Skip to main content
Each tool does one job. Most setups use two or three of them together. Rules:
  • Put slow installs in a named snapshot. A setup script repeats them at every start.
  • Put secrets in an environment, never in a named snapshot. A named snapshot keeps every file on its disk.
  • Boat has no custom image and no Dockerfile build. A named snapshot does that job: install your tools in a sandbox, then save it.

​
Example 1: a web app with a database URL

You want each sandbox to have your repository, its dependencies and a DATABASE_URL.
  1. Add the repository and the variable to an environment:
  2. Add the repository setup script npm install in Dashboard > Environment.
  3. Create sandboxes with boat new. Each one clones the repository, gets the variable and runs npm install.

​
Example 2: heavy tools installed once

You need Python ML packages, a large dataset and Playwright browsers. They take 10 minutes to install.
  1. Create one sandbox and install everything in it:
  2. Save the disk as a named snapshot:
  3. Create each new sandbox from it. The tools are already there:
The environment still adds your secrets at each start. Read Named snapshots.

​
Example 3: one task file per sandbox

Each sandbox works on a different customer ticket. The setup differs per sandbox.
The --setup-file script runs once, as the user user. A fork does not run it again. Read Per-sandbox setup file.