Tembo puts cloud coding agents in full Linux VMs

• Tembo puts a coding session in a full Linux VM, where benjaminakar's demo says an agent can iterate on a frontend while also running a database or the whole stack.
• Apps running in that VM can be tunneled into a link for teammates, and benjaminakar's follow-up says the same route supports hot reload instead of watching the VM stream.
• Nested virtualization is on the roadmap: benjaminakar's update describes work on “Tembo's VM inside the VM.”
• Long-running agent interfaces are already surfacing time and tool budgets, as Everlier's 24-hour test shows a subagent-based run completing after 340 tool calls.
• An invite rollout may come sooner than expected, according to CharlesPattson, although the post gives neither a date nor public access details.

Tembo's sandbox page calls each session “a full computer,” complete with terminal access and build execution. Its sandbox documentation adds an important constraint: standard sandboxes are ephemeral, while project environments can cache repos and dependencies. The company also says on its agents page that a cloud session can keep running, resume, be shared, or be handed off.

The demo treats the agent's environment as a development machine, not a remote code-editing endpoint. benjaminakar lists three things working inside it:

• Real-time frontend iteration.
• A database next to the application.
• The entire Linux stack, including whatever tooling the task requires.

Tembo's environment specification says each session gets an isolated full Linux VM with its repository checked out, dependencies installed, build tools ready, and a full terminal for agents to use. That gives the agent a place to run the actual application rather than only modify its files.

The most useful workflow detail is the tunnel. benjaminakar's follow-up says the app can be exposed directly from the VM, then shared by link with a teammate or used as the target for hot reloads.

That makes the browser preview part of the cloud session itself. The accompanying workspace view is framed by benjaminakar as putting “the whole computer inside the app.”

Nested virtualization has not been shown as a shipped workflow. benjaminakar says it is “coming up next” while the team polishes a VM running inside Tembo's VM.

The claim matters because the existing environment already supports a database and full stack in the outer Linux machine. The post identifies the next layer, but gives no configuration details or availability date for it.

Cloud sessions need a visible account of what the agent is doing while the machine boots, installs, tests, and edits. steipete says the chat bar in a Codex visualization is custom code; the attached interface tracks provisioning, a transcript, changed files, and test results.

Everlier's test exposes the longer time horizon such surfaces need to handle:

• A duration picker offering 8, 24, or 48 hours.
• A subagent-based run set to 24 hours.
• 340 tool calls before completion.

Tembo's main site similarly frames its service as a control plane for deploying and observing agents across an organization.

CharlesPattson says testing is going well enough that an invite rollout is expected sooner than anticipated. The update does not identify the product, set a launch date, or establish Tembo's current access terms.

Tembo's sandbox lifecycle documentation says a normal sandbox is created for a session and destroyed when it ends, taking its repository contents and working state with it. Projects are the exception: their repositories and pre-installed dependencies can be cached in reusable environments.

That distinction leaves the persistent-computer question visible in the discussion. petergyang asks whether local files can be stored on it; the supplied thread contains no answer.