Install Docker Sandboxes

Install the sbx CLI to run AI coding agents in isolated microVMs. You don't need Docker Desktop or Docker Engine to use sbx.

Prerequisites#

macOS#

• macOS Sonoma version 14 or later
• Apple silicon

Windows#

• Windows 11
• A 64-bit Intel or AMD processor
• Windows Hypervisor Platform

To turn on Windows Hypervisor Platform, open an elevated PowerShell prompt and run:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform -All

Linux#

• Ubuntu 24.04 or later
• A 64-bit Intel or AMD processor, or a 64-bit Arm processor
• KVM hardware virtualization supported and turned on by the CPU
• Your user account in the kvm group

If you're running inside a virtual machine or virtual desktop infrastructure environment, the environment must support nested virtualization.

Verify that KVM is available:

$ lsmod | grep kvm

A working setup shows kvm_intel, kvm_amd, kvm_arm64, or kvm in the output. If the output is empty, run kvm-ok for diagnostics. sbx requires KVM to start.

Add your user to the kvm group:

$ sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER

Sign out and back in, or run newgrp kvm, for the group change to take effect.

Install on macOS#

Install sbx using Homebrew:

$ brew trust docker/tap
$ brew install docker/tap/sbx

Install on Windows#

Install for the current user#

Install sbx using Windows Package Manager:

winget install -h Docker.sbx

WinGet installs the per-user DockerSandboxes.msi package in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DockerSandboxes and adds its bin directory to your user PATH. You can install it without administrator privileges.

Install for all users#

For administrator-managed deployments, download DockerSandboxesMachine.msi from the Docker Sandboxes releases. From an elevated PowerShell prompt, install the package silently:

msiexec.exe /i DockerSandboxesMachine.msi /quiet

The machine-wide package installs in %ProgramFiles%\DockerSandboxes and adds its bin directory to the system PATH.

A machine-wide upgrade might require restarting Windows if an sbx daemon in another user's session is using the installed files.

Install on Ubuntu#

[!NOTE]

Docker does not test or support Docker Sandboxes on Ubuntu derivatives, such as Linux Mint and Pop!_OS. The convenience script can configure an incorrect package repository on these distributions.

You can install sbx with Docker Engine or install only the sbx package.

Install Docker Engine and SBX#

Run Docker's convenience script with SBX=1 to install Docker Engine and the docker-sbx package together:

$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo SBX=1 sh

Install SBX only#

To install sbx without Docker Engine on the host, add Docker's apt repository and install the docker-sbx package:

$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo REPO_ONLY=1 sh
$ sudo apt install docker-sbx

Install from release artifacts#

To install sbx from a package or archive, follow the manual installation instructions. The availability of a Linux release artifact does not indicate that Docker tests or supports the corresponding distribution.

Sign in#

Sign in to Docker:

$ sbx login

The command opens a browser for Docker OAuth. See the FAQ for why sign-in is required and how Docker handles your data.

After signing in, run your first sandbox.