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CLI commands

Sandbox CLI

Status: active

Manage sandbox runtimes for isolated agent execution: Docker/Podman containers, SSH targets, or OpenShell backends.

openclaw agent exec preserves a sandbox selected by the inherited config or --config, including its execution routing. Without a configured sandbox, its defaults allow full Gateway-host execution and restrict filesystem tools to --cwd. --isolated and --auth-env-only skip config inheritance and use those defaults.

Commands

openclaw sandbox list

List sandbox runtimes with status, backend, config match, age, idle time, and associated session/agent.

For configured plugin-provided backends such as OpenShell, the CLI loads the owning backend plugin before checking live runtime status. Browser-only operations do not require backend plugin activation.

bash
openclaw sandbox listopenclaw sandbox list --browser  # browser containers onlyopenclaw sandbox list --json

openclaw sandbox recreate

Remove sandbox runtimes to force recreation with current config. Runtimes are recreated automatically the next time the agent is used.

bash
openclaw sandbox recreate --allopenclaw sandbox recreate --agent mybot        # includes agent:mybot:* sub-sessionsopenclaw sandbox recreate --session "agent:main:main"openclaw sandbox recreate --browser --all      # only browser containersopenclaw sandbox recreate --all --force        # skip confirmation

Options:

  • --all: recreate all sandbox containers
  • --session <key>: recreate the runtime with this exact scope key (as shown by sandbox list); no short-name expansion
  • --agent <id>: recreate runtimes for one agent (matches agent:<id> and agent:<id>:*)
  • --browser: only affect browser containers
  • --force: skip the confirmation prompt

Pass exactly one of --all, --session, or --agent.

Recreation requires exclusive offline ownership of the selected state directory. If its Gateway is running, the command refuses before inspecting or removing runtimes. Stop the Gateway through its service owner, wait for ownership to release, then rerun the command. Offline ownership stays held through confirmation and accepted teardown; a starting Gateway waits until cleanup settles. --force does not bypass this ownership check.

See local state owner routing for owner discovery, refusal states, and compatibility boundaries.

Scoped recreation selects registry entries before inspecting their backends. An unrelated runtime on another Podman connection or an unavailable backend does not block --session or --agent. The selected runtime still requires its recorded target to be active and reachable; --force only skips the confirmation prompt. Browser-only recreation does not inspect regular sandbox runtimes.

When recorded Podman targets differ, an unscoped sandbox list can still fail its target check. Restore the affected runtime's original connection, use its known exact scope key with recreate --session, and review the preview before confirming. If you do not know the exact scope, keep the registry intact; do not guess a key, broaden to --all, or rewrite its recorded target to bypass validation.

For ssh and OpenShell remote, recreate matters more than with Docker: the remote workspace becomes the source of truth after the initial seed, recreate deletes that remote workspace for the selected scope, and the next run reseeds it from the current local workspace.

openclaw sandbox explain

Inspect the effective sandbox mode/scope/workspace access, sandbox tool policy, and elevated-tool gates (with fix-it config key paths).

The report keeps workspaceRoot as the configured sandbox root and separately shows the effective host workspace, backend runtime workdir, and Docker mount table. For workspaceAccess: "rw", the effective host workspace is the agent workspace rather than a directory below workspaceRoot.

bash
openclaw sandbox explainopenclaw sandbox explain --session agent:main:mainopenclaw sandbox explain --agent workopenclaw sandbox explain --json

Unlike recreate --session, this accepts short session names (for example main) and expands them against the resolved agent. An explicit --agent is sufficient for multi-agent fleets with no implicit owner; sandbox explanation does not require or guess a default first.

Why recreate is needed

Updating sandbox config does not affect running containers: existing runtimes keep their old settings, and idle runtimes are only pruned after prune.idleHours (default 24h). Regularly used agents can keep stale runtimes alive indefinitely. openclaw sandbox recreate removes the old runtime so the next use rebuilds it from current config.

Common triggers

Run openclaw sandbox recreate --all after any of these changes:

  • Container sandbox image update: agents.defaults.sandbox.docker.image
  • Sandbox config: agents.defaults.sandbox.*
  • SSH target/auth: agents.defaults.sandbox.ssh.{target,workspaceRoot,identityFile,certificateFile,knownHostsFile,identityData,certificateData,knownHostsData}
  • OpenShell source/policy/mode: plugins.entries.openshell.config.{from,mode,policy}
  • setupCommand — --agent <id> recreates one agent instead of all

Registry migration

Sandbox runtime metadata lives in the shared SQLite state database. Older installs may have legacy registry files that regular reads no longer rewrite:

  • ~/.openclaw/sandbox/containers.json
  • ~/.openclaw/sandbox/browsers.json
  • one JSON shard per container/browser under ~/.openclaw/sandbox/containers/ or ~/.openclaw/sandbox/browsers/

Run openclaw doctor --fix to migrate valid legacy entries into SQLite. Invalid legacy files are quarantined so a corrupt old registry cannot hide current runtime entries.

Configuration

Sandbox settings live in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under agents.defaults.sandbox (per-agent overrides go in agents.entries.*.sandbox):

jsonc
{  "agents": {    "defaults": {      "sandbox": {        "mode": "all", // off, non-main, all        "backend": "docker", // docker, podman, ssh; openshell is plugin-provided        "scope": "agent", // session, agent, shared        "docker": {          "image": "openclaw-sandbox:bookworm-slim",          "containerPrefix": "openclaw-sbx-",          // ... more Docker options        },        "prune": {          "idleHours": 24, // auto-prune after 24h idle          "maxAgeDays": 7, // auto-prune after 7 days        },      },    },  },}
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