Namespace
Isolated Linux, macOS and Windows VM instances and persistent Devboxes on a developer-compute cloud, with an SDK, egress policy and SOC 2 Type II. A CI-grade compute cloud whose VMs and Devboxes suit teams needing macOS or Windows and compliance more than minimal per-sandbox cost.
Overview
Namespace is a developer-compute cloud from Namespace Labs, originally built for CI (GitHub Actions runners, Bazel remote execution, Docker builds) and now marketed to AI coding agents with the line "Sandboxes aren't enough. Your cloud agents need a Devbox." Two products matter here. Compute instances are hypervisor-isolated Linux (AMD EPYC amd64, Ampere arm64, Apple Silicon in early access), macOS (M4 Pro, M5 Max) and Windows VMs created from a TypeScript or Go SDK, the nsc CLI or a gRPC/Connect API, with deadlines, extend, suspend/wake and command execution. Devboxes are persistent Linux or macOS development environments with SSH, IDE access and preinstalled agents (Amp, Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, OpenCode), managed by a separate CLI and SDK, and used by integrations with Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents and Devin.
Billing is by unit minute with platform multipliers (macOS costs ten times Linux), on a pay-as-you-go Developer plan or $100-$250/month team plans; Devboxes are billed separately per Devbox Minute. Egress policies can allow-list domains, inject secrets as headers and log in advisory mode. Namespace holds SOC 2 Type II and offers regional preferences and enterprise region-exclusive residency. The homepage announced a $42M Series B on 5 October 2026 and names Cursor, ElevenLabs, Ramp, Zed and Warp among more than 1,000 customers.
Notable
- $42M Series B announced 5 October 2026 (homepage)
- macOS instances up to 16 vCPU/56 GB on Apple M4 Pro and M5 Max, with Xcode 16-27 and simulators
- Devbox idle limits of 3 to 24 hours by plan, with 1-50 Devboxes per workspace
Namespace specifications
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Isolation | Hypervisor-backed VM instances with KVM (nested virtualisation on amd64 Linux); the homepage names a custom hypervisor and scheduler but gives no further detail |
| Deployment | Hosted platform |
| Open source | No |
| SDKs and interfaces | JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, MCP server, gRPC/Connect API |
| Cold start (vendor claim) | Not documented |
| Max session length | Compute instances run to a deadline you set and can extend; no maximum stated. Devboxes auto-shut down on idle (15 min to 8 h presets) with a plan maximum of 3 hours (Developer, Devbox Plus), 5 hours (Team) or 24 hours (Business), raisable to 24 hours via support |
| Persistence | Compute instances can be suspended (RAM and disks snapshotted) and woken; volumes and snapshots are managed via the SDK; Devboxes keep persistent storage across stop and start |
| GPU | Not mentioned on the compute, machine-shape or pricing pages |
| Networking | Egress policies with ALLOW rules in BLOCK or ADVISORY mode, header INJECT of vault secrets and PROXY rules via deep packet inspection, applied to runners, Devboxes and Compute API instances; private networking between instances in a workspace; federation to your own cloud |
| Pricing | Compute "unit minutes" = vCPU (or RAM/2 if higher) x minutes x platform multiplier (Linux 1, Windows 2, Linux on Apple Silicon 7, macOS 10) at $0.001 prepaid or $0.0015 overage per unit minute, 1-minute minimum; e.g. 1 vCPU/2 GB Linux $0.001/min. Plans: Developer $0 pay as you go, Team $100/month (100,000 unit minutes), Business $250/month (250,000), Devbox Plus $250/month (50,000 Devbox Minutes + 400 GB-month). Devboxes $0.004 per Devbox Minute (Linux S=1, M=2, L=4, XL=8 per minute; macOS M=15, L=30) plus $0.20/GB-month storage |
| Free tier | 30-day free trial of the Developer plan; no card required at signup; no permanent free allowance stated |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II; report and sub-processors via trust.namespace.so; regional preferences on all plans and region-exclusive residency on Enterprise |
| Regions | Multiple regions worldwide, not individually listed; the demo shows us-east and placement can be constrained by continent or site |
Facts from Namespace’s public documentation, verified November 9, 2026. Performance numbers are vendor claims.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- You need macOS or Windows VMs for agents, not only Linux
- You want one platform for CI runners, builds and agent compute with shared caches
- You need SOC 2 Type II and data-residency controls
- You want persistent Devboxes that agents and humans share over SSH and IDEs
Trade-offs
- Devbox sessions are capped at 3 to 24 hours depending on plan
- Billing has a 1-minute minimum and plan-dependent multipliers, less granular than per-second sandbox pricing
- No cold-start figure, region list or GPU information published
- Two overlapping products (instances and Devboxes) with separate CLIs and billing
Good fit for: Teams that want macOS, Windows and Linux VMs for agents and CI from one SDK, plus persistent Devboxes for coding agents.
How Namespace compares
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Namespace | KVM virtual machine | No | No / No | Not documented | Deadline-based; Devbox 3-24 h | Yes / Yes | Not documented | JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, MCP server, gRPC/Connect API |
| Depot Sandboxes | MicroVM on bare metal | No | No / Yes | Not documented | 2 h default timeout | Yes / No | Not documented | JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Dedicated cloud VM | No | No / Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, REST API |
| GitHub Codespaces | Dedicated VM per codespace | No | No / No | Not documented | 12 h, 30 min idle | No / Yes | No | CLI, REST API |
| Coder | Template-defined (VM/pod/container) | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Not documented | CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Railway Sandboxes | Linux VM | No | No / No | Not documented | No cap (idle 30 min default) | Yes / No | Not documented | JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, GraphQL API |
| Tensorlake Sandboxes | MicroVM (gVisor for GPU) | Yes | Yes / Yes | ~100s of ms (claim) | 2 h / 24 h / unlimited (Pro) | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, CLI, REST API |
Frequently asked questions
What is Namespace?
How does Namespace isolate code?
Is Namespace open source?
How much does Namespace cost?
What are the alternatives to Namespace?
Sources
- namespace.so
- namespace.so/docs
- namespace.so/pricing
- namespace.so/docs/devbox.md
- namespace.so/docs/devbox/lifecycle.md
- namespace.so/docs/platform/compute/linux.md
- namespace.so/docs/reference/typescript-sdk/compute/manage.md
- namespace.so/docs/architecture/compute/machine-shapes.md
- namespace.so/docs/architecture/compute/resource-limits.md
- namespace.so/docs/workspaces/security.md
- namespace.so/docs/workspaces/data-residency.md
- namespace.so/docs/workspaces/billing-and-limits.md
- namespace.so/docs/security/egress-policy.md
- namespace.so/docs/reference/sdk.md
- namespace.so/docs/llms.txt
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Namespace. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/sandboxes/namespace/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.