CLI Reference (modal-sandbox)¶
The modal-sandbox CLI is the primary developer interface for provisioning, managing, and snapshotting cloud sandboxes.
Command Syntax¶
Command Options¶
| Flag | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
-n, --name |
string | None |
Instance and Modal App name (required for standalone runs). |
-r, --repo |
string | None |
Target GitHub repository (<owner>/<repo> or shorthand <repo>). |
-b, --github-branch |
string | main |
Git branch to clone and checkout. |
--full-clone |
flag | False |
Perform a full Git clone (default is shallow clone with depth 50). |
--vm |
flag | False |
Provision a Linux VM Sandbox with Docker daemon instead of standard container. |
--testing |
flag | False |
Automatically prepend test- prefix to repository name in test organization. |
--t3 |
flag | False |
Launch T3 Code server with encrypted pairing URL and ASCII QR code. |
--agy |
flag | False |
Enable Google Gemini Antigravity CLI and Remote Control background daemon. |
--opencode |
flag | False |
Launch OpenCode server on port 4096 with web tunnel. |
--pi |
flag | False |
Install Pi Coding Agent CLI into system PATH. |
--herdr |
flag | False |
Install Herdr agent multiplexer into /usr/local/bin. |
--browser |
flag | False |
Pre-bake headless Google Chrome for Playwright and MCP tooling. |
--react-native |
flag | False |
Install Android SDK/NDK, OpenJDK 17, Watchman, and Metro bundler tunnel. |
--modal |
flag | False |
Install Modal SDK and client credentials inside sandbox virtualenv. |
--no-cloudflare |
flag | False |
Disable default Cloudflare Tunnel ingress on port 3000. |
--no-ssh-config |
flag | False |
Do not automatically append SSH connection details to ~/.ssh/config. |
--sops |
flag | False |
Retain Age private key in ~/.config/sops for interactive debugging. |
--remote |
flag | False |
Delegate sandbox execution to the hosted Modal control plane function. |
--snapshot <id> |
string | None |
Capture a filesystem snapshot of a running sandbox ID. |
--from-snapshot <img-id> |
string | None |
Launch a fresh sandbox from an existing filesystem snapshot image ID. |
--snapshot-ttl <days> |
integer | 30 |
Snapshot retention period in days (used with --snapshot). |
--terminate |
flag | False |
Terminate the sandbox immediately after taking a snapshot. |
Common Usage Examples¶
1. Launch a Standalone Development Sandbox¶
2. Clone a Target Repository with AI Agent Stack¶
3. Launch a Full Linux VM with Docker Daemon¶
4. Capture a Snapshot and Terminate¶
5. Resume from Snapshot¶
Central Environment Store CLI Utilities¶
push-repo-env¶
Encrypts and commits repository secrets or Git authorship into the centralized env-store vault without leaving sensitive unencrypted keys in the workspace.
# Push project application environment secrets to <repo>/default.env
push-repo-env [-r <repo>] [-o <org>] [-e .env]
# Push repository-specific Git authorship to <repo>/git.env
push-repo-env git --name "Jane Doe" --email "[email protected]" [-r <repo>] [-o <org>]
pull-repo-env¶
Pulls and decrypts environment secrets from the env-store vault into the local directory (mode 0600) and applies repository Git authorship locally to .git/config.
# Pull application secrets into .env and configure local Git authorship
pull-repo-env [-r <repo>] [-o <org>] [-d .env] [--optional]
ghclone¶
Clones a target repository and automatically pulls decrypted secrets and Git authorship into the cloned directory via pull-repo-env.