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New Features for March 10th, 2026

March 10, 2026 · ← All posts

A big batch of improvements shipping today. Stock boxes get a better base image, Docker works out of the box, you can now create boxes from OCI images, and the SSH rate limit is raised.

Stock Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

The stock box image is now Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat). Every new box you create with create starts from this image. It's a clean, minimal Ubuntu server install with everything you'd expect.

Docker Works Out of the Box

Stock boxes now ship with Docker pre-installed and ready to go. No setup, no apt install, no adding yourself to the docker group. Just connect and run:

$ ssh dev1@shellbox.dev

Starting box...
Connected!

root@dev1:~# docker run hello-world

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
...

docker compose, multi-stage builds, volume mounts — it all works like you'd expect on any Linux server. Pull images, build containers, run your stack.

OCI Image-Backed Boxes

This is the big one. You can now create boxes from public Docker/OCI images. