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Namespace Devbox Provider

Read this when you:

  • choose provider: namespace-devbox;
  • configure the Devbox image, size, repository, site, volume, or release behavior;
  • change internal/providers/namespace.

Namespace Devbox is an SSH-lease provider. The Namespace devbox CLI owns authentication, creation, SSH configuration, listing, shutdown, and deletion. Crabbox layers its normal contract on top: local slugs, repo claims, dirty-tree sync, command execution, timing, and normalized list/status output.

The provider runs direct from the CLI — it never goes through the broker coordinator. Targets Linux only.

When to use

Use Namespace Devbox when your environment should come from a Namespace Devbox image and you want Crabbox's standard SSH sync/run path on top. If you instead want the provider to own sync and command execution, use the Blacksmith Testbox provider, which runs through blacksmith testbox run.

Prerequisites

Install the Namespace devbox CLI and authenticate before using Crabbox:

devbox login

Crabbox does not store Namespace credentials — it shells out to devbox for every lifecycle operation, so the CLI must already be logged in.

Commands

crabbox warmup --provider namespace-devbox --namespace-image builtin:base --namespace-size M
crabbox run --provider namespace-devbox --id swift-crab -- pnpm test
crabbox ssh --provider namespace-devbox --id swift-crab
crabbox status --provider namespace-devbox --id swift-crab
crabbox stop --provider namespace-devbox swift-crab

Aliases for the provider name: namespace, namespace-devboxes.

Configuration

provider: namespace-devbox
target: linux
namespace:
  image: builtin:base
  size: M
  repository: github.com/example-org/my-app
  site: ""
  volumeSizeGB: 100
  autoStopIdleTimeout: 30m
  workRoot: /workspaces/crabbox
  deleteOnRelease: false

Defaults baked into Crabbox: image: builtin:base, workRoot: /workspaces/crabbox, autoStopIdleTimeout: 30m. size, repository, site, and volumeSizeGB are unset by default (size is then derived from --class, see below).

Provider flags:

--namespace-image
--namespace-size
--namespace-repository
--namespace-site
--namespace-volume-size-gb
--namespace-auto-stop-idle-timeout
--namespace-work-root
--namespace-delete-on-release

Environment overrides:

CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_IMAGE
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_SIZE
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_REPOSITORY
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_SITE
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_VOLUME_SIZE_GB
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_AUTO_STOP_IDLE_TIMEOUT
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_WORK_ROOT
CRABBOX_NAMESPACE_DELETE_ON_RELEASE

Lifecycle

  1. Crabbox writes a temporary Devbox spec and runs devbox create --from <spec>.
  2. It runs devbox configure-ssh and reads the generated SSH config and key (connecting as user devbox).
  3. It waits for SSH readiness plus the git, rsync, and tar tools the sync path needs.
  4. It records a local Crabbox lease claim and runs through the normal SSH executor.
  5. crabbox stop shuts the Devbox down (devbox shutdown --force) by default. The local claim and generated SSH files remain available for reuse. Set namespace.deleteOnRelease: true (or --namespace-delete-on-release) to delete the Devbox and those local SSH files instead (devbox delete --force).

Capabilities

  • SSH: yes.
  • Crabbox sync: yes — standard rsync over SSH.
  • Cleanup: yes — crabbox cleanup --provider namespace-devbox sweeps stale local Devbox SSH config/key artifacts.
  • Actions hydration: yes — same Linux SSH contract as other SSH-lease providers.
  • Desktop / browser / code: not surfaced for this provider.
  • Coordinator (broker): never; always direct from the CLI.

Size mapping

--namespace-size accepts S, M, L, or XL. When size is unset, Crabbox derives it from --class:

Class Size
standard S
fast M
large L
beast XL

An empty class resolves to M. An explicit --namespace-size (or namespace.size) always wins over the class mapping.

Gotchas

  • Run devbox login first. Crabbox does not store Namespace credentials.
  • builtin:base is the current Namespace built-in base image. Avoid default; the current CLI treats that as a Docker image reference.
  • Namespace Devboxes can pause/resume outside Crabbox; stopped Devboxes keep their persistent storage. Crabbox also keeps the stopped lease claim and SSH configuration so later run, ssh, and pond connect commands can resume it.
  • namespace.repository asks Namespace to clone a repo on create, but Crabbox still syncs your local dirty checkout into namespace.workRoot.
  • namespace.workRoot must be an absolute path under a dedicated subdirectory; broad roots such as /, /home, /tmp, or /workspaces are rejected.

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