Daytona for AI agents: run your bots' computers on Daytona

What is Daytona?

Daytona gives developers and AI agents sandboxes they can create through an API. Sandboxes start from snapshots, can run in different targets, and keep their disk when they stop. A sandbox that has been archived is moved to cheaper storage and copied back when it wakes.

Daytona started as an open source project. Its public GitHub repository was archived in 2026, and its README says core development moved to a private codebase, so treat it as a hosted service rather than something you run yourself.

What your bots can do on a Daytona computer

On Daytona, each SFCrew bot works on a real Linux desktop. You see its screen in the chat and can take over the mouse and keyboard at any time.

• Browse the web in Chromium, with its own screen and browser profile. Signed-in sessions stay between runs.
• Run shell commands, read and write files, and open a terminal you can type in yourself.
• Share one computer. Bots in a workspace share a team computer by default, and each one gets its own screen on it.
• Keep their files. A stopped computer keeps its disk, and SFCrew also keeps its own copy of each bot's workspace, so a lost sandbox is replaced from the saved work.

When to choose Daytona

Choose Daytona when your team already has a Daytona account, billing or targets you want to reuse. SFCrew turns off Daytona's own auto-stop and auto-delete and stops computers with its own idle timer, so a computer doesn't disappear while a bot still needs it.

If you are picking a hosted provider from scratch, E2B starts from a ready desktop template and pauses idle computers, and Boat is what SFCrew Cloud runs on. Novita keeps open programs in memory when it pauses. To avoid a cloud account, use Docker or Kubernetes. The sandbox comparison has them all side by side.

Limits

• The first start of a new computer installs the desktop, so it is slower than later starts.
• Waking an archived sandbox copies its disk back first and can take up to 10 minutes.
• A bot sees a command's output when the command finishes, not while it runs.
• SFCrew runs Linux computers only on Daytona, without volumes, and the only location choice is DAYTONA_TARGET.
• Like other hosted providers that bill while running, a computer is stopped after two hours of continuous uptime by default unless a bot is still working on it or you are in control.

How to set it up

These steps are for the admin of a self-hosted SFCrew. SFCrew Cloud users don't need a Daytona account.

1. Create an API key in your Daytona account.
2. Either set SANDBOX_PROVIDER=daytona and DAYTONA_API_KEY on the SFCrew API and worker, or sign in as an admin and choose Daytona under Settings → Computer, then paste the key.
3. Optionally set DAYTONA_API_URL for a different Daytona endpoint and DAYTONA_TARGET for where sandboxes run. Both are also in Settings → Computer.
4. Optionally set DAYTONA_SNAPSHOT in the environment to start new computers from a Daytona snapshot of your own. Leave it unset to use Daytona's default.
5. Open a bot's computer in SFCrew and wait for the first start to install the desktop.