Complete E2B Code Interpreter Tutorial: Secure Code Execution for AI Applications

E2B Code Interpreter is a sandboxed code execution platform that enables AI applications to run code safely in isolated environments. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to use E2B to build AI applications that can execute Python code, generate visualizations, and process data in real-time.

What Is E2B?

E2B (Environment to Binary) is a cloud platform that provides sandboxes for code execution. These sandboxes run in isolated microVMs, ensuring that executed code cannot affect the host system. E2B is particularly useful for building AI agents that need to run code, code interpreters, data analysis tools, and other interactive AI applications.

Key advantages of E2B:

• Security: Each sandbox runs in an isolated microVM with separate filesystem and network
• Speed: Sandboxes can be spun up in milliseconds
• Flexibility: Supports Python, JavaScript, R, and other languages
• Integration: SDKs available for Python and JavaScript/TypeScript
• Persistence: Supports file upload/download and data persistence between executions

Installation

Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have:

• Python 3.8+ or Node.js 18+
• An E2B account (free for basic usage)
• An API key from the E2B dashboard

Python SDK Installation

pip install e2b-code-interpreter

JavaScript/TypeScript SDK Installation

npm install @e2b/code-interpreter

Getting Your API Key

Sign up at e2b.dev

Go to Dashboard > API Keys

Create a new API key

Store the key as an environment variable:

export E2BAPIKEY="e2bxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Or create a .env file:

E2BAPIKEY=e2bxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Basic Usage

Running Simple Python Code

Here's a basic example of running Python code in an E2B sandbox:

from e2bcodeinterpreter import Sandbox

Create a new sandbox
sandbox = Sandbox()

Run Python code
execution = sandbox.runcode("print('Hello from E2B sandbox!')")


Get the output
print(execution.text)  # Output: Hello from E2B sandbox!

Close the sandbox when done
sandbox.close()

Using Context Manager

A more idiomatic approach using context managers:

from e2bcodeinterpreter import Sandbox

with Sandbox() as sandbox:
    execution = sandbox.runcode("""
import sys
print(f"Python version: {sys.version}")
print(f"Platform: {sys.platform}")
""")
    print(execution.text)

Running Multiple Cells

You can run multiple code blocks sequentially, and state is preserved between executions:

from e2bcodeinterpreter import Sandbox

with Sandbox() as sandbox:
    # Cell 1: Define variables
    sandbox.runcode("""

x = 10
y = 20
data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
""")

    # Cell 2: Use variables from the previous cell
    execution = sandbox.runcode("""
result = x + y
filtered = [d for d in data if d > 2]
print(f"Sum: {result}")
print(f"Filtered: {filtered}")
""")
    print(execution.text)
    # Output:
    # Sum: 30
    # Filtered: [3, 4, 5]

Error Handling

E2B provides detailed error information:

from e2bcodeinterpreter import Sandbox

with Sandbox() as sandbox:
    execution = sandbox.runcode("""

This code will produce an error
result = 1 / 0
""")

    if execution.error:
        print(f"Error type: {execution.error.name}")
        print(f"Error message: {execution.error.value}")
        print(f"Traceback: {execution.error.traceback}")
    else:
        print(execution.text)

Working with Files

Uploading Files to Sandbox

from e2bcodeinterpreter import Sandbox

with Sandbox() as sandbox:
    # Upload a file from the local filesystem