Sandbox-client communication interface

[nkvch]

There are cases when code executed in sandbox needs to make something inside the app, e.g. create something in database, and currently it's not easily achievable.
Before switching to E2B we in our product used self hosted Jupyter notebooks and in Jupyter you can use comms to send messages to client, e.g.

comm.send({ "action": "create", "payload": {...} })

It would be nice to have a developer-friendly interface like that in e2b:

sbx = Sandbox()

sbx.on_message(lambda msg_type, payload: ...)

# or

async for msg in sbx.messages():
      .....

Currently for lack of better way we are considering 2 options: either use some markers in stdout communication (prints basically) and capture them, or allow HTTP requests from sandbox to our server - but neither of 2 options seem very good for us.

[linear]

E2B-1932 Sandbox-client communication interface

[mishushakov]

Can you provide an example of what you're trying to achieve?

[nkvch]

@mishushakov AI writes code that uses my app APIs to create something in database:

# other code

create_note("content")

# some other code

I want the code to run in e2b, but being able to handle internal API calls (such as "create_note") in my app without opening REST Endpoints to the internet

Basically, I would like to have a method to receive structured messages from sandbox

[mishushakov]

Okay, I see, so you want to handle the function outside of the Sandbox, correct?

[nkvch]

Okay, I see, so you want to handle the function outside of the Sandbox, correct?

right!

[nkvch]

more generally, if I have a way to post messages on some channel from sandbox, then I would be able to define a function in sandbox, e.g.:

def create_note(data: str):
    messages.post({ "type": "create_note", "payload": data })

and then handle it in my app e.g.:

def on_sbx_message(type: str, payload: Any):
    match type:
        case "create_note"
            # handling logic here

sbx.on_message(on_sbx_message)

[mishushakov]

Thanks! We will be taking a look, certainly, but I cannot give you a concrete timeline - the team is pretty occupied atm.