Hyeonsang Cho 18b803fad9
fix(sandbox): scope BoxLite grep globs to the search root (#5419)
* fix(sandbox): scope BoxLite grep globs to the search root

BoxliteBox.grep omits grep --include for busybox portability and applies
the glob in Python, but it kept only the glob's last path segment and
matched it against each file's basename. A scoped pattern therefore lost
its directory part: grep(glob="src/*.js") returned every .js file in the
tree, including vendor/ and nested src/ subdirectories that glob() with
the same pattern excludes.

The glob now goes through path_matches against the path relative to the
search root, with the file's basename when the root is a single file --
the same scope glob() uses and the one Tenki, E2B, OpenSandbox, AIO and
LocalSandbox already enforce. Like those providers, an empty glob is now
passed to path_matches instead of being treated as no filter.

* docs(changelog): reference #5419 in the BoxLite grep glob scope entry
2026-09-14 12:26:12 +08:00
..

BoxLite backend

Runs each DeerFlow sandbox as a BoxLite micro-VM — a daemonless, OCI-native VM with its own kernel (libkrun/KVM on Linux, Hypervisor.framework on macOS). Motivated by the resource/cold-start pain with the default AIO Docker sandbox in #3439 and #3213; discussion in #3936.

Configuration

sandbox:
  use: deerflow.community.boxlite:BoxliteProvider
  image: python:3.12-slim         # any OCI image (default: python:3.12-slim)
  memory_mib: 1024                # per-box memory cap (optional)
  cpus: 2                         # per-box vCPUs (optional)
  replicas: 3                     # active + warm VM cap per gateway process (default: 3)
  idle_timeout: 600               # warm VM idle seconds before stop; 0 disables
  health_check_skip_seconds: 0.0  # optional low-latency mode: skip reclaim
                                  #   health checks for recent releases; 0 keeps
                                  #   reliability-first validation (default: 0.0)
  environment:                    # injected into every command
    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: "1"

Install the optional runtime before selecting this provider:

pip install "deerflow-harness[boxlite]"

The boxlite package is an optional DeerFlow harness extra, not part of the default install. It is also limited to the host platforms and architectures where BoxLite publishes wheels and can boot micro-VMs. Unsupported development hosts, such as Windows, should use another sandbox provider or run DeerFlow from a supported Linux/macOS environment.

Host requirement: BoxLite boots micro-VMs, so a Linux host needs KVM — i.e. nested virtualization when DeerFlow runs inside a cloud VM. macOS uses Hypervisor.framework. This is the main deployment constraint to weigh vs. the container-based providers.

Design

DeerFlow's Sandbox contract is synchronous; BoxLite's SDK is async-native and its box handles are event-loop-affine. The provider owns one private asyncio loop on a daemon thread and marshals every coroutine onto it via run_coroutine_threadsafe. BoxLite boxes are named deterministically from user_id:thread_id, released into an in-process warm pool after each agent turn, and reclaimed by the same thread on the next acquire.

File Role
provider.py SandboxProvider lifecycle + the private-loop bridge
box.py Sandbox adapter; execute_command + file ops

Contract coverage

The full Sandbox surface is implemented. File operations run as shell commands inside the box and reuse deerflow.sandbox.search, mirroring e2b_sandbox:

  • execute_command — sh -lc, with per-call env and timeout.
  • read_file / write_file / update_file — cat and chunked base64 (binary-safe, no arg-size limit).
  • download_file — 100 MB cap, restricted to the /mnt/user-data prefix.
  • list_dir / glob / grep — find / grep with busybox-portable flags; results filtered/capped in Python.

The provider creates /mnt/user-data/{workspace,uploads,outputs} and /mnt/skills on box start so those virtual paths resolve natively.

Warm-pool capacity is governed by sandbox.replicas across active + warm VMs. sandbox.idle_timeout controls how long released warm VMs stay running; 0 disables idle reaping. Active boxes are never evicted to satisfy the cap.

Status

Verified end-to-end against a live box (provider resolution → execute_command → file ops) on macOS/HVF. Linux/KVM validation and benchmarks vs. the AIO sandbox are tracked in #3936.