Northflank Sandbox Example

Quick-start example for spinning up isolated, microVM-backed containers using the Northflank JS SDK. Creates a sandbox with persistent storage, executes a command inside it, and tears it down.

For the full walkthrough and API reference, see the complete documentation we provide separately.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• A Northflank account
• A Northflank API token (create one at https://app.northflank.com/s/account/settings/api/tokens)
• A Northflank project (create one at https://app.northflank.com/s/account/projects/new)

Your API token needs Project, Services, and Volumes permissions.

Setup

Install dependencies:

npm install

Set the required environment variables:

export NORTHFLANK_TOKEN=<your-api-token>
export NORTHFLANK_PROJECT_ID=<your-project-id>

Run

npm start

This will:

1. Create a deployment service with 0 instances (so a volume can be attached first)
2. Create and attach a 10 GiB persistent volume at /workspace
3. Scale to 1 instance and wait for it to become ready
4. Execute a command inside the running container via the exec API
5. Delete the sandbox service on completion

What the script does not cover

• Exposing ports publicly (see the full docs for apiClient.update.service.ports)
• Pausing a sandbox (scale to 0 instances instead of deleting)
• Custom container images (swap ubuntu:22.04 for whatever you need)

Dependencies

• @northflank/js-client -- Northflank JavaScript SDK

Project structure

index.js       -- full sandbox lifecycle script
package.json   -- project config and dependencies