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A sandbox is the environment where OpenHands runs commands, edits files, and starts servers while working on your task. In OpenHands V1, we use the term sandbox (not “runtime”) for this concept.

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Sandbox providers

OpenHands supports multiple sandbox “providers”, with different tradeoffs:
  • Docker sandbox (recommended)
    • Runs the agent server inside a Docker container.
    • Good isolation from your host machine.
  • Process sandbox (unsafe, but fast)
    • Runs the agent server as a regular process on your machine.
    • No container isolation.
  • Remote sandbox
    • Runs the agent server in a remote environment.
    • Used by managed deployments and some hosted setups.

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Selecting a provider (current behavior)

In some deployments, the provider selection is still controlled via the legacy RUNTIME environment variable:
  • RUNTIME=docker (default)
  • RUNTIME=process (aka legacy RUNTIME=local)
  • RUNTIME=remote
The user-facing terminology in V1 is sandbox, but the configuration knob may still be called RUNTIME while the migration is in progress.

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Terminology note (V0 vs V1)

Older documentation refers to these environments as runtimes. Those legacy docs are now in the Web (V0) tab.