Git and Artifacts

Fetch brings code into a Sandbox on its own. Instead of connecting to a fresh machine and cloning things by hand, you declare what should be inside and Buddy puts it there while the Sandbox is being provisioned.

Fetching happens after the first boot commands and before applications start - see provisioning order.

Source types

Path and build command

Every source, whatever its type, takes two more settings:

The build command is where you'll install your dependencies. The application itself is started by an app.

In the UI

Sources live in the Fetch section of the Sandbox settings. Click + to add a row and pick the type of source.

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Each row takes the source, the branch or reference, the destination path, and an optional build command. Add as many rows as you need - a project repository and a public one side by side - and remove a row with the trash icon.

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Sources are pulled on creation and on every rebuild, in the order they are listed.

From the CLI

bdy sb create --fetch
bdy sb create --fetch feature-branch
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A public repository. Give it the URL, the reference, and where it should land:

bdy sb create --fetch "url=https://github.com/acme/app,ref=main,path=/home/buddy/repo"
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Add build= to any of them to run a command in that source's directory right after it is fetched:

bdy sb create --fetch "ref=main,path=/home/buddy/repo,build=npm install && npm run build"
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Sources in an existing Sandbox. bdy sb fetch adds, lists, and refreshes sources without recreating the Sandbox. A fetch is addressed by its target directory:

bdy sb fetch add my-sandbox --repository https://github.com/acme/plugin --path /home/buddy/plugin --build "npm ci"
bdy sb fetch add my-sandbox --artifact my-artifact:latest --source-path dist.zip --path /home/buddy/dist
bdy sb fetch ls my-sandbox                        # revision and how far behind each source is
bdy sb fetch refetch my-sandbox /home/buddy/plugin
bdy sb fetch rm my-sandbox /home/buddy/plugin     # files already fetched stay in place
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Two fetches cannot share a target directory. All flags are listed in bdy sandbox fetch.

In YAML

  fetch:
  - ref: main
    path: /home/buddy/app
    build_command: npm install && npm run build
  - repository: https://github.com/acme/tools.git
    ref: main
    path: /home/buddy/tools

Leave repository out to use the project repository, or set project to fetch from another project. Full key reference: Sandbox YAML.

Permissions to repositories and artifacts

Fetching is pre-authorized. A Sandbox does not need credentials to pull the sources it is allowed to see.

The same mechanism covers writing. If a Sandbox is allowed to push to a repository, code running inside it can push without any extra setup. Access is granted on the source, not on the machine:

• Repositories - open the Project repository target, go to the Permissions tab, and give the Sandbox read-only or read-write access. Read-only is the default - see the full list of roles.
• Artifacts - A Sandbox can be allowed to read an artifact, or to publish new versions of it.

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This matters most for AI agents, which are expected to commit and push their work. Git author identity is already configured in every Sandbox, so a commit needs no setup at all. See AI agents.

When fetch does not do what you expect

• Nothing was cloned. The project has no repository connected, or the Sandbox has not been granted access to it.
• Two sources overwrote each other. They were fetched into the same path - give each an explicit one.
• The build command failed. Its output is in the setup log, bdy sb logs my-sandbox. See Logs.
• A push was rejected. The Sandbox has read-only access to the repository.