isb for Python

An asyncio SDK for isb: declarative incus sandboxes (containers and VMs). It is a thin client of isb rpc, a line-delimited JSON protocol over the isb binary's stdin and stdout (docs/reference/rpc.md). All the work (planning, reconciling, readiness, exec) happens in isb; this package starts it, sends requests and maps the answers to Python types.

• Python 3.10 or later, Linux.
• No runtime dependencies (standard library only).
• Typed (py.typed), with TypedDicts for the spec generated from isb schema.

Install

pip install isb-sdk

Platform wheels (x86_64 and aarch64 Linux, Apple silicon and Intel macOS) bundle the isb binary at isb/_bin/isb, so nothing else is needed. It is the release's signed binary, checked against the release signature when the wheel is built; pip itself checks only PyPI's hashes. The pure wheel and the sdist bundle none; they use an isb binary from elsewhere. To use the isb you installed with the installer instead, set ISB_BIN=$(command -v isb).

The binary is looked up in this order:

1. Client(isb_bin="/path/to/isb")
2. the ISB_BIN environment variable
3. the bundled binary
4. isb on PATH

It must be a version with the rpc command (protocol 1). The client refuses a server that announces any other protocol version.

isb needs access to the incus socket ($INCUS_SOCKET, else $INCUS_DIR/unix.socket, else /var/lib/incus/unix.socket), which usually means membership in incus-admin. That access is root-equivalent on the host.

Quickstart

import asyncio
import isb
from isb import PortBinding, Sandbox, Volume


async def main() -> None:
    async with isb.Client() as client:
        sb = await Sandbox.connect_or_create(
            "dev-web",
            image="dev-base",
            client=client,
            cpus=4,
            mem_limit="4g",
            idmap="auto",
            labels={"app": "web"},
            environment={"NODE_ENV": "development"},
            volumes=[
                Volume.bind("./src", "/home/dev/src", device="src"),
                Volume.named("dev-cache", "/home/dev/.cache", owner="dev"),
            ],
            ports=[
                PortBinding.publish("5173-5193", 5173, name="vite"),  # first free port
                "8080:80",  # docker's short syntax works too
            ],
            ready=["running", "default_route", {"user_exists": "dev"}],
            user="dev",
            working_dir="/home/dev/src",
            on_progress=print,
        )
        print(sb.last_report)

        # Captured output. argv is never joined into a shell string.
        out = await sb.exec("printf", ["[%s]", "a b", "$HOME"])
        assert out.stdout_text == "[a b][$HOME]"

        # Streaming output, as it is produced.
        script = "for i in 1 2 3; do echo $i; sleep 1; done"
        proc = await sb.exec_stream(["sh", "-c", script])
        async with proc:
            async for event in proc:
                print(event.kind, event.text, end="")
            print("exit code:", await proc.wait())

        await sb.remove(force=True)


asyncio.run(main())

Compose files

project = await isb.Project.load("isb.yaml", vars={"WORKTREE": "/srv/wt"})

for plan in await project.plan():
    print(plan.name, plan.status, plan.actions)

# Like `isb up -d`: returns once the sandboxes are ready. A service's
# `command` is for the foreground CLI `isb up` and is not run here.
for service, report in await project.up(on_progress=print):
    print(service, report.created, report.ports)

# A sandbox from the project carries its service's exec defaults.
web = project.sandbox("web")
await web.exec(["bun", "install"])

await project.down(volumes=True)

API overview

Client

Client(isb_bin=None, socket=None, project=None, create_timeout=None) owns one isb rpc subprocess, started on first use (or await client.start()) and stopped by await client.close() or async with. socket, project and create_timeout are passed as the global flags --socket, --project and --create-timeout. Requests run concurrently over the one process.

Every function takes an optional client=. Without one it uses isb.default_client(), created lazily with default settings (one per event loop). client.call(method, params) sends any protocol method directly.

A client belongs to the event loop it started on. If the subprocess exits, every pending and later request fails with ProcessError, whose message includes the tail of isb's stderr.

The server's working directory is fixed when it starts, so the SDK resolves relative paths itself: base_dir for bind mounts defaults to the current directory at the time of the call, and compose file paths are made absolute.

Sandbox

name is the incus instance name (the spec's container_name). **spec are the fields of a compose service (docs/reference/compose.md), named as in docker compose: cpus (a count) or cpuset ("0-3"), mem_limit ("512m", "8g", "8GiB"), storage, type ("container", "virtual-machine" or "vm"), privileged, idmap, incus_profiles, labels and environment (a map or a ["KEY=VALUE"] list), volumes and ports (lists; see Builders), user, working_dir, exec (env for exec only, login), command (a string or argv), ready, ready_timeout, raw_config, raw_devices. A full spec dict can be passed as spec= instead. The server rejects unknown fields (InvalidError). The create-style methods also take base_dir, wait_ready (default true), named_volumes and on_progress (called with each progress line). named_volumes are top-level volume definitions, as in a compose file's volumes:: a mount's source names a key, and the incus volume is that definition's name, else the key itself.

On an instance: info(), labels(), start(), stop(force=False, timeout="30s"), restart(), wait_ready(ready=None, ready_timeout=None), remove(force=False), add_port(port) (a ports entry; returns the listen address in use), remove_device(name) (returns whether it existed).

A handle from create, connect_or_create or Project.sandbox carries the exec defaults its spec implies (user, working_dir, exec.env, exec.login) as sb.exec_defaults (an ExecDefaults dict of user, cwd, env, login) and sends them with every exec; per-call arguments override them.

