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Connect Claude Desktop to a sandbox

Table of contents
Availability: GA
Requires: Docker Sandboxes 0.37.0 or later

Claude Desktop can run Claude Code on a remote machine over SSH. Point it at a sandbox so the agent works inside the isolated environment instead of on your host.

Note

This page covers Claude Desktop connecting to a sandbox over SSH. To run the Claude Code CLI inside a sandbox directly, see Claude Code.

Prerequisites

Use a sandbox created with the Claude agent type. The Claude sandbox template configures Anthropic credentials and network access for the remote Claude Code session.

Connect

Warning

Connecting Claude Desktop to a sandbox over SSH transmits Anthropic credentials into the Claude Code process within the sandbox, reducing isolation guarantees.

Create a named Claude sandbox for the current directory if you don't already have one:

$ sbx create --name demo claude .

Confirm that you can connect to the sandbox from a terminal:

$ ssh demo.sbx

In Claude Desktop, open the environment drop-down before starting a session and select + Add SSH connection. Enter a name for the connection and enter the sandbox hostname, such as demo.sbx, in SSH Host. Leave SSH Port and Identity File empty because the managed SSH config supplies them.

Select the connection from the environment drop-down, then use the remote folder picker to select the mounted workspace. The picker might initially open at /home/agent.

For more connection options, see the Claude Desktop instructions for SSH sessions.

Troubleshoot a broken SSH connection after token refresh

The SSH connection drops when the Anthropic token expires and needs to be refreshed. To work around this, run the sandbox manually from your host:

$ sbx run --name <sandbox-name>

Troubleshoot SSH connection timeouts on Windows

Claude Desktop requires Git on Windows. If an SSH connection times out and the Claude Desktop logs include ProxyCommand error: spawn sh ENOENT, install Git for Windows.

If Git is already installed, verify that sh.exe is available on your PATH:

PS> where.exe sh

If the command doesn't find sh.exe, add the Git bin directory to your user Path. The default directory is C:\Program Files\Git\bin. Quit and restart Claude Desktop after updating Path.