The adapter package keeps its pre-rename name until it is republished under the sandbox name; everything it talks to is Boat.
@asciidev/eve-box connects the two. It is an Eve sandbox backend that maps Eve’s filesystem and process operations onto the Boat API, so your Eve agents run on real sandbox machines instead of your laptop.
New to both? You only need two things to follow this guide: Node.js 18+ and a Boat API key. No prior Eve or Boat experience required.
How it fits together
- Eve owns your agent logic and calls a sandbox to do filesystem and shell work.
@asciidev/eve-boxis the adapter you plug into Eve.- Boat is the machine the work actually happens on.
Set it up
1
Create a Boat account
Sign in at boat.dev with GitHub and start a Boat plan, which includes a free 7-day trial. You need an account to create sandboxes. See the Boat quickstart for the full onboarding walkthrough.
2
Get a Boat API key
Create a key from the API keys tab of the Boat dashboard. Keep it secret: store it in an environment variable, never in source control.
3
Install the packages
"module": "NodeNext", "target": "ES2022", "lib": ["ES2022", "DOM"]) and "type": "module" in package.json.4
Define the sandbox backend
Point Eve’s sandbox at Boat. In an Eve project this lives in your sandbox definition file:That’s it: Eve agents in this project now run on Boat.
sandbox.ts
A complete example
This standalone script creates a sandbox-backed sandbox session and exercises the operations Eve relies on: running commands, reading files, and writing files. It runs on its own so you can verify your setup before wiring the backend into a larger Eve agent.hello-sandbox.ts
uname output, and exit code 0.
What the backend maps
Configuration
asciiBox(options) accepts:
Running agents for other people
WithnoEnv: true the sandbox starts empty and confined to itself. You then give it exactly what it needs: secrets through env, and files and setup through Eve’s onSession hook.
sandbox.ts
env keys merge over your account variables (per-sandbox wins; at most 100 variables, 64 KB total; reserved Boat-internal names are rejected). writeFile/readFile move bytes in and out and run/spawn execute commands as the Eve-native equivalents of boat scp and boat ssh <id> <cmd>. A no-env sandbox can’t reach your private repos, so clone public ones or have the user authenticate inside the sandbox. See No-env sandboxes.
Reusing a prepared environment
Setup runs when each session’s sandbox is first created. If you want many sessions to start from the same fully prepared state, fork a sandbox: prepare one, stop it so its snapshot completes, then fork it; each clone keeps the entire filesystem. See Fork sandbox.Network policies
Boat does not yet enforce Eve’s fine-grained network policies. The backend accepts"allow-all" and throws EveSandboxUnsupportedError for stricter policies ("deny-all", allow-lists, subnet rules), so you never get a false sense of isolation. If you need firewall-backed policies, run that Eve agent on a backend that supports them.
Resources
npm package
@asciidev/eve-box on npm.Source on GitHub
Issues, examples, and the adapter source.
Boat quickstart
Install Boat and create your first sandbox.
Boat API keys
Create and manage the key this adapter needs.