Disposable dev servers for coding agents, on your own cloud account, for about a cent an hour. Hetzner Cloud today.

Install · Commands · How it works · Costs · Agent skill

Your agent edits code on your machine. devbox starts a real server in your own cloud project, copies the code there, and runs builds, tests, databases and dev servers on it. Your laptop stays light, and when the work is done the server is paused or deleted.

There is no platform in between and no subscription. The servers, snapshots and API token are yours, and you pay the provider's hourly price directly. On Hetzner Cloud, a small cx server with 2 vCPUs and 4 GB of memory costs around €0.01 an hour, and every server is capped at its monthly price. Run devbox server-types to see the current prices.

Note

devbox is early software. Hetzner Cloud is the only supported provider for now; see #35 and the backlog.

Highlights

• 💶 Pay the provider's hourly price with no markup. devbox tracks every server and snapshot, can stop at a monthly budget, and uses the hour you already paid for before shutting down
• 🔑 Your own account: servers, SSH keys, firewalls and snapshots live in your own cloud project
• 📦 devbox up reuses the running server or creates one, from the latest snapshot if there is one
• 🔁 Syncs exactly the files Git sees, once or on every save
• 🧵 Commands, background processes, logs, port forwarding and public preview URLs, which the app can read from $DEVBOX_PREVIEW_URL
• 🗄️ Dump and restore project databases (Postgres, SQLite)
• 💤 Pauses idle servers to a snapshot, without stopping work that is still running; touch --for 2h holds a server while you test it
• 🤖 --json on every command, made to be driven by an agent

Getting started

Install uv and hcloud, save a Hetzner Cloud API token, then install the CLI:

git clone https://github.com/banjo/devbox && cd devbox
uv tool install -e .
devbox doctor                                  # Check the config, token and tools.

Then start a server for a project:

devbox project add myapp --path ~/code/myapp   # Register a project.
devbox up myapp                                # Start a server and sync the code.
devbox exec myapp -- 'npm ci && npm test'      # Run a command on it.
devbox expose myapp 3000                       # Get a public preview URL.
devbox pause myapp                             # Snapshot the server and delete it.

See Installation for the full setup, including the agent skill.

Documentation

• Installation: tools, API token, config and the agent skill
• Commands: every command and the --json output
• How it works: state, labels, server choice, sync and startup
• Development loop: watch mode, pulling files, port forwarding, secrets
• Previews: public URLs, stable domains and password protection
• Databases: dumping and restoring Postgres and SQLite
• Snapshots: pause and resume
• Idle shutdown: what counts as activity, and devbox autostop
• Costs: cost tracking, budgets and using the paid hour
• Housekeeping: doctor, cleanup and history

License

MIT

Development

uv run --with pytest pytest