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# Connect to running sandbox (/docs/sandbox/connect)

<!-- agent-signals: reading_time_min: 1 · est_tokens: 513 · updated: 2026-07-30 -->
Related: [Auto-resume on request](/docs/sandbox/auto-resume.md), [Environment variables](/docs/sandbox/environment-variables.md), [Filesystem-only snapshots](/docs/sandbox/filesystem-only-snapshots.md), [Sandbox forking](/docs/sandbox/fork.md), [Git integration](/docs/sandbox/git-integration.md), [Monitor sandbox lifecycle events](/docs/sandbox/lifecycle-events-api.md)

If you have a running sandbox, you can connect to it using the `Sandbox.connect()` method and then start controlling it with our SDK.

This is useful if you want to, for example, reuse the same sandbox instance for the same user after a short period of inactivity.

## 1. Get the sandbox ID

To connect to a running sandbox, you first need to retrieve its ID. You can do this by calling the `Sandbox.list()` method.

<CodeGroup>
```js title="JavaScript & TypeScript"
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'

const sbx = await Sandbox.create()

// Get all running sandboxes
const paginator = await Sandbox.list({
  query: { state: ['running'] },
})

const runningSandboxes = await paginator.nextItems()
if (runningSandboxes.length === 0) {
  throw new Error('No running sandboxes found')
}

// Get the ID of the sandbox you want to connect to
const sandboxId = runningSandboxes[0].sandboxId
```

```python title="Python"
from e2b import Sandbox

sbx = Sandbox.create()

# Get all running sandboxes
paginator = Sandbox.list()

# Get the ID of the sandbox you want to connect to
running_sandboxes = paginator.next_items()
if len(running_sandboxes) == 0:
    raise Exception("No running sandboxes found")

# Get the ID of the sandbox you want to connect to
sandbox_id = running_sandboxes[0].sandbox_id
```
</CodeGroup>

## 2. Connect to the sandbox

Now that you have the sandbox ID, you can connect to the sandbox using the `Sandbox.connect()` method.

<CodeGroup>
```js title="JavaScript & TypeScript" highlight={3}
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'

const sandbox = await Sandbox.connect(sandboxId)

// Now you can use the sandbox as usual
// ...
const result = await sandbox.commands.run("whoami")
console.log(`Running in sandbox ${sandbox.sandboxId} as "${result.stdout.trim()}"`)
```

```python title="Python" highlight={3}
from e2b import Sandbox

sandbox = Sandbox.connect(sandbox_id)

# Now you can use the sandbox as usual
# ...
r = sandbox.commands.run("whoami")
print(f"Running in sandbox {sandbox.sandbox_id} as \"{r.stdout.strip()}\"")
```
</CodeGroup>