Introduction
Computers for BB threads: Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, virtual or real: desktops, terminals or simulators, shared by you and your agent.
Documentation: bbbox.dev.
Why BB Box
- Each thread gets its own computers. Boxes have the thread’s Git access, its variables and BB itself.
- Any provider. Docker, Proxmox, microsandbox, Macs with Tart, machines over SSH, or Hetzner Cloud, Namespace and boat.dev.
- Ready in seconds. A box is usually ready in seconds, and a warm box at once.
- Shared desktops. You and the agent use the same screen. The agent waits while you have control.
- Phones and tablets to test apps on. An iPhone or iPad in the iOS Simulator, or an Android device in its emulator. See device boxes.
- GPUs. A box can share an NVIDIA card or have one to itself, with
nvidia-smi, CUDA and PyTorch ready, on supported backends. See GPU boxes. - Snapshot, undo and fork. Save a box before a risky change, restore it with an undo, or fork it into a fresh box with its own identity. See snapshots.
- Resize as you go. More cores, memory, disk or a GPU when a build needs them, from the Box panel, the box’s page or the agent. See resizing a box.
- Recordings that show the work. An agent records its test run as a short clip, with each step and its result captioned. See Recordings.
- Keep boxes as your own machines. Threads can run on them, such as an always-on agent with its own desktop.
- Every machine at a glance. CPU, memory, disk, GPU and processes of every box and machine, in BB’s sidebar. See the Monitor.
- Files. Browse, search and edit a box’s files in a tab. See a box’s files.
BB Box assumes one trusted user. It is not a sandbox for code you do not trust.
Backends and boxes
| Backend | Boxes | Where they run | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Docker | Linux; Linux desktop on the CPU or an NVIDIA GPU; Wayland desktop on the CPU | containers on the machine that runs BB, another host over SSH, or a BB machine with Docker, such as a Windows PC with WSL | none yet |
| microsandbox | Linux; Linux desktop on the CPU | microVMs, each with a kernel of its own, on a Linux host with KVM or a Mac with Apple silicon: an option beside Docker, not the default | the disk, or the disk and memory; restore with an undo; fork; Keep |
| Proxmox LXC | Linux; Linux desktop on the CPU or a GPU; Wayland desktop on the CPU | containers on a Proxmox VE host | the disk, live; restore in place with an undo, but not on ZFS yet; fork; Keep as a copy that cannot start |
| Proxmox QEMU | Windows desktop; Linux with a kernel of its own, and KVM where the host allows; Android emulator devices | virtual machines on a Proxmox VE host | Linux: the disk, or the disk and memory; restore with an undo; fork and Keep from the disk. None for Windows or Android |
| Tart | macOS, with or without a desktop; Linux on arm64, with or without a desktop; Windows desktop on arm64; iOS Simulator devices, in a VM of their own or a slot on a shared host | virtual machines on your Macs with Apple silicon | macOS: the disk and memory, restored running as it was. Linux: the disk, taken while stopped. Both restore with an undo, fork and Keep. Linux desktops need reset version 9; older images refuse and say why. None for Windows or iOS |
| SSH host pool | Linux; macOS, with or without a desktop; iOS Simulator devices, in slots on its Macs | machines over SSH, physical or a VPS | none |
| Hetzner Cloud | Linux; Linux desktop on the CPU; Wayland desktop on the CPU; Linux on arm64, with or without a desktop | containers on x86 or Arm Docker hosts BB Box rents in your Hetzner Cloud project as boxes need them, and deletes when idle | none yet |
| Namespace | macOS, with or without a desktop; Linux, with KVM; Linux desktop on the CPU; Wayland desktop on the CPU; iOS Simulator devices, in slots on a shared Mac | a Namespace machine for each box, a Mac or a Linux machine, rented by the minute in your Namespace workspace, within its plan’s limits | none yet |
| boat.dev | Linux, with KVM; Linux desktop on the CPU; Android emulator devices | a boat.dev sandbox for each box, a Linux VM forked from BB Box’s template in seconds and billed by the second | on a paid plan, the disk, as a saved snapshot on your account: free up to your plan’s included ones, then $0.056 a day each; restore with an undo; fork and Keep for Linux boxes. None on the free trial |
Every kind of box, and its sizes, is in kinds and sizes. Phones and tablets are in device boxes.
Documentation
- User guide
- Setting up BB Box
- Reference
- Architecture
- Developing BB Box and writing a backend
- Decision records
- Research notes
- Design specs
- What BB Box asks of BB
Licence
BB Box is under the MIT licence. The software it bundles, and the software it installs on hosts and in images, keeps its own licence: see Third-party software.