REST API

POST/sandboxes

Create a sandbox from a template.

Authorization

Authorizationstring

Sent as the Authorization header. Your key is used only by your browser for this request — it is never sent to Docsbook or stored.

Body

templateIDstringrequired

Identifier of the template to boot

timeoutinteger

Time to live in seconds (default 15)

autoPauseboolean

Pause instead of kill when the timeout runs out (default false)

autoPauseMemoryboolean

Keep memory in the auto-pause snapshot (default true)

autoResumeobject

Auto-resume configuration for paused sandboxes

secureboolean

Secure all system communication with the sandbox

allow_internet_accessboolean

Allow outbound internet access

networkobject

Network configuration — allowOut, denyOut, public traffic

metadataobject

Your own key-value metadata

envVarsobject

Environment variables

mcpobject

MCP gateway configuration

iamobject

Workload identity configuration

volumeMountsarray

Volumes to mount — each with name and path

Example

curl -X POST https://api.e2b.app/sandboxes \
  -H "X-API-Key: $E2B_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"templateID": "base", "timeout": 300}'

Response

201 with sandboxID, templateID, alias, envdVersion, and — for secure sandboxes — envdAccessToken and trafficAccessToken.

Errors

Status	Meaning
`400`	Bad request
`401`	Missing or invalid API key
`500`	Server error
`503`	Service unavailable — the SDKs raise `ServiceBusyError`
`504`	Backend timeout

Rate-limited calls get 429; since September 14, 2026 the SDKs retry them up to three times, honouring the server's delay. Plain HTTP clients should do the same.

The rest of the API#

Sandboxes

List, get, pause, resume, fork, timeouts, logs, metrics

Templates

Create, build, tag, delete

Volumes

Create, inspect, delete

Secrets

Create, rotate, delete

Teams

Teams and metrics

OpenAPI spec

The whole surface, machine-readable

Next#

API key

Where to find it

Sandbox lifecycle

The same operations from the SDK

Updated Sep 23, 2026