Agents and forks

Let an agent drive it

The Windows apps open as ordinary windows on the sandbox desktop. A prompt is enough:

boat prompt bx_f7k2q9hd --provider claude "Open HeidiSQL, connect to the MySQL server on localhost, and export the users table to CSV"

curl -sS -X POST "$BOAT_API_BASE/sandboxes/bx_f7k2q9hd/prompt" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BOAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"provider":"claude","prompt":"Open HeidiSQL, connect to the MySQL server on localhost, and export the users table to CSV"}'

await sandbox.prompt({
  sandboxId: "bx_f7k2q9hd",
  provider: "claude",
  prompt: "Open HeidiSQL, connect to the MySQL server on localhost, and export the users table to CSV",
});

sandbox.prompt("bx_f7k2q9hd", PromptRequest(
    provider="claude",
    prompt="Open HeidiSQL, connect to the MySQL server on localhost, and export the users table to CSV",
))

For scripted steps, xdotool and wmctrl are installed. Examples:

wmctrl -l lists the open windows.
wmctrl -a HeidiSQL brings one window to the front.

To record the run, use ascii-record-desktop.

Set up once, fork many times

The Wine set-up is in ~/.wine and in the system packages. Stop, resume and fork keep both. In our test, a sandbox with Wine and 40 Windows apps (16 GB) gave these results:

Action	Time	Result
Fork	About 2 minutes until the desktop accepts windows	Every app starts. Notepad++ keeps its unsaved text.
Stop	4 seconds
Resume	20 to 32 seconds, on a different machine	Every app starts.

To use this:

Make one sandbox with the apps that your agents need.
Fork it for each task. Read Snapshots & Copies.

Running Windows programs do not survive a stop or a fork. Start them again after a resume.

​Let an agent drive it

​Set up once, fork many times

Let an agent drive it

Set up once, fork many times