Boxes

Create

prized box new                                   # a fruit name, the size your balance runs comfortably
prized box new mango --size Small --ttl 4h --wait

Create from the CLI (flags under CLI: box new) or the dashboard's New box page. A Small box with no name, snapshot, or environment is usually running when the create returns; any other new box usually boots in under a minute, a box restored from a snapshot or forked takes minutes, and --wait blocks until it is running.

Sizes mix freely, each at its own rate (Billing); a size your balance could not run for four hours cannot be picked unless overage is on. prized box ls lists your boxes, prized box info mango shows one in full, and Machines says what each size is made of.

States

Pause and resume

prized box pause mango
prized box resume mango --wait

The disk survives a pause (files, tools, git state), and billing drops to the sleep rate at once. Running processes depend on the size:

prized ssh wakes a suspended box on connect. A box's desktop follows the same table.

A resume that cannot bring the box back ends in a pause: the box keeps its disk, bills at the sleep rate, and its events show reconciler:wake_failed. Resume it again; if it still will not start, email team@prized.ac.

Auto-pause

Set per box: Auto-pause on the box's dashboard page (30 minutes to 24 hours), prized box auto-pause mango 2h (up to 7 days), or prized box new --auto-pause 45m. The box pauses itself once nothing has used it for that long. Off by default on a plan.

On the free credit it is on by default: a box pauses after 2 hours idle, and never in its first 24 hours. Change the window or switch it off the same ways (prized box auto-pause mango off); a window you set replaces the default, and a plan lifts the default.

• Counts as use: typing or output in any terminal session, so an agent working in tmux or a shell keeps the box up; sustained CPU (builds, agents, test loops); and sustained network traffic in or out of the box: a sync, a clone or download, a container image pull, a port you are using. A forgotten shell prompt does not, and neither do the box's own background check-ins or traffic between containers on the box.
• A large first sync can look idle if it stalls, for example while your laptop sleeps; on a plan, set the window once the first sync finishes.
• Waking it: prized ssh, prized up, prized exec, prized agents run, Resume or Open terminal on the dashboard, and a members link to one of its ports. An editor's Remote-SSH, a plain ssh to the box, and sync do not wake a paused box; they report it as not running. Run prized box resume mango --wait, then reconnect them.
• The 30 minute floor is how long the box waits before calling itself idle; the box page shows the idle time so far.
• It is exactly a pause, shown in the event list as reconciler:auto_pause.
• A workspace policy can cap the window (auto-pause floor), except on the free credit; quiet hours pause the whole workspace nightly.

Pause deadline

prized box new ci-run --ttl 2h          # pauses two hours from now
prized box extend mango --ttl 12h       # set, or push back, the deadline
prized box extend mango --no-deadline

A deadline pauses the box at a set time, busy or idle: --ttl at create, prized box extend later, or Pause at on the box page's Settings tab, 5 minutes to 30 days ahead.

• One pause, not a schedule. It clears when it fires or the box wakes. A new --ttl replaces it, counting from now; --no-deadline removes it.
• It needs a running box to set; clearing is always allowed.
• It stacks with auto-pause: whichever comes first pauses the box. The event list shows it as reconciler:pause_deadline.

Resize

prized box resize mango Medium

The box stops, changes size, and starts again with files intact, metered at the new rate from that moment; it stays resizing until it is ready to connect. Any size your balance can keep running is allowed.

Regions

Boxes run in US West (Oregon), the default, US West (N. California), US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), and Europe (Frankfurt); Machines lists their ids and CLI names. The dashboard and the onboarding tour start a new box in the region nearest you, with Region on the New box form to pick another: its menu lists every region fastest first, by the round trip timed from your browser. The CLI and API default to Oregon; pick one with prized box new --region eu-central-1 or "region": "us-east-1" on POST /api/v1/boxes. A box a plan starts runs in the region picked with its size (Billing); a box restored from a snapshot starts in the snapshot's region. Move an existing box with Region on the box page or prized box move mango us-east-1. GPU boxes run in Oregon only during their beta.

