Introduction

Lease build environments on demand, wire them to your machine over a private network, and run builds and services there as if they were local.

envlink leases isolated environments, such as a Linux build box, a Postgres or a hosted agent sandbox, from a pool of warm nodes. It wires them to your machine over a private tailnet. Your code syncs up, builds run remotely, results come back as local files, and services like Postgres appear on localhost. People, CI runners and coding agents all use the same CLI, envctl, and the same API.

What you can run

linux-build

Go, C and C++, Python, Node and Bazel. Share a folder to /work, run builds with envctl exec, and whatever lands in /work/out comes back.

postgres

PostgreSQL 16, reachable at 127.0.0.1:5432 on your machine. It’s ready once it accepts connections.

agent-sandbox

A hosted sandbox with the usual command-line tools and envctl, for an agent or a CI run that can’t use your machine.

app-runtime

Python with FastAPI, serving the app you sync and reloading on every change. It’s on your localhost too.

Every environment runs in its own container under gVisor, with its own network and volumes. It’s ready from a warm slot in about three seconds.

How it works

1. Your machine becomes the sandbox

   envctl sandbox up runs envd, envlink’s agent, on your machine and joins it to your organization’s tailnet.

2. You lease an environment

   envctl env create linux-build --share src=. asks the API for a build box. A hot node starts one from a warm slot and wires it to your sandbox.

3. Files and commands flow both ways

   Your folder syncs up in content-defined chunks, sealed under your project’s key. envctl exec runs a command there, and results come back before it returns.

4. You release it

   envctl env delete removes the container and its data. The node stays up for the next lease.

Choose your path

Quickstart

Install envctl, lease a build box and build a project remotely, in about three minutes.

Set up a coding agent

Install the envlink skill so Claude Code or Codex leases, builds and cleans up by itself.

Run it in CI

Make a GitHub Actions runner a sandbox and build in a leased box.

Call the API

Create environments, list snapshots and store artifacts over HTTPS.