Support for multiple shell executions/instances

[maidacundo]

Hey,

I'm currently working with e2b and need to run multiple shell sessions/instances simultaneously. Right now I'm using tmux as a workaround, but this approach has some pain points:

• Need to install tmux every time I spin up a new sandbox
• Feels like overkill for what should be a simpler use case
• Adds complexity to my workflow
• Custom templates with tmux pre-installed are noticeably slower to load compared to the base template sandboxes

What I'm looking for:
Is there a more elegant way to handle multiple concurrent shell executions? Ideally something that:

• Doesn't require installing additional packages
• Allows me to spawn multiple shell instances
• Lets me interact with each instance independently
• Maybe supports basic session management
• Keeps sandbox startup times fast

Questions:

1. Does e2b have any built-in support for this pattern?
2. Is there a clever way to achieve this using existing e2b APIs?
3. Would this be something worth considering as a feature addition?

This would be ideal when doing parallel processing, running background tasks, or managing multiple development workflows simultaneously.

Thanks for any insights or suggestions!

[linear]

E2B-2802 Support for multiple shell executions/instances

[mishushakov]

Hey,
I am not sure what your use-case is here, but you can simulate something like this by using the E2B Code Interpeter, which supports the bash kernel for running scripts.

from e2b_code_interpreter import Sandbox

sbx = Sandbox()

# start a new bash session
bash_session = interpreter.create_code_context(language="bash")

sbx.run_code("ls -la", context=bash_session)

Let me know if this helps!