Daytona
Arcade tools designed for LLMs to interact with Daytona sandboxes
Arcade's Daytona toolkit lets LLMs create and manage isolated Daytona sandboxes — running code, executing shell commands, managing files, operating Git workflows, and controlling sandbox lifecycle entirely through tool calls.
Capabilities
- Sandbox lifecycle & configuration — create (from snapshot or Docker image), start, stop, archive, delete, and resize sandboxes; configure auto-stop, auto-archive, and auto-delete intervals; list available regions; set labels for filtering.
- Code & command execution — run code directly in the sandbox interpreter, execute shell commands, and manage persistent background sessions for long-running processes (dev servers, watchers) with async command support and log retrieval.
- File system operations — read, write, move, delete, list, find by glob, search content via regex (grep-backed), and do bulk find-and-replace across multiple files.
- Git workflows — clone (with automatic GitHub OAuth token injection), branch, checkout, stage, commit, push, pull, and inspect status and history; non-GitHub remotes supported via manual credentials.
- Snapshot management — create, inspect, and list sandbox image templates (snapshots) used as base environments for new sandboxes.
- Networking & access — list active ports, retrieve port preview URLs (standard or signed), and generate SSH access credentials with configurable expiry.
OAuth
This toolkit uses GitHub as its OAuth 2.0 provider. Arcade manages token acquisition and refresh automatically; users authorize once. GitHub OAuth is used specifically to authenticate Git operations (clone, push, pull) against private GitHub repositories — no credentials need to be embedded in tool calls.
See the Arcade GitHub auth provider docs for setup details: https://docs.arcade.dev/en/references/auth-providers/github
Secrets
DAYTONA_API_KEY— A Daytona API key that authenticates all requests to the Daytona platform (sandbox CRUD, snapshots, file operations, session management, etc.). Obtain it from the Daytona dashboard under your account's API Keys section. The key identifies the Daytona account whose resources (sandboxes, snapshots, quota) are used; theWhoAmItool will return the user profile associated with it. Treat this key as a credential with full access to your Daytona account.
For configuring secrets in Arcade, see https://docs.arcade.dev/en/guides/create-tools/tool-basics/create-tool-secrets. Secrets can also be managed via the Arcade dashboard.
Available tools(46)
| Tool name | Description | Secrets | |
|---|---|---|---|
Archive a stopped sandbox to reduce storage costs.
The sandbox must be stopped first. Can be started again later, though
startup takes longer than from stopped state. | 1 | ||
Configure auto-stop, auto-archive, and/or auto-delete intervals.
Only provided values are updated. WARNING: auto_delete_minutes=0 means
immediate deletion upon stop -- use -1 to disable. | 1 | ||
Create a folder (with parent directories) in the sandbox. | 1 | ||
Create a new isolated sandbox for code execution.
Two creation modes: from a Daytona snapshot or from a Docker image.
If neither snapshot nor image is specified, uses the standard base image.
Resource params (cpu, memory_gb, disk_gb, gpu) only apply to image-based creation.
Returns sandbox name, ID, and status. The sandbox is ready to run code and commands
immediately.
Note: A ``region`` parameter is deferred -- the Daytona SDK's
``CreateSandboxFromImageParams`` / ``CreateSandboxFromSnapshotParams`` do not
currently expose a ``target``/``region`` field. | 1 | ||
Create a persistent background session for long-running processes.
Sessions persist across tool calls -- useful for dev servers, watchers, or
multi-step workflows where you need to run commands sequentially. | 1 | ||
Create a new sandbox snapshot (image template).
Snapshots define the base environment for new sandboxes.
The image parameter is required -- it specifies the base Docker image.
Building the image can take several minutes. The tool waits up to 50 seconds; a build
that runs longer keeps going, so check the snapshot's state before creating it again. | 1 | ||
Create SSH access credentials for the sandbox.
Returns connection details including host, port, username, and access token
for direct SSH access. Use the token to authenticate SSH connections.
SENSITIVE OUTPUT: The returned token grants SSH access to the sandbox.
Avoid logging or displaying it in contexts where it could be inadvertently
exposed. The token expires after ``expires_in_minutes`` (default 60 min).
Set ``expires_in_minutes=0`` to create a non-expiring token (use with
caution -- increases blast radius from accidental exposure). | 1 | ||
Delete a file or empty directory. Set recursive=True to delete non-empty directories. | 1 | ||
Permanently delete a sandbox and all its contents. | 1 | ||
Search for files by name pattern (glob). Returns matching file paths.
Response includes total count and has_more flag for pagination. | 1 | ||
Get metadata about a file: size, permissions, modified time, type. | 1 | ||
Get a preview URL for a web service running in the sandbox.
Standard URLs require an auth token in the x-daytona-preview-token header.
Signed URLs embed authentication in the URL itself -- useful for sharing. | 1 | ||
Get detailed information about a sandbox.
Returns state, resources, labels, auto-stop/archive settings, and timestamps.
Environment variable values whose keys look secret-like (containing token,
key, secret, password, auth) are redacted by default. Set
include_raw_env_vars=True only when you need the actual values. | 1 | ||
Get output logs from a command running in a session.
Useful for checking output of async commands (servers, builds). | 1 | ||
Get detailed information about a snapshot.
Accepts a snapshot name or ID. Returns full details including state,
image, resources, entrypoint, and timestamps. | 1 | ||
Stage files for the next commit. Accepts file paths or '.' for all changes. | 1 | ||
List all branches. Indicates which branch is currently checked out. | 1 | ||
Switch to a branch, tag, or commit. Optionally create a new branch.
Default mode (create_new_branch=False): switches to an existing ref.
Create mode (create_new_branch=True): creates a new branch named ref
and switches to it, optionally from start_point. | 1 | ||
Clone a Git repository into the sandbox.
For GitHub repos, authentication is handled automatically via Arcade's
OAuth integration — the user is prompted to authorize once, and the
token is managed by Arcade Engine. Consent is one-time; token refresh
is automatic.
Permission requirements by auth mode:
- OAuth Apps mode: the "repo" scope is requested (full repo access).
- GitHub Apps mode: the app installation must have "Contents: read"
permission (for clone/pull) or "Contents: read & write" (for
clone followed by push).
For non-GitHub private repos, provide username + PAT as overrides. | 1 | ||
Commit staged changes. Files must be staged before committing. | 1 | ||
Create a new branch and switch to it.
Equivalent to `git checkout -b <branch> [start_point]`. | 1 | ||
Delete a local branch. | 1 | ||
Get commit history. Returns commit hash, author, date, and message. | 1 | ||
Pull latest changes from the remote repository.
For GitHub repos, authentication is automatic via OAuth. The SDK path
is used by default. Shell fallback is used only when an explicit
branch is requested.
For non-GitHub remotes, credentials must have been provided when the
repository was cloned, or configured manually in the sandbox. | 1 | ||
Push local commits to the remote repository.
For GitHub repos, authentication is automatic via OAuth. The SDK path
is used by default (no token in command args). Shell fallback is used
only when force or explicit branch is requested.
For non-GitHub remotes, credentials must have been provided when the
repository was cloned, or configured manually in the sandbox. | 1 |