> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://opensandbox-oc-s-762ac928075c46d2828bcb22.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> Create your first sandbox in 2 minutes

## Prerequisites

An OpenComputer API key and the SDK installed. See [Introduction](/introduction) for install instructions.

```bash theme={null}
export OPENCOMPUTER_API_KEY=your-api-key
```

<Tip>Grab your API key from [app.opencomputer.dev](https://app.opencomputer.dev)</Tip>

## Create Your First Sandbox

<CodeGroup>
  ```typescript TypeScript theme={null}
  import { Sandbox } from "@opencomputer/sdk";

  const sandbox = await Sandbox.create();

  // Run a command inside the sandbox
  const result = await sandbox.commands.run("echo 'Hello World from OpenSandbox!'");
  console.log(result.stdout);

  await sandbox.kill();
  ```

  ```python Python theme={null}
  import asyncio
  from opencomputer import Sandbox

  async def main():
      sandbox = await Sandbox.create()

      # Run a command inside the sandbox
      result = await sandbox.commands.run("echo 'Hello World from OpenSandbox!'")
      print(result.stdout)

      await sandbox.kill()

  asyncio.run(main())
  ```
</CodeGroup>

Running this will print:

```
Hello World from OpenSandbox!
```

<Note>
  Your sandboxes stay alive as long as you need them. They don't shut down after a command finishes — you can keep running commands, installing packages, and building projects for hours or days. Sandboxes only stop when you explicitly kill them or when the idle timeout expires (default 5 minutes, configurable).
</Note>

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Elastic Compute" icon="gauge-high" href="/sandboxes/elasticity">
    Scale memory and CPU at runtime based on workload
  </Card>

  <Card title="Upload & Download Files" icon="file-arrow-up" href="/sandboxes/working-with-files">
    Read, write, and transfer files to and from sandboxes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Custom Sandboxes" icon="palette" href="/sandboxes/templates">
    Build custom environments with your own packages and tools
  </Card>

  <Card title="Checkpoints" icon="code-branch" href="/sandboxes/checkpoints">
    Snapshot and fork VMs for parallel experimentation
  </Card>
</CardGroup>