Sprites Overview
Sprites are persistent, hardware-isolated execution environments for arbitrary code. Unlike traditional serverless functions, Sprites are stateful Linux computers that maintain their filesystem and state between runs.
What makes Sprites different?
Section titled “What makes Sprites different?”| Feature | Traditional Serverless | Sprites |
|---|---|---|
| State | Ephemeral | Persistent |
| Filesystem | Read-only or temporary | Full ext4, persists between runs |
| Startup | Cold starts | Instant wake from hibernation |
| Billing | Per-invocation | Per-second compute, free when idle |
| Environment | Fixed container | Full Linux with any tools |
Use Cases
Section titled “Use Cases”Sprites are ideal for:
- AI Code Execution - Execute code generated by language models (like Claude Code) in isolated, secure environments
- Untrusted Code - Create isolated environments for running untrusted or user-submitted code safely
- Development Environments - Build persistent development environments that maintain state between sessions
- Long-lived Services - Run services with automatic hibernation and wake-on-request
- CI/CD Tasks - Test code against live git repositories with full environment access
Core Concepts
Section titled “Core Concepts”Persistence
Section titled “Persistence”Every Sprite has a standard ext4 filesystem that persists between runs. Your data is written to fast NVMe storage during execution, backed up to durable object storage when hibernated, and restored automatically when the Sprite wakes up.
Automatic Hibernation
Section titled “Automatic Hibernation”Sprites automatically hibernate after a period of inactivity (default: 30 seconds). While hibernated, there are no compute charges, your full filesystem is preserved, and the Sprite wakes instantly on the next request.
HTTP Access
Section titled “HTTP Access”Every Sprite has a unique URL for HTTP access, making it easy to expose web services or APIs running inside your Sprite.
Get Started
Section titled “Get Started”- Quickstart - Install the CLI, create your first Sprite, and learn all the features
- JavaScript SDK - Build with Sprites in Node.js applications
- Go SDK - Native Go client mirroring os/exec
- CLI Reference - Complete command documentation