Boat.Snapshot reference

Snapshot

Source: packages/boat/src/Snapshot.ts

A warm base for sandboxes: a sandbox set up with your commands and its disk saved under a name. Sandboxes started from it begin exactly where the setup left off: packages installed, a repository cloned, a build cache warm.

Use a snapshot for work that is too slow to repeat per sandbox. Alchemy runs the commands in a sandbox of its own, saves it, and deletes the sandbox. A deploy re-runs the setup only when the commands or the base change, and a rebuild replaces the declared sandboxes started from it.

Snapshot: Creating a Snapshot

A repository with its dependencies installed

export const Golden = Boat.Snapshot("Golden", {
  run: [
    "git clone https://github.com/alchemy-run/alchemy ~/alchemy",
    "cd ~/alchemy && pnpm install",
  ],
});

Layer one snapshot on another

export const Tools = Boat.Snapshot("Tools", { run: ["npm i -g pnpm"] });
export const Golden = Boat.Snapshot("Golden", { from: Tools, run: ["pnpm dlx playwright install"] });

Snapshot: Starting sandboxes from a Snapshot

A declared sandbox

export const Box = Boat.Sandbox("Box", { snapshot: Golden });

Sandboxes created at run time

const sandboxes = yield* Boat.CreateSandbox(Golden);
const sandbox = yield* sandboxes.create({ autoStop: "10 minutes" });

Snapshot: Referencing a snapshot the stack doesn’t manage

const shared = Boat.Snapshot.lookup({ name: "team-base" });
const sandboxes = yield* Boat.CreateSandbox(shared);