Durable filesystems
Keep a Sandbox’s files through pause and resume, and copy them into new Sandboxes with a snapshot.
Pause and resume a Sandbox without losing its local files. When you snapshot it, each clone starts with the files captured on its disk. Use an S3-backed persistent mount when different Sandboxes need the same backing files.
Choose the right filesystem
| Need | Use | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Keep a sandbox's own files as its work continues | The sandbox filesystem | Pause and resume keep the same files. A snapshot captures disk state, and a clone starts with that captured state. |
| Let different sandboxes use the same files | An S3-backed persistent filesystem mount | A filesystem that spans sandbox boundaries. |
A sandbox's own filesystem and a shared mount solve different problems. Use the sandbox filesystem for work that belongs to one sandbox, such as generated code, installed dependencies, or a working directory. Use an S3-backed persistent mount when separate sandboxes need access to the same files, such as shared inputs or artifacts.
Keep work across lifecycle changes
Pause and resume. Pause a sandbox when work needs to wait. Its files remain available when the sandbox resumes.
Snapshot and clone. A user snapshot captures the sandbox's filesystem. Create a new sandbox from that snapshot when you need the saved files. The original sandbox keeps running.
Clone. Create another sandbox from a ready snapshot, including the filesystem state it captured. This lets you branch work from a prepared environment. Later writes to the original sandbox do not change that snapshot.
A durable workflow can coordinate these operations and show sandbox activity in its trace. Keep the files your task needs as you pause, restore, or clone sandbox work. See Snapshots and restore, Cloning, and Managed lifecycle for the related controls.
Share files across sandboxes
S3-backed persistent filesystem mounts let separate sandboxes use a filesystem beyond any one sandbox's lifecycle. For example, one sandbox can prepare a dataset and other sandboxes can use that dataset in separate tasks. Mount setup, concurrent access, and write visibility need product confirmation before this page can give procedural guidance.