Title: Automatic persistence now in beta on Vercel Sandbox - Vercel | BestBlogs.dev
URL Source: https://www.bestblogs.dev/article/46e7d520
Published Time: 2026-03-26 22:32:02
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2 min read
Mar 26, 2026 Vercel Sandboxes can now automatically save their filesystem state when stopped and restore it when resumed. This removes the need for manual snapshots, making it easier to run long-running, durable sandboxes that continue where you left off.
Link to headingHow it works
A sandbox is the durable identity, now identified by a name, its filesystem state, and configuration options. A session is the compute tied to that state, invoked as needed. Automatic persistence introduces orchestration that separates storage from compute, reducing the need for manual snapshotting, so:
* when you stop a sandbox, the session shuts down but the filesystem is automatically snapshotted.
* when you resume, a new session boots from that snapshot. This state storage is not charged, so you pay when your setting is active.
import { Sandbox } from '@vercel/sandbox';// Create a named sandboxconst sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ name: 'user-a-workspace' });await sandbox.runCommand('npm', ['install']);await sandbox.stop();// Later, resume where you left offconst sandbox = await Sandbox.get({ name: 'user-a-workspace' });await sandbox.runCommand('npm', ['run', 'dev']);
Persistence is enabled by default in the beta SDK, can be disabled between sessions with persistent: false. When disabled, the sandbox still exists after being stopped and can be resumed by its name, but each session starts with a clean filesystem.
I f a sandbox is stopped and you run a command, the SDK will transparently create a new session, so you don't need to check state or manually restart
const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ name: "long-lived-sandbox" });await sandbox.writeFiles([{ path: "run.sh", content: Buffer.from('#!/bin/bash\necho "ready"'), mode: 0o755,}]);// Days laterconst resumedSandbox = await Sandbox.get({ name: "long-lived-sandbox" });console.log(resumedSandbox.status); // stopped automaticallyawait resumedSandbox.runCommand("./run.sh"); // "Hello!"console.log(resumedSandbox.status); // running
The beta SDK adds methods for managing sandboxes over their lifetime:
const sandbox = await Sandbox.get({ name: 'user-alice' });// Scale up resources on a running sandboxawait sandbox.update({ resources: { vcpus: 4 } });// Inspect session history and snapshotsconst { sessions } = await sandbox.listSessions();const { snapshots } = await sandbox.listSnapshots();// Search across sandboxesconst { sandboxes } = await Sandbox.list({ namePrefix: 'user-', sortBy: 'name',});// Permanently remove a sandbox and all its dataawait sandbox.delete();
The beta CLI adds configuration management and session inspection:
# Spin up a sandbox for a user sandbox create --name user-alice # User runs commands — if the sandbox timed out, it resumes automatically sandbox run --name user-alice -- npm test # Check what happened across sessions sandbox sessions list user-alice # Tune resources without recreating sandbox config vcpus user-alice 4 sandbox config timeout user-alice 5h
This feature is in beta and requires upgrading to the beta SDK and CLI packages.
Install the beta packages to try persistent sandboxes today: pnpm install @vercel/sandbox@beta for the SDK, andpnpm install -g sandbox@beta for the CLI.
Persistent sandboxes are available in beta on all plans.
Learn more in the documentation.