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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://e2b-squash-sandbox-pages.mintlify.app/llms.txt

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E2B sandboxes support environment variables at multiple levels: default metadata variables set automatically, global variables set at sandbox creation, and per-command overrides.

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Default environment variables

Upon creating a sandbox, useful sandbox metadata is set as environment variables for commands:
  • E2B_SANDBOX is set to true for processes to know if they are inside our VM.
  • E2B_SANDBOX_ID to know the ID of the sandbox.
  • E2B_TEAM_ID to know the team ID that created the sandbox.
  • E2B_TEMPLATE_ID to know what template was used for the current sandbox.
You can try it out by running the following code in the sandbox: 
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create()
const result = await sandbox.commands.run('echo $E2B_SANDBOX_ID')
These default environment variables are only accessible via the SDK, when using the CLI you can find them in the form of dot files in the /run/e2b/ dir:
user@e2b:~$ ls -a /run/e2b/
.E2B_SANDBOX  .E2B_SANDBOX_ID  .E2B_TEAM_ID  .E2B_TEMPLATE_ID

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Setting environment variables

There are 3 ways to set environment variables in a sandbox:
  1. Global environment variables when creating the sandbox.
  2. When running code in the sandbox.
  3. When running commands in the sandbox.

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Global environment variables

You can set global environment variables when creating a sandbox. 
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({
  envs: {
    MY_VAR: 'my_value',
  },
})

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Per code execution

You can set environment variables for a specific code execution call in the sandbox.
  • These environment variables are scoped to the command but are not private in the OS.
  • If you had a global environment variable with the same name, it will be overridden only for the command.
import { Sandbox } from '@e2b/code-interpreter'

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create()
const result = await sandbox.runCode('import os; print(os.environ.get("MY_VAR"))', {
  envs: {
    MY_VAR: 'my_value',
  },
})

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Per command

You can set environment variables for a specific command execution in the sandbox.
  • These environment variables are scoped to the command but are not private in the OS.
  • If you had a global environment variable with the same name, it will be overridden only for the command.
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create()
sandbox.commands.run('echo $MY_VAR', {
  envs: {
    MY_VAR: '123',
  },
})