---
title: "Change a sandbox's name, labels, environment, automatic wake, idle pause, time limit, end action or persistence. Fields left out stay as they are."
method: POST
path: "/v1/sandboxes/{id}:update"
tags: ["sandboxes"]
---

# Change a sandbox's name, labels, environment, automatic wake, idle pause, time limit, end action or persistence. Fields left out stay as they are.

`POST /v1/sandboxes/{id}:update`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.withruntime.com`
- URL: `https://api.withruntime.com/v1/sandboxes/{id}:update`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

idlePauseSeconds set here (10 to 86400) counts from the last activity: a request, a running command or terminal, an open connection, network traffic or CPU use; 0 turns idle pause off. persistent: true keeps the sandbox running until you stop it, while credit lasts, with no idle pause or time limit, its disk billed as any sandbox's; paid sandboxes only. timeoutSeconds sets its time limit from now, sooner or later than before (0 removes it), and onTimeout what its end does: endsAt answers the new end. A change of end action that reaches the server's last paid stretch can end it up to about two minutes after the asked end, never before.

## Path parameters

- `id` string, required: Resource identifier (UUID).

## Headers

- `Idempotency-Key` string

## Request body

- object
  - `name` string: Your own handle for the resource. Letters, digits, dot, dash, underscore.
  - `labels` object: Your own key/value tags, at most 32. Filter lists with label=key:value.
  - `secrets` string[]: Refused: a sandbox's egress secrets are fixed when it is created. Create a new sandbox, or fork this one with a narrower list.
  - `env` object: Change its environment: a value sets a variable, null removes it; the rest stay. Commands started after the change get it; running ones keep what they started with. At most 32 variables and 32768 bytes in all.
  - `tailscale` object, nullable: Join your Tailscale network now (paid sandboxes only), or null to leave it.
    - `authKeySecret` string, required: The name of a job secret holding a Tailscale auth key (runtime secrets set NAME --jobs). Use an ephemeral, tagged key; a reusable one lets the sandbox log in again by itself after a long pause.
    - `hostname` string: The machine's name on the tailnet, a DNS label. Default: the sandbox's name, or runtime- and its id's first eight characters.
    - `tags` string[]: Tailscale tags to advertise; the key must be allowed them.
  - `autoWake` boolean: Wake it by itself when it is paused and a request needs it (an exec, a file or terminal call, or a visit to a shared port).
  - `idlePauseSeconds` integer: Pause it after this many seconds with no request, no command or terminal still running, no open preview, port, SSH or tunnel connection, no network traffic and no CPU use by its processes, counted from now. 0 is never; otherwise 10 to 86400.
  - `persistent` boolean: Keep it running until you stop it, while credit lasts: no time limit even with timeoutSeconds, and no idle pause unless idlePauseSeconds asks for one. Its disk is billed as any sandbox's. Paid only.
  - `maxTotalCostMicros` integer, nullable: The most it may cost over its whole life, in microdollars; null removes the cap.
  - `timeoutSeconds` integer: A new time limit, counted from now: 60 to 86400 seconds, sooner or later than the one it had, and it then ends as onTimeout says; a paused sandbox counts it from its next wake. 0 takes the limit away: it runs while it works and pauses when idle. Not for a persistent sandbox.
  - `onTimeout` 'pause' | 'stop' | 'delete': What happens when its timeoutSeconds, its credit or a spending limit ends it: pause (keep memory and files; wake later), stop (keep the files, billed as paused storage; restart later) or delete (when timeoutSeconds runs out, delete it and its files; credit or a spending limit only stops it). Default pause. onLeaseEnd, its older name, is accepted too. Changed for its next end.
  - `onLeaseEnd` 'pause' | 'stop' | 'delete': onTimeout's older name.

