Mesa

Mesa is a versioned virtual filesystem you can mount inside a Superserve sandbox. Where a cloud bucket gives a sandbox flat object storage, Mesa adds version history and branches, so every edit is committed back and each sandbox can fork its own workspace. This guide covers the full flow: use the Mesa SDK outside the sandbox to set up resources, then the Superserve SDK to mount Mesa inside. Mounting Mesa in a Superserve sandbox takes three steps:

Outside the sandbox: use the Mesa SDK (TypeScript or Python) to create repos, sign a short-lived access token, and orchestrate your workflow.
Inside the sandbox: install the mesa CLI, configure it with a short-lived access token, and run mesa mount --daemonize to mount your repos as local directories.
Run your agent: cd into the mount path and launch your agent (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, or a custom agent). Any file edits are automatically persisted back to Mesa.

For details on FUSE setup, system dependencies, and container configuration, see Mesa’s POSIX Mount guide.

Sandbox setup

Superserve sandboxes run on a FUSE-enabled kernel, and the Mesa installer apt-installs fuse3 as a dependency, so the standard Mesa install script works on every Superserve template out of the box. Because Superserve sandboxes are full Firecracker microVMs, you don’t need user_allow_other or chmod 666 /dev/fuse.

import { Sandbox } from "@superserve/sdk";
import { Mesa } from "@mesadev/sdk";

const mesa = new Mesa({ apiKey: process.env.MESA_API_KEY });

// --- Outside the sandbox: set up Mesa resources ---

// Create a repo (or use an existing one)
const repo = await mesa.repos.create({ name: "agent-workspace" });

// Sign a scoped, self-expiring access token for the sandbox. Signed locally
// from your API key with no network call, so your API key never enters the sandbox.
const { token } = await mesa.tokens.create({
  scopes: ["read", "write"],
  repos: ["my-org/agent-workspace"],
  ttl_seconds: 3600, // 1 hour
});

// --- Inside the sandbox: install and mount Mesa ---

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ fromTemplate: "superserve/base" });

// Install the Mesa CLI. The installer apt-installs fuse3 as a dependency.
await sandbox.commands.run(
  "curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes",
);

// Start Mesa as a background daemon. MESA_ORG and MESA_API_KEY are read
// from the environment, never persisted to disk.
await sandbox.commands.run("mesa mount -d", {
  env: {
    MESA_ORG: "my-org",
    MESA_API_KEY: token,
  },
});

// --- Run your agent ---

await sandbox.commands.run(
  'cd ~/.local/share/mesa/mnt/my-org/agent-workspace && claude "Implement the feature described in TODO.md"',
);

import asyncio
import os

from mesa_sdk import Mesa
from superserve import Sandbox


async def main():
    # --- Outside the sandbox: set up Mesa resources (the Mesa SDK is async) ---
    mesa = Mesa(api_key=os.environ["MESA_API_KEY"])

    # Create a repo (or use an existing one)
    repo = await mesa.repos.create(name="agent-workspace")

    # Sign a scoped, self-expiring access token for the sandbox. Signed locally
    # from your API key with no network call, so your API key never enters the sandbox.
    minted = await mesa.tokens.create(
        scopes=["read", "write"],
        repos=["my-org/agent-workspace"],
        ttl_seconds=3600,  # 1 hour
    )

    # --- Inside the sandbox: install and mount Mesa ---
    sandbox = Sandbox.create(from_template="superserve/base")

    # Install the Mesa CLI. The installer apt-installs fuse3 as a dependency.
    sandbox.commands.run("curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes")

    # Start Mesa as a background daemon. MESA_ORG and MESA_API_KEY are read
    # from the environment, never persisted to disk.
    sandbox.commands.run(
        "mesa mount -d",
        env={"MESA_ORG": "my-org", "MESA_API_KEY": minted.token},
    )

    # --- Run your agent ---
    sandbox.commands.run(
        'cd ~/.local/share/mesa/mnt/my-org/agent-workspace '
        '&& claude "Implement the feature described in TODO.md"'
    )


asyncio.run(main())

# Install the Mesa CLI. The installer apt-installs fuse3 as a dependency.
curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes

# Start Mesa as a background daemon. MESA_ORG and MESA_API_KEY are read
# from the environment, never persisted to disk.
MESA_ORG="my-org" MESA_API_KEY="$MESA_TOKEN" mesa mount -d

# Run your agent
cd ~/.local/share/mesa/mnt/my-org/agent-workspace
claude "Implement the feature described in TODO.md"

Custom template

For faster startup, pre-install the Mesa CLI into a custom Superserve template so each sandbox boots with the Mesa CLI already installed:

import { Template } from "@superserve/sdk";

const template = await Template.create({
  name: "agent-with-mesa",
  vcpu: 2,
  memoryMib: 2048,
  diskMib: 4096,
  from: "ubuntu:24.04",
  steps: [
    {
      run: "apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl git && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*",
    },
    { run: "curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes" },
  ],
});

await template.waitUntilReady();

from superserve import Template, RunStep

template = Template.create(
    name="agent-with-mesa",
    vcpu=2,
    memory_mib=2048,
    disk_mib=4096,
    from_="ubuntu:24.04",
    steps=[
        RunStep(
            run="apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl git && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*"
        ),
        RunStep(run="curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes"),
    ],
)

template.wait_until_ready()

FROM ubuntu:24.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl git \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
RUN curl -fsSL https://mesa.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes

Reference it on sandbox creation and skip the runtime install step:

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create({ fromTemplate: "agent-with-mesa" });

await sandbox.commands.run("mesa mount -d", {
  env: {
    MESA_ORG: "my-org",
    MESA_API_KEY: token,
  },
});

sandbox = Sandbox.create(from_template="agent-with-mesa")

sandbox.commands.run(
    "mesa mount -d",
    env={"MESA_ORG": "my-org", "MESA_API_KEY": minted.token},
)

MESA_ORG="my-org" MESA_API_KEY="$MESA_TOKEN" mesa mount -d

Tips

Use scoped, short-lived access tokens. Sign a dedicated token for each sandbox session with only the scopes it needs. It’s signed locally from your API key (which never enters the sandbox) and expires on its own. See Mesa’s Authentication docs for details.
Use --daemonize. Always run mesa mount --daemonize in sandbox environments so Mesa runs as a background process and doesn’t block your agent’s terminal.
Build a custom template for production use. Pre-installing the Mesa CLI avoids the install overhead on every sandbox creation.
Mount path follows $HOME. Superserve’s guest agent sets HOME=/home/user, so the mount lands at /home/user/.local/share/mesa/mnt/<org>/<repo>. Use ~/.local/share/mesa/mnt/... and it resolves correctly.

Get Started

Sandbox

Secrets & env vars

Templates

Commands

Filesystem

Storage

Errors

Sandbox setup

Custom template

Tips

​Sandbox setup

​Custom template

​Tips

Sandbox setup

Custom template

Tips