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How to execute Python code with E2B

Q: How to execute Python code with E2B

Use the e2b_code_interpreter package to create a Sandbox instance with your API key, then call run_code() to execute Python code securely. You can also write files to the sandbox and run pip installs inside it.

Quick answer

Use the e2b_code_interpreter package to create a Sandbox instance with your API key, then call run_code() to execute Python code securely. You can also write files to the sandbox and run pip installs inside it.

PREREQUISITES

Python 3.8+
E2B API key
pip install e2b-code-interpreter

Setup

Install the e2b-code-interpreter package and set your E2B API key as an environment variable.

Install package: pip install e2b-code-interpreter
Set API key in your shell: export E2B_API_KEY='your_api_key_here'

bash

pip install e2b-code-interpreter

output

Collecting e2b-code-interpreter
  Downloading e2b_code_interpreter-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl (15 kB)
Installing collected packages: e2b-code-interpreter
Successfully installed e2b-code-interpreter-1.0.0

Step by step

Create a Sandbox instance with your API key, then run Python code using run_code(). You can also write files to the sandbox and install packages.

python

import os
from e2b_code_interpreter import Sandbox

# Initialize sandbox with API key from environment
sandbox = Sandbox(api_key=os.environ["E2B_API_KEY"])

# Run simple Python code
execution = sandbox.run_code("print('Hello from sandbox')")
print(execution.text)

# Write a file to sandbox
sandbox.files.write("data.txt", b"Sample data content")

# Run code that reads the file
code = """
with open('data.txt', 'r') as f:
    content = f.read()
print('File content:', content)
"""
result = sandbox.run_code(code)
print(result.text)

# Install a package inside sandbox
sandbox.run_code("import subprocess; subprocess.run(['pip', 'install', 'requests'])")

# Close sandbox when done
sandbox.close()

output

Hello from sandbox
File content: Sample data content
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.31.0-py3-none-any.whl (62 kB)
Installing collected packages: requests
Successfully installed requests-2.31.0

Common variations

Use run_code() asynchronously if supported by your environment.
Run multi-line scripts by passing a string with triple quotes.
Manage sandbox files with sandbox.files.write() and sandbox.files.read().
Use sandbox.close() to release resources after execution.

Troubleshooting

If you see authentication errors, verify your E2B_API_KEY environment variable is set correctly.
For package install failures, ensure network access is enabled in your sandbox environment.
If run_code() hangs, check your code for infinite loops or blocking calls.
Always call sandbox.close() to avoid resource leaks.

✅

Key Takeaways

Use Sandbox from e2b_code_interpreter to securely run Python code remotely.
Manage files inside the sandbox with sandbox.files.write() and sandbox.files.read().
Always close the sandbox with sandbox.close() to free resources.
You can install Python packages inside the sandbox by running pip commands via run_code().
Set your API key securely in the environment variable E2B_API_KEY before running code.

Verified 2026-04

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