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Install custom packages

There are two ways to install custom packages in the E2B Sandbox.

  1. Create custom sandbox with preinstalled packages.
  2. Install packages during the sandbox runtime.

Create a custom sandbox

Use this option if you know beforehand what packages you need in the sandbox.

Prerequisites:

  • E2B CLI
  • Docker running

Custom sandbox template is a Docker image that we automatically convert to a sandbox that you can then start with our SDK.

1. Install E2B CLI

Install the E2B CLI globally on your machine with NPM.

Terminal
npm i -g @e2b/cli

2. Login to E2B CLI

Before you can create a custom sandbox, you need to login to E2B CLI.

Terminal
e2b auth login

2. Initialize a sandbox template

Terminal
e2b sandbox template init

3. Specify the packages you need in e2b.Dockerfile

Edit the E2B Dockerfile to install the packages you need.

You need to use the e2bdev/code-interpreter:latest base image.

e2b.Dockerfile

FROM e2bdev/code-interpreter:latest

RUN pip install cowsay
RUN npm install cowsay

4. Build the sandbox template

Run the following command to build the sandbox template.

Terminal
e2b sandbox template build -c "/root/.jupyter/start-up.sh"

This will take a while, as it convert the Docker image to a sandbox which is a small VM. At the end of the process you will see the sandbox ID like this:

Running postprocessing. It can take up to few minutes.

Postprocessing finished.

āœ… Building sandbox template YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID finished.

5. Start your custom sandbox

Now you can pass the template ID to the SDK to start your custom sandbox.

import { Sandbox } from '@e2b/code-interpreter'

const sbx = Sandbox.create({
  template: 'YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID',
})

Install packages during the sandbox runtime

Use this option if don't know beforehand what packages you need in the sandbox. You can install packages with the package manager of your choice.

The packages installed during the runtime are available only in the running sandbox instance. When you start a new sandbox instance, the packages are not be available.

1. Install Python packages with PIP

import { Sandbox } from '@e2b/code-interpreter'

const sbx = Sandbox.create()
sbx.commands.run('pip install cowsay') // This will install the cowsay package
sbx.runCode(`
  import cowsay
  cowsay.cow("Hello, world!")
`)

2. Install Node.js packages with NPM

import { Sandbox } from '@e2b/code-interpreter'

const sbx = Sandbox.create()
sbx.commands.run('npm install cowsay') // This will install the cowsay package
sbx.runCode(`
  const cowsay = require('cowsay')
  console.log(cowsay.say({ text: 'Hello, world!' }))
`, { language: 'javascript' })

3. Install packages with package manager of your choice

Since E2B Sandboxes are Debian based machines, you can use any package manager supported by Debian. You just need to make sure that the package manager is already installed in the sandbox.

For example, to install curl and git, you can use the following commands:

import { Sandbox } from '@e2b/code-interpreter'

const sbx = Sandbox.create()
await sbx.commands.run('apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl git')