Install Docker Sandboxes

Install the sbx CLI to run AI coding agents in isolated microVMs. You don't need Docker Desktop or Docker Engine to use sbx.

Prerequisites

macOS

• macOS Sonoma version 14 or later
• Apple silicon

Windows

• Windows 11
• A 64-bit Intel or AMD processor
• Windows Hypervisor Platform

To turn on Windows Hypervisor Platform, open an elevated PowerShell prompt and run:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform -All

Linux

• Ubuntu 24.04 or later
• A 64-bit Intel or AMD processor, or a 64-bit Arm processor
• KVM hardware virtualization supported and turned on by the CPU
• Your user account in the kvm group

If you're running inside a virtual machine or virtual desktop infrastructure environment, the environment must support nested virtualization.

Verify that KVM is available:

$ lsmod | grep kvm

A working setup shows kvm_intel, kvm_amd, kvm_arm64, or kvm in the output. If the output is empty, run kvm-ok for diagnostics. sbx requires KVM to start.

Add your user to the kvm group:

$ sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER

Sign out and back in, or run newgrp kvm, for the group change to take effect.

Install on macOS

Install sbx using Homebrew:

$ brew trust docker/tap
$ brew install docker/tap/sbx

Install on Windows

Install sbx using Windows Package Manager:

winget install -h Docker.sbx

Install on Ubuntu

Note

Docker does not test or support Docker Sandboxes on Ubuntu derivatives, such as Linux Mint and Pop!_OS. The convenience script can configure an incorrect package repository on these distributions.

You can install sbx with Docker Engine or install only the sbx package.

Install Docker Engine and SBX

Run Docker's convenience script with SBX=1 to install Docker Engine and the docker-sbx package together:

$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo SBX=1 sh

Install SBX only

To install sbx without Docker Engine on the host, add Docker's apt repository and install the docker-sbx package:

$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo REPO_ONLY=1 sh
$ sudo apt install docker-sbx

Install from release artifacts

To install sbx from a package or archive, follow the manual installation instructions. The availability of a Linux release artifact does not indicate that Docker tests or supports the corresponding distribution.

Sign in

Sign in to Docker:

$ sbx login

The command opens a browser for Docker OAuth. See the FAQ for why sign-in is required and how Docker handles your data.

After signing in, run your first sandbox.