ordinary 404."

### Drive: 7 of 11 signals present

7/11 signals (4 full, 3 partial)

- Public API: pass — "Fresh API tab documents all SSH management verbs with exact response schemas and stable --json contract. Public API is transport-neutral; absence of HTTP is not absence of a documented programmatic API."
- Openapi spec: fail — "No OpenAPI (SSH-only); --json schema via `ssh shellbox.dev help --json`"
- MCP server: fail — "No MCP; /.well-known/mcp 404"
- SDK packages: fail — "No SDK — explicitly 'no SDK'"
- Auth docs: pass — "Auth fully documented: SSH key fingerprint = account; key add/remove/list; PQ-hybrid KEX; DNSSEC SSHFP to skip TOFU"
- Agent self serve creds: pass — "First SSH connection creates account from public key fingerprint; key add/remove documented. Funding still requires Paddle checkout ($10 min); no paid runtime exercised."
- Webhooks: partial — "Inbound HTTP callbacks documented (cron → POST /cron on box; email → POST /email on box); no outbound event webhooks"
- CLI tool: pass — "The SSH verbs ARE the official CLI (`ssh shellbox.dev <verb>`)"
- Error model: partial — "FAQ: Errors still print as text to stderr with a non-zero exit code. Check exit code first, then parse stdout as JSON. No structured JSON error object model."
- Rate limit docs: partial — "200 SSH connections/min/IP documented; no API response-header rate-limit docs"
- Agent config: fail — "No agents.md / .well-known/agent / skills listing"

## Coding harnesses

- Claude Code (Anthropic) — "If you run a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) inside a keepalive box, you can have it stop the box when the task is complete." [source](https://shellbox.dev/)
- Codex CLI (OpenAI) — "If you run a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) inside a keepalive box ..." [source](https://shellbox.dev/)

Plausible compatibility (derived, not stored):

- Aider
- Amp
- Antigravity
- Devin
- Droid
- Gemini CLI
- Goose
- Hermes Agent
- Kilo Code
- Kiro CLI
- OpenCode
- Pi
- Qwen Code

## Compliance & regions

- GDPR: self-attested (scope: hosted) — "EU-operated (Finland); GDPR rights (access, rectification, erasure, portability); no cookies, no email collected, SSH-key-only identity, 30-day IP logs." [source](https://shellbox.dev/)
- Regions: helsinki (Helsinki, Finland (Hetzner auction servers))
- Regions note: Official infra tab: Bare metal in Hetzner Finland (EU). One region today; more on demand. No second region advertised.

## Company & presence

- Headquarters: Undisclosed; EU-operated service with Finland governing law and hosting
- Founded: Public product blog dates to January 2026; legal founding undisclosed
- Team size: Undisclosed
- Privacy policy: https://shellbox.dev/#legal
- Terms of service: https://shellbox.dev/#legal
- GitHub: https://github.com/skariel/shellbox
- GitHub Issues: https://github.com/skariel/shellbox.issues
- Blog: https://shellbox.dev/

## Nearby in the atlas

- [Catnip](/products/catnip.md)
- [Docker Offload](/products/docker-offload.md)
- [exe.dev](/products/exe.dev.md)
- [machine](/products/machine.md)
- [machine0](/products/machine0.md)
- [Multipass](/products/multipass.md)

## Method

Facts come from the product's own public pages. Each claim carries its evidence: a quote and the page it came from. We count capabilities rather than grade products, and "Not assessed" means we have not checked, never that the product lacks it.