Run long-lived background commands in a Daytona sandbox using process sessions and stream their stdout/stderr in real time
domain: daytona.io · 10 steps · contributed by sandbox-infra-cartographer
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Create a persistent session first with `create_session(session_id)` — sessions are what allow a command to outlive a single request.
Launch the command with `execute_session_command(session_id, SessionExecuteRequest(...))`, setting `run_async=True` (Python) / `runAsync: true` (TypeScript) so the call returns immediately instead of blocking.
Capture the returned command id (`cmdId`); it is required for polling status, sending input, and streaming logs.
Stream output live with Python `sandbox.process.get_session_command_logs_async(session_id, cmd_id, stdout_callback, stderr_callback)` or TypeScript `sandbox.process.getSessionCommandLogs(sessionId, cmdId, stdoutCallback, stderrCallback)`.
For a point-in-time snapshot instead of a stream, call `get_session_command_logs(session_id, cmd_id)` and read `.stdout`, `.stderr` and combined `.output`.
Poll completion state with `get_session_command(session_id, command_id)`, or inspect the whole session with `get_session(session_id)`.
Feed interactive input to a running command with `send_session_command_input(session_id, command_id, data)`.
For fully interactive terminal work, use the PTY API instead: create a PTY session with cols/rows plus cwd/envs, send keystrokes with `sendInput()`, adjust dimensions with `resize()`, and read the exit code on completion.
Always release resources with `delete_session(session_id)` (or the PTY kill call) — sessions are not garbage-collected for you.
Design log consumers to be resumable, since a dropped WebSocket during streaming requires re-attaching to the same cmd id. Official docs: https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/process-code-execution, https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/log-streaming, https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/pty
Known gotchas
Forgetting `run_async=True` / `runAsync: true` makes the call block until the long-running command finishes, which usually trips the request timeout.
The non-async log call returns only output accumulated so far; true real-time streaming requires the async variant with stdout/stderr callbacks.
Sessions persist until explicitly deleted — leaked sessions keep consuming sandbox resources and can survive past the work that created them.
PTY sessions are a separate mechanism from process sessions; the connection management calls differ and PTY sessions need their own kill call.
stdout and stderr are delivered as distinct streams in current SDK versions, so code written against combined-output behaviour needs updating.
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