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Box gives you on-demand Linux VMs in seconds. Each box is a fully isolated machine pre-loaded with the tools you need to code, test, or run AI agents — accessible from your terminal or the web dashboard.

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Key concepts

ConceptWhat it means
BoxA single Linux VM with a unique ID like bx_f7k2q9hd
TTLHow long the box lives before it auto-deletes (default 1 hour, max 30 days)
SnapshotA point-in-time image of a box, used for stop/resume and fork
Credit secondsThe billing unit — seconds your box is in an active state

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Box lifecycle

Billable states: provisioned, cloning, ready, idle, running
Not billed: archived (stopped), provisioning, archiving, error

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Box IDs

Every box gets a unique public ID in the format bx_<8 chars> (e.g. bx_f7k2q9hd). Use this ID with every CLI command. Internal UUIDs are never exposed.