## Response `200`

Success

- object
  - `id` string, required: Resource identifier (UUID).
  - `kind` 'sandbox', required
  - `name` string, nullable
  - `labels` object: Your own key/value tags, at most 32. Filter lists with label=key:value.
  - `status` 'pending' | 'active' | 'paused' | 'stopping' | 'stopped', required: Deprecated: read state. An older, coarser name for it, kept for older clients.
  - `state` 'starting' | 'running' | 'pausing' | 'paused' | 'resuming' | 'stopping' | 'stopped', required
  - `region` string, required
  - `funding` 'trial' | 'paid', required
  - `vcpu` integer
  - `memoryMiB` integer
  - `diskMiB` integer
  - `cpu` 'shared' | 'reserved'
  - `cpuFloorMillis` integer
  - `pausable` boolean
  - `timeoutSeconds` integer: Its time limit in seconds, up to 86400 (24 hours); 0 is none: it runs while it works and pauses when idle.
  - `onTimeout` 'pause' | 'stop' | 'delete': What happens when its time limit, credit or a spending limit ends it. The same value as onLeaseEnd, its older name.
  - `idlePauseSeconds` integer: Pauses after this many idle seconds; 0 is never.
  - `idlePauseUnusedOnly` boolean: True only for a sandbox created before 27 September 2026 with the old default idle pause, which paused it only while nothing had used it. False when the idle time counts from the last activity.
  - `autoWake` boolean: A request wakes it when paused: an exec, a file or terminal call, or a visit to a shared port.
  - `persistent` boolean: It has no time limit and is not paused for being idle unless idlePauseSeconds says so.
  - `diskKept` boolean: Stopped with its disk kept: :restart starts it again from the disk. A stop keeps the disk; only a delete removes it.
  - `lastActiveAt` string, date-time, nullable: The last exec, file, terminal, desktop or preview request, or open preview connection, to within five seconds (a minute for a sandbox whose idle time counts only while unused).
  - `createdAt` string, date-time, required
  - `readyAt` string, date-time, nullable: When its current run became ready to run commands. Null before that, while it is paused, and once a stop that kept its disk has ended the run; endedAt says when it ended.
  - `expiresAt` string, date-time, required: Paid up to, at most an hour ahead, or when a stopped sandbox ended: kept for older clients. Read endsAt for when it stops or pauses by itself.
  - `endsAt` string, date-time, nullable: When it stops or pauses by itself: the end of its time limit, which :extend moves, or where its funding ends when credit or a spending limit stops its renewal. null when it never will: no time limit, or not running.
  - `endedAt` string, date-time, nullable
  - `stopReason` string, nullable: Why it stopped or paused. Yours: requested, time_limit (its timeoutSeconds ran out and it was made to stop rather than pause; lease_expired before 4 October 2026), idle, paused_expired (kept paused past its retention), insufficient_funds (credit ran out), pilot_hours_used (its pilot's sandbox hours are used; credit does not run it, and the account's owner may write to support to extend the pilot or ask for more hours), pilot_ended (its pilot and the pilot's grace are over; credit does not run it, and the account's owner may write to support to extend the pilot), lifetime_cap (this sandbox's own maxTotalCostMicros), spending_limit (an owner-set spending limit, usually this agent's daily limit; see what is left with GET /v1/limits or runtime limits) or authority_revoked (the key that made it lost the right). A fault on our side, not in your code: host_lost (its machine failed; create a new sandbox) and pause_failed (its memory could not be kept; it is paused with its files, and the next wake starts it from its disk, memoryRestored false). operator_stopped: our operator stopped it. startup_failed: it stopped before it was ready to run commands; from your own image, check its start and ready commands. account_busy_here: it can start only on the servers that hold its snapshot or image, and your own sandboxes there were short of CPU, so it did not start and nothing ran; start it again in a minute. service_unready: a service on our side that it needs was unavailable, so it could not keep running; create a new one. host_stopped: its machine ended without a stop being asked for; while it was starting or waking that is our fault, and once it was running it can also be a shutdown or crash inside the sandbox.
  - `pausedAt` string, nullable
  - `pausedExpiresAt` string, nullable: When a paused or stopped sandbox is deleted. Null while it is kept as long as your account has credit.
  - `memoryRestored` boolean
  - `placement` string, nullable: Opaque tag of the server it is on: the same for your sandboxes and snapshots on one server, different on another, never the server's name. Compare tags to see whether two share a server; keep them apart with spreadFrom on create. Null before it is placed.
  - `chargedMicros` integer: Settled, in microdollars (1,000,000 = $1).
  - `heldMicros` integer: Deprecated, kept for older clients: read chargedMicros and GET /v1/usage.
  - `rates` object
  - `envNames` string[]: The names of its own environment variables (env), sorted, on a create, an update and a read of one sandbox. Values are never shown.
  - `secrets` string[], nullable: The egress secrets it may use, fixed when it was created: only those of your secrets that would otherwise reach it. null: every secret that reaches it. On a create, an update and a read of one sandbox.
  - `secretsEnforced` boolean: On an update with labels by a key that may read secrets, when one of your egress secrets is scoped: true when every server running your sandboxes holds the change, so the next request from this sandbox is rewritten (or no longer is) by the new labels. False when a server has not confirmed yet; it takes the change within 15 seconds. Absent for any other key: its change reaches the servers within 15 seconds.
  - `simulated` boolean
  - `replayed` boolean: Present and true when an Idempotency-Key replay answered.

## Other responses

- `default`: Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/withruntime/apis/runtime-cloud-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/withruntime/apis/runtime-cloud-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/withruntime/apis/runtime-cloud-api/revisions/6f4012286988?raw)