Long-running sandboxes

By default, a sandbox timeout is effective for at most 1 hour — any larger value is capped. Long-running mode lifts this cap: with it enabled, the timeout you pass when creating the sandbox can exceed 1 hour. This is useful for workloads that need to stay alive well beyond a typical session, such as persistent services, long-running agent tasks, or background jobs. Long-running mode is configured via the metadata field when creating a sandbox. The key is long_running and the value is "true" (as a string).

long_running works together with timeout: set the timeout you actually need when creating the sandbox — with long_running enabled, it can exceed the default 1-hour cap. Without long_running, timeout is effective for at most 1 hour. If timeout is not set, it defaults to 5 mins.

Long-running mode does not disable idle timeout: if you set one, it still applies, and an inactive sandbox will be paused or killed accordingly.

Basic usage

Pass the long_running key in the metadata object when creating a sandbox.

import { Novita } from 'novita-sandbox'

const novita = new Novita({
  apiKey: process.env.NOVITA_API_KEY || '',
})

// Create a long-running code-interpreter sandbox.
// With long_running enabled, timeoutMs can exceed the default 1-hour cap.
const sandbox = await novita.codeInterpreter.create({
  metadata: {
    long_running: 'true',
  },
  timeoutMs: 86_400_000, // 24 hours
})

import os
from novita_sandbox import Novita

novita = Novita(api_key=os.environ['NOVITA_API_KEY'])

# Create a long-running code-interpreter sandbox.
# With long_running enabled, timeout can exceed the default 1-hour cap.
sandbox = novita.code_interpreter.create(
    metadata={
        'long_running': 'true',
    },
    timeout=86_400,  # 24 hours
)

# --long-running writes long_running=true to the metadata
novita sandbox create base --long-running --timeout 24h -d

How it works

On create (and resume), when long_running is set, the timeout you pass can exceed the default 1-hour maximum running time.

Scope and inheritance

Only create accepts the long_running parameter.
resume (including auto-resume): a sandbox created with long_running keeps the behavior after being resumed from a snapshot.
clone inherits the parameter, and the sandbox keeps it when it continues running after a reset.

Examples

Create a long-running sandbox that stays alive for up to 7 days:

import { Novita } from 'novita-sandbox'

const novita = new Novita({
  apiKey: process.env.NOVITA_API_KEY || '',
})

// 7 days = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 ms
const sandbox = await novita.codeInterpreter.create({
  metadata: {
    long_running: 'true',
  },
  timeoutMs: 604_800_000,
})

import os
from novita_sandbox import Novita

novita = Novita(api_key=os.environ['NOVITA_API_KEY'])

# 7 days = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 seconds
sandbox = novita.code_interpreter.create(
    metadata={
        'long_running': 'true',
    },
    timeout=604_800,
)

# Create a long-running sandbox that stays alive for up to 7 days
novita sandbox create base --long-running --timeout 168h -d

Get started

Model APIs

Novita Sandbox

GPUs

Observability

Resources

Basic usage

How it works

Scope and inheritance

Examples

​Basic usage

​How it works

​Scope and inheritance

​Examples

Basic usage

How it works

Scope and inheritance

Examples