Gotchas & Best Practices

Gotchas & Best Practices

Common Errors

"Container running indefinitely"

Cause: keepAlive: true without calling destroy() Solution: Always call destroy() when done with keepAlive containers

const sandbox = getSandbox(env.Sandbox, 'temp', { keepAlive: true });
try {
  const result = await sandbox.exec('python script.py');
  return result.stdout;
} finally {
  await sandbox.destroy();  // REQUIRED to free resources
}

"CONTAINER_NOT_READY"

Cause: Container still provisioning (first request or after sleep) Solution: Retry after 2-3s

async function execWithRetry(sandbox, cmd) {
  for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
    try {
      return await sandbox.exec(cmd);
    } catch (e) {
      if (e.code === 'CONTAINER_NOT_READY') {
        await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2000));
        continue;
      }
      throw e;
    }
  }
}

"Connection refused: container port not found"

Cause: Missing EXPOSE directive in Dockerfile Solution: Add EXPOSE <port> to Dockerfile (only needed for wrangler dev, production auto-exposes)

"Preview URLs not working"

Cause: Custom domain not configured, wildcard DNS missing, normalizeId not set, or proxyToSandbox() not called Solution: Check:

1. Custom domain configured? (not .workers.dev)
2. Wildcard DNS set up? (*.domain.com → worker.domain.com)
3. normalizeId: true in getSandbox?
4. proxyToSandbox() called first in fetch?

"Slow first request"

Cause: Cold start (container provisioning) Solution:

• Use sleepAfter instead of creating new sandboxes
• Pre-warm with cron triggers
• Set keepAlive: true for critical sandboxes

"File not persisting"

Cause: Files in /tmp or other ephemeral paths Solution: Use /workspace for persistent files

"Bucket mounting doesn't work locally"

Cause: Bucket mounting requires FUSE, not available in wrangler dev Solution: Test bucket mounting in production only. Use mock data locally.

"Different normalizeId = different sandbox"

Cause: Changing normalizeId option changes Durable Object ID Solution: Set normalizeId consistently. normalizeId: true lowercases the ID.

// These create DIFFERENT sandboxes:
getSandbox(env.Sandbox, 'MyApp');              // DO ID: hash('MyApp')
getSandbox(env.Sandbox, 'MyApp', { normalizeId: true });  // DO ID: hash('myapp')

"Code context variables disappeared"

Cause: Container restart clears code context state Solution: Code contexts are ephemeral. Recreate context after container sleep/wake.

Performance Optimization

Sandbox ID Strategy

// ❌ BAD: New sandbox every time (slow)
const sandbox = getSandbox(env.Sandbox, `user-${Date.now()}`);

// ✅ GOOD: Reuse per user
const sandbox = getSandbox(env.Sandbox, `user-${userId}`);

Sleep & Traffic Config

// Cost-optimized
getSandbox(env.Sandbox, 'id', { sleepAfter: '30m', keepAlive: false });

// Always-on (requires destroy())
getSandbox(env.Sandbox, 'id', { keepAlive: true });

// High traffic: increase max_instances
{ "containers": [{ "class_name": "Sandbox", "max_instances": 50 }] }

Security Best Practices

Sandbox Isolation

• Each sandbox = isolated container (filesystem, network, processes)
• Use unique sandbox IDs per tenant for multi-tenant apps
• Sandboxes cannot communicate directly

Input Validation

// ❌ DANGEROUS: Command injection
const result = await sandbox.exec(`python3 -c "${userCode}"`);

// ✅ SAFE: Write to file, execute file
await sandbox.writeFile('/workspace/user_code.py', userCode);
const result = await sandbox.exec('python3 /workspace/user_code.py');

Resource Limits

// Timeout long-running commands
const result = await sandbox.exec('python3 script.py', {
  timeout: 30000  // 30 seconds
});

Secrets Management

// ❌ NEVER hardcode secrets
const token = 'ghp_abc123';

// ✅ Use environment secrets
const token = env.GITHUB_TOKEN;

// Pass to sandbox via exec env
const result = await sandbox.exec('git clone ...', {
  env: { GIT_TOKEN: token }
});

Preview URL Security

Preview URLs include auto-generated tokens:

https://8080-sandbox-abc123def456.yourdomain.com

Token changes on each expose operation, preventing unauthorized access.

Limits

Performance:

• First deploy: 2-3 min for container build
• Cold start: 2-3s when waking from sleep
• Bucket mounting: Production only (FUSE not in dev)

Production Guide

See: https://developers.cloudflare.com/sandbox/guides/production-deployment/

Resources

• Official Docs
• API Reference
• Examples
• npm Package
• Discord Support