For AI agents: a documentation index is available at the root level at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt. Append /llms.txt to any URL for a page-level index, or .md for the markdown version of any page.
  • About NVIDIA OpenShell
    • Overview
    • How It Works
    • Installation
    • Container Gateway
    • Supported Agents
    • Release Notes
  • Get Started
    • Quickstart
    • Tutorials
  • Manage OpenShell
    • Sandboxes
    • Gateways
    • Providers
    • Providers v2
    • Policies
    • Policy Advisor
    • Inference Routing
  • Observability
    • Accessing Logs
    • Logging
    • OCSF JSON Export
  • Kubernetes
    • Setup
    • Managing Certificates
    • Ingress
    • Access Control
    • OpenShift
  • Reference
    • Gateway Auth
    • Default Policy
    • Policy Schema
    • Compute Drivers
    • Gateway Config
    • Support Matrix
  • Security
    • Security Best Practices
  • Resources
    • License
NVIDIANVIDIA
Developer-friendly docs for your API
Privacy Policy | Manage My Privacy | Do Not Sell or Share My Data | Terms of Service | Accessibility | Corporate Policies | Product Security | Contact

Copyright © 2026, NVIDIA Corporation.

LogoLogoOpenShell
On this page
  • Prerequisites
  • Install the OpenShell CLI
  • Create Your First OpenShell Sandbox
Get Started

Quickstart

||View as Markdown|
Previous

NVIDIA OpenShell Release Notes

Next

Tutorials

This page gets you from a reachable OpenShell gateway to a running, policy-enforced sandbox.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • A reachable OpenShell gateway.
  • At least one compute driver configured for the gateway: Kubernetes, Docker, Podman, or MicroVM.
  • The OpenShell CLI installed on your workstation.

For a complete list of requirements, refer to Support Matrix. If you have not chosen a compute driver yet, refer to Installation.

Install the OpenShell CLI

Run the install script:

$curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/main/install.sh | sh

The install script uses Homebrew, RPM, or a Debian package based on your machine. It starts the local gateway server after installation.

If you prefer uv:

$uv tool install -U openshell

After installing the CLI, run openshell --help in your terminal to view the full CLI reference.

You can also clone the NVIDIA OpenShell GitHub repository and use the /openshell-cli skill to load the CLI reference into your agent.

Create Your First OpenShell Sandbox

Create a sandbox and launch an agent inside it. Choose the tab that matches your agent:

Claude Code
OpenCode
Codex
Base Sandbox

Run the following command to create a sandbox with Claude Code:

$openshell sandbox create -- claude

The CLI prompts you to create a provider from local credentials. Type yes to continue. If ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set in your environment, the CLI picks it up automatically. If not, you can configure it from inside the sandbox after it launches.