Exec

out = await sb.exec(
    cmd,
    args=None,
    *,
    cwd=None,
    user=None,
    env=None,
    login=None,
    timeout=None,
    stdin=None,
    tty=False,
)

cmd is a program plus args, or a full argv list. Returns ExecOutput(exit_code, stdout: bytes, stderr: bytes) with stdout_text, stderr_text and success. A non-zero exit is not an exception. stdin is bytes or str, sent followed by EOF. timeout is seconds or a duration string ("90s"); when it passes, the command is killed and IsbTimeoutError is raised. With tty=True, all output arrives as stdout.

p = await sb.exec_stream(cmd, args=None, *, ..., stdin=None | "piped" | bytes)

returns an ExecProcess: iterate it for ExecEvent(kind, data) chunks in order, and drive it with await p.write(b), await p.close_stdin(), await p.signal(15), await p.resize(w, h). await p.wait() returns the exit code, await p.collect() gathers the rest into an ExecOutput. Used as async with, it kills the command on exit if it is still running.

Builders

These return plain dicts, one volumes or ports list entry each. Docker's short strings work in the same lists: "./src:/home/dev/src:ro" (options ro, rw, owner=USER, device=NAME, pool=POOL, external; a source starting with /, . or ~ is a host path, anything else a named volume) and "[HOST_IP:]PUBLISHED:TARGET[/udp]" (HOST_IP defaults to 127.0.0.1).

• Volume.bind(source, target, *, read_only=False, device=None, options=None): bind-mount a host path.
• Volume.named(source, target, *, external=False, owner=None, read_only=False, pool=None, device=None, options=None): mount a named volume, created if missing unless external; owner chowns the mount point.
• PortBinding.publish(published, target, *, host_ip=None, protocol=None, name=None, options=None): publish a guest port on the host. A published range ("5173-5223") with one target takes the first free port; ApplyReport.ports says which.
• PortBinding.host(listen, connect, *, name=None, search=None, options=None): an incus proxy listening on the host, connecting in the guest, for addresses publish cannot express (unix: sockets, a connect host). search=N turns a single listen port P into the published range P-(P+N), so it needs a single TCP/UDP listen port and a connect port with no host of its own (ValueError otherwise).
• PortBinding.guest(listen, connect, *, name=None, options=None): listen in the guest, connect on the host.

Project

await Project.load(files=None, *, env_files=None, project_name=None, vars=None) loads and resolves compose files (default ./isb.yaml, else ./isb.yml, plus ./isb.override.yaml when present). A .env next to the first file is read unless env_files is given. vars win over the environment for ${VAR}. The result has name, base_dir, files, file (the resolved file, every service's container_name filled in) and services. Then up(services=None, *, prune_devices=False, wait_ready=True) returns (service, ApplyReport) pairs, plan(...) returns list[Plan], down(services=None, *, volumes=False) deletes, and sandbox("web") returns a handle with that service's exec defaults.

Volumes and prune

isb.volumes.list(pool=None), get(name, pool=None), create(name, pool=None, *, config=None) (returns {"created", "pool"}, a no-op if it exists), remove(name, pool=None). isb.Volumes(client) has the same methods bound to one client. await isb.prune(label, dry_run=True) lists (or, with dry_run=False, deletes) sandboxes whose label value is a host path that no longer exists.

Types

SandboxInfo, ApplyReport, Plan, VolumeInfo, PruneResult, ExecOutput and ExecEvent are dataclasses. Plan actions are dicts tagged by action. The spec types (ComposeFile, SandboxSpec, VolumeSpec = str | VolumeMount, PortSpec = str | PortMapping | ProxyPort, ExecSpec, ReadyCheck, IdmapSpec, NamedVolumeSpec, MapOrList, Command) are TypedDicts and aliases in isb._spec, generated from the JSON Schema by scripts/gen_types.py. ExecDefaults is the exec-defaults dict of the protocol.

ISB_BIN=/path/to/isb python3 scripts/gen_types.py          # regenerate
ISB_BIN=/path/to/isb python3 scripts/gen_types.py --check  # fail if stale

Errors

Every error is an IsbError with code (the protocol's stable code), message and data:

Other codes (websocket, io, json) raise IsbError itself. IsbTimeoutError does not derive from the built-in TimeoutError.

Development

Unit tests need only an isb binary with rpc (they use a socket that does not exist, and fake servers for failure paths); integration tests need incusd and a local image with a dev user at uid 1000 and python3 (ISB_TEST_IMAGE, default dev-base). Both use the standard library's unittest, so no install is needed:

# from the repository root
cargo build
ISB_BIN=target/debug/isb PYTHONPATH=sdk/python/src python3 -m unittest discover -s sdk/python/tests -v
ISB_INTEGRATION=1 ISB_BIN=target/debug/isb PYTHONPATH=sdk/python/src python3 -m unittest discover -s sdk/python/tests -v

Integration tests name everything isb-test-py-<pid>-..., label it isb-test=py, and remove it afterwards.

Lint, type check and build (in sdk/python):

uv sync --group dev
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
uv run mypy
uv build                                      # pure wheel and sdist
ISB_WHEEL_BINARY=../../target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/isb \
ISB_WHEEL_PLAT=manylinux_2_17_x86_64.musllinux_1_2_x86_64 \
uv build --wheel                              # platform wheel with the binary

License

MIT