# Offscreen vs Together Code Sandbox

> Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) to Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Together Code Sandbox leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do code sandboxes.

- Offscreen: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #456 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json
- Together Code Sandbox: grade D, 53.6/100, rank #781 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/together-code-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-code-sandbox.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 153 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Offscreen (B)

Good for: A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 25
- Security & auth, 62 against 47
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0

### Together Code Sandbox (D)

Good for: Teams already buying from Together, and former CodeSandbox SDK users, who want Docker-defined sandboxes with disk and memory snapshots from Python or TypeScript.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 66

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The SDK and CLI work only for organisations Together has enabled, and the docs say to contact Together for access


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Offscreen | Together Code Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 25 | Offscreen +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 86 | Together Code Sandbox +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 70 | Offscreen +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 47 | Offscreen +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Offscreen +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 83 | Together Code Sandbox +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 60 | Together Code Sandbox +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **53.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Offscreen | Together Code Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mark Phelps | Together AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.bartender.codesandbox.io` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Together's terms of service. The SDKs, CLI and OpenAPI documents on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 3 stars, 1.3k npm/wk, 3.4k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

## Verdicts

**Offscreen.** An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.

**Together Code Sandbox.** Two public OpenAPI documents, MIT clients for Python and TypeScript, cursor pagination and built-in retries make the surface easy for an agent to drive. Access is the limit. Together enables the SDK per organisation on request, publishes no rate limits or SLA, and neither status page names the sandbox service.

## Before you call either

### Offscreen

1. Read `.offscreen.toml` before running anything and use its `project` key and task names. Don't guess them
2. Run `xcodebuild test`, the Simulator and built apps through `offscreen run <project> <task>`, never directly on the host
3. Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run `offscreen version` to see whether the daemon is running
4. Ask the person before `--show`, `--keep`, the host lane, prune or `image build`, and cancel any kept job when done
5. Read screenshots and `.xcresult` bundles from the directory `offscreen artifacts <job>` prints

### Together Code Sandbox

1. Confirm the organisation is on Together's allowlist before installing. A valid `TOGETHER_API_KEY` alone is not enough
2. Build a snapshot first with `snapshots.create`. No default image exists, and every sandbox needs `snapshot_id` or `snapshot_alias`
3. Set `ttl` at creation or call `terminate()`. Nothing stops a sandbox otherwise, and closing the Python client leaves it running
4. Store the snapshot alias, not the sandbox ID. A terminated sandbox can't restart, and its state lives at `sandbox:<id>`
5. Exclude `snapshots.create` from retries with `should_retry`, and set `experimental.network_policy` before serving anything private on a port

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Offscreen or Together Code Sandbox?

Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Together Code Sandbox leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Can an agent call Offscreen and Together Code Sandbox without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen. Together Code Sandbox has a hosted endpoint at https://api.bartender.codesandbox.io.

### Are Offscreen and Together Code Sandbox open source?

Offscreen is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Together Code Sandbox.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-together-code-sandbox.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-together-code-sandbox.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "offscreen", "b": "together-code-sandbox"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare offscreen together-code-sandbox`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-code-sandbox.json

## Other comparisons with Offscreen or Together Code Sandbox

- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Daytona vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Daytona vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [E2B vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-offscreen.md)
- [E2B vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Freestyle vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Freestyle vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Morph Cloud vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Morph Cloud vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Offscreen vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.md)
- [Offscreen vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.md)
- [Offscreen vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [SPACE vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Sprites vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Together Code Sandbox vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-code-sandbox-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)

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