@computesdk/northflank

Northflank provider for ComputeSDK.

Each sandbox is a deployment service in your Northflank project. Commands run in the container via Northflank's exec API; ports are exposed through the service's public DNS.

Installation

npm install @computesdk/northflank

Setup

1. Get your API token: Team settings → API → Tokens → Create API token
2. Create (or pick) a Northflank project
3. Set environment variables:

export NORTHFLANK_TOKEN=your_api_token_here
export NORTHFLANK_PROJECT_ID=your_project_id

Quick Start

import { northflank } from '@computesdk/northflank';

const compute = northflank({
  token: process.env.NORTHFLANK_TOKEN!,
  projectId: process.env.NORTHFLANK_PROJECT_ID!,
  runtime: 'node',
});

const sandbox = await compute.instances.create();

const result = await sandbox.runCommand(`node -e "console.log('hello from northflank')"`);
console.log(result.stdout);

await sandbox.destroy();

Configuration

interface NorthflankConfig {
  /** Northflank API token */
  token: string;
  /** Project ID (slug, e.g. "my-project") */
  projectId: string;
  /** Team ID — required for organization API tokens */
  teamId?: string;
  /** API host — defaults to https://api.northflank.com */
  host?: string;
  /** Service name prefix used to identify managed sandboxes — defaults to "computesdk-" */
  servicePrefix?: string;
  /** Container image — overrides the default for the runtime */
  image?: string;
  /** Default runtime label when none is passed to create() — any string; defaults to "node". "node" and "python" map to built-in image defaults; anything else needs `image` or `internalDeployment` */
  runtime?: string;
  /** Northflank deployment plan — defaults to "nf-compute-50" */
  deploymentPlan?: string;
  /** Default ports to expose on every sandbox */
  ports?: { name: string; internalPort: number; public?: boolean; protocol?: 'HTTP' | 'HTTP/2' | 'TCP' | 'UDP' }[];
  /** Budget in ms for the first exec to retry while the container starts (default: 120000) */
  timeout?: number;
  /** Deploy from a Northflank build service instead of an external image */
  internalDeployment?: { id: string; branch?: string; buildSHA?: string };
  /** Ephemeral storage per container in MB (e.g. 5120 for 5 GiB) */
  ephemeralStorageSize?: number;
}

Internal deployments (recommended for production)

By default, sandboxes pull node:20-slim / python:3.11-slim (or your image) from an external registry. For production workloads we recommend deploying from a Northflank build service in the same project — internal deployments are optimized for faster cold starts and don't depend on external registries.

const compute = northflank({
  token: process.env.NORTHFLANK_TOKEN!,
  projectId: process.env.NORTHFLANK_PROJECT_ID!,
  internalDeployment: {
    id: 'my-build-service',   // build service ID in the same project
    branch: 'main',           // optional — defaults to "main"
    buildSHA: 'latest',       // optional — defaults to "latest"
  },
});

You can also pass internalDeployment on a per-sandbox basis to create(); it overrides the config-level value. External images keep working — internalDeployment is just the recommended path.

Per-sandbox options

create() accepts these provider-specific options on top of the standard ones:

await compute.instances.create({
  runtime: 'python',                    // overrides config.runtime
  image: 'my-registry/custom:tag',      // overrides config.image and the runtime default
  ports: [{ name: 'app', internalPort: 3000 }], // overrides config.ports
  deploymentPlan: 'nf-compute-200',     // overrides config.deploymentPlan
  timeout: 180000,                      // overrides config.timeout
  envs: { LOG_LEVEL: 'debug' },         // merged into runtimeEnvironment
  name: 'my-sandbox',                   // service name (auto-prefixed)
  ephemeralStorageSize: 5120,           // 5 GiB ephemeral storage per container
});

Built-in image defaults: node → node:20-slim, python → python:3.11-slim. Any other runtime label is accepted, but you must supply image or internalDeployment — there's no default to fall back on.

Running code

There is no runCode — invoke the runtime directly through runCommand:

// Python
const py = await sandbox.runCommand(`python -c "import json; print(json.dumps({'hello': 'world'}))"`);

// Node.js
const js = await sandbox.runCommand(`node -e "console.log(JSON.stringify({hello: 'world'}))"`);

For multi-line scripts, write the file first and then invoke it:

await sandbox.filesystem.writeFile('/tmp/script.py', `
import pandas as pd
print(pd.__version__)
`);
const result = await sandbox.runCommand('python /tmp/script.py');

Commands

// Simple command
await sandbox.runCommand('ls -la');

// Working directory
await sandbox.runCommand('npm install', { cwd: '/app' });

// Environment variables
await sandbox.runCommand('echo $MY_VAR', { env: { MY_VAR: 'hello' } });

// Background execution
await sandbox.runCommand('python server.py', { background: true });

Filesystem

await sandbox.filesystem.writeFile('/tmp/hello.txt', 'hello world');
const content = await sandbox.filesystem.readFile('/tmp/hello.txt');

await sandbox.filesystem.mkdir('/tmp/data');
const entries = await sandbox.filesystem.readdir('/tmp');

const exists = await sandbox.filesystem.exists('/tmp/hello.txt');
await sandbox.filesystem.remove('/tmp/hello.txt');

Filesystem operations send paths as plain argv elements to the exec proxy (e.g. ['mkdir', '-p', '--', path]) or through Northflank's fileCopy API — no shell parsing is involved, so paths don't need escaping. Only runCommand (which actually invokes a shell) escapes the env / cwd values it interpolates.

Sandbox management

// List managed sandboxes (filtered by servicePrefix)
const sandboxes = await compute.instances.list();

// Look up by service ID (slug of the service name)
const sandbox = await compute.instances.getById('computesdk-1700000000-abc123');

// Inspect — refetches the live deployment status
const info = await sandbox.getInfo();
console.log(info.id, info.status, info.createdAt);

// Get the public URL for a port — exposes it dynamically if not already public
const url = await sandbox.getUrl({ port: 3000 });

await sandbox.destroy();

Notes

• Services are named <servicePrefix><timestamp>-<random> (or <servicePrefix><name> if you pass name). list, getById and destroy only operate on services whose name starts with the prefix.
• create returns immediately after the Northflank API call that creates the service — it does not wait for the container to be ready. The first runCommand (or filesystem call) may therefore take longer: it retries transient exec failures (up to timeout ms) while the pod finishes starting. Once one exec succeeds, subsequent calls run directly with no retry.
• list returns every prefixed service regardless of deployment status. Use getInfo to check each one's state and filter client-side if needed.
• getInfo re-reads the service from the API every call — running means the deployment status is COMPLETED and the service isn't paused; stopped means paused, PENDING, or IN_PROGRESS; error means FAILED.
• getUrl will patch the service's port config to make the requested port public if it isn't already, then return its dns.

Limitations

• Startup time — Northflank pulls and starts the image; expect tens of seconds.
• Memory & CPU — bounded by the chosen deploymentPlan.
• File persistence — files live in the container and are lost when the service is destroyed.

Support

• Northflank docs
• ComputeSDK issues

License

MIT