• The box stays up while the disk copies, then goes offline for a few minutes and returns in the new region with its name, files, tools, vars, and secrets. Its public IP changes; prized ssh follows it.
• Metering continues at the normal rate, and a size costs the same in every region.
• Only a running box moves, one move at a time. A move that cannot finish leaves the box in its original region on its original disk.
• One move per box in 24 hours, and three per workspace, counting only moves that ran; moving needs a funded balance. For a new box, create it in the other region instead.
• A region holds the box, not the account. The box's disk, snapshots, and daily backups stay in its region. Your account, box settings, and command history are kept in the US (us-west-2), and the web terminal and shared port links pass through there too; prized ssh connects to the box directly.
• Outside Oregon a new box always boots fresh, which takes a minute or two; in Oregon a Small can start from one already booted.

Snapshots

Snapshot a box's disk without stopping it, restore into a new box, fork a running box, or set a schedule (Snapshots). Take one before risky changes.

Infinite storage

prized box new mango --size Small --storage infinite

An infinite storage box keeps its files in object storage (Amazon S3) that grows as you write, instead of on a fixed-size disk. The files you are working with stay in a fast cache on the box, so day-to-day work, Docker included, runs at the speed of a normal disk. Ask for it at create with --storage infinite, "storage": "infinite" on POST /api/v1/boxes, or Infinite storage on the dashboard's New box form; without it, a box gets its own disk. The exception is a workspace in the infinite storage alpha, where a box that can have infinite storage gets it unless you pass --storage standard.

• Where it is offered. Extra Small and up, on a fresh box in any of the five regions. Each box's files stay in its own region. A size, a region, or a snapshot source it cannot take, or a workspace it is not open to, answers 422 storage_unavailable with the reason, and nothing is created; a region it is not offered in is refused with the regions that offer it.
• How much fits. Ten times its size's disk: Extra Small 1.5 TB, Small 3 TB, Medium 5 TB, Large 10 TB, Extra Large 20 TB. Resizing to a bigger size raises it while the box runs; a smaller size keeps the space it already has. One file can be up to 16 TiB.
• What it costs. The box's usual price, which includes its size's disk; the space in use beyond that disk is $0.05 a GB-month, awake or asleep, metered from what the box last reported (Billing).
• Very large writes. Tens of GB land at disk speed. Writing hundreds of GB in one go slows to the rate the box uploads to S3, about 90 MB/s, until it catches up.
• The box page shows Storage: Infinite and the space in use instead of a disk size.
• Pausing is a clean stop at every size: files survive, processes restart on resume. A paused box never goes into deep sleep.
• Not available on these boxes: snapshots (by hand or on a schedule), forks, and region moves.
• A delete can be undone for 7 days, as on any box: the box's files are kept, and Restore the box on the Deleted tab (or prized snapshot restore) brings them back in a new infinite storage box in the same region, the same size unless you pick another that offers it. The new box starts once its files are copied, which takes longer the more it held (Data retention).
• If its storage service fails, the box reboots itself and is back in about a minute. Saved files are safe; writes from the last few seconds can be lost, as on a laptop that loses power.

Environments

An environment is what a new box inherits: repos, a setup script, env vars, secret files, and which credentials the box may receive. Pick one at create time or mark a default; a running box keeps its version until you upgrade it (Environments).

Several boxes

Every box has a hostname: a fruit name unless you pick one (lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens, up to 32 characters). prized ssh mango connects to any box.

The default box is the one prized setup connected first (or prized login, when your account had exactly one), used when a command names no box. Other boxes are reachable by name; connect one with --box for sync, mirrored ports, and every other command.

prized setup --box mango            # connect a second box: its own config and daemon
prized --box mango status           # aim any command at it
PRIZED_BOX=mango prized sync ls     # the same from the environment

• Adding a box. prized setup --box mango writes boxes/mango.toml, starts its daemon, and runs the normal setup; prized init --box mango only connects. With no default box yet, either makes the box the default.
• Aiming commands. --box NAME (or PRIZED_BOX) works on every command, by hostname, or by box id for setup and init. --config PATH overrides everything, as an escape hatch.
• Changing the default. prized init --force --box mango rewrites the default config (backed up first) and restarts the default daemon. A box with its own file is refused: first prized --box mango daemon uninstall and delete boxes/mango.toml.
• Same-named projects. Two boxes cannot sync a project under one name; the second prized sync add asks for --name.
• The same port on two boxes shows as conflicted in prized ports ls; toggle it off on one box, or list it under [ports].never in that box's config.

On Windows these sit under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Prized\boxes\.

Delete

prized box delete mango        # asks you to type the name; -y skips the prompt

A delete can be undone for 7 days from Recently deleted on the Deleted tab of the Boxes page, except for a box deleted within an hour of being created or under zero data retention (Data retention).