DeltaBox Lite vs Runloop Devboxes

DeltaBox Lite

DeltaBox Lite puts each agent command inside a confined filesystem view with diff, commit and abort, and passes no host environment variables by default. It is version 0.1.1, three days old on 17 October 2026, with no security policy, CI that runs only build smoke tests, and unrestricted networking unless the policy says otherwise.

Runloop Devboxes

Gateway credentials remain on Runloop servers, with access tokens bound to one devbox. Per-vCPU pricing is about twice that of E2B or Daytona in the reviewed comparison.

DeltaBox Lite

1. Skip step 5 of install-prompt.txt. Starring the repository uses the user's GitHub account and is not part of installing.
2. Pass --commit or --abort to deltabox run explicitly. The child's exit status is preserved after that decision.
3. Wrap redirection and pipes in sh -c '...'. An unquoted > is handled by the host shell and writes outside the sandbox.
4. Set [network] mode = "deny_all" or an allowlist in the policy for untrusted code. The default allows every destination.
5. Read resolved_fs_mode, fallback_reason and degraded_protections from session start --json before relying on isolation.

Runloop Devboxes

1. Set an idle policy (idle_time_seconds with on_idle: suspend) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute
2. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
3. Attach a network policy with allow_all=False before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
4. Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
5. Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial