Vercel Sandbox now runs on Vercel Managed Images

Today we are introducing Vercel Managed Images (VMI), a set of versioned, open-source base images you can use as-is or extend. The source for every image lives in the public repository.vercel/sandbox

Managed images replace Sandbox runtimes, which are now deprecated. Starting with version 3 of the Sandbox SDK, new sandboxes default to . It ships with Node.js, Python, common coding agents and standard utilities, so most users never build a custom image or install packages at boot. vercel/sandbox/universal:latest

The universal image switches our default operating system from Amazon Linux to Ubuntu, a lighter and more widely used system across the industry.

Every managed image gets a nightly release. Rolling tags such as and the major-version tags pick up operating system and dependency updates automatically, including security patches and new releases of Node.js, Python, and the preinstalled coding agents.latest

Within each release, dependencies are pinned to specific versions wherever possible, so a given image version stays consistent.

If you need a fully immutable, reproducible environment, pin to an image digest (SHA). Digest-pinned images opt out of automatic updates.

Each managed image targets a different starting point:

Sandboxes can use an image from any repository in your project, a repository which has been or . shared with your teamany public repository

Images are addressed by their full path, , for example . The SDK types the property so built-in images autocomplete while any string is still accepted. The previous property is deprecated, not removed, so existing code keeps working.team-slug/project/repo:tagvercel/sandbox/universal:latestimageruntime

Amazon Linux runtimes are not part of the managed image catalog, so teams that need AL2023 can stay on . Managed images run as the default or user with passwordless sudo, rather than the user.runtimeubuntuarchvercel-sandbox

Open an issue or a pull request to improve them, and read the to get started.Vercel Sandbox images documentation

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Secure by default

Choose a managed image from the catalog

Reference an image and migrate from runtimes

• is the new default, a rolling release on Ubuntu 26.04 with Node.js 24, Python 3.14 with , the , , , and coding agents, and utilities including , , , , , , and .vercel/sandbox/universal:latestuvopencodeclaude-codecodexpigitvimnanotmuxripgrepjqfzf

• , , and provide Node.js versions on Ubuntu 26.04.vercel/sandbox/node:22node:24node:26

• provides Python on Ubuntu 26.04.vercel/sandbox/python:3.14

• provides base Ubuntu 26.04 with no extra tooling.vercel/sandbox/ubuntu:latest

• provides Arch Linux, regularly updated, with no Node.js or Python preinstalled. Its large package repository makes it useful for agents that install tools on the fly.vercel/sandbox/arch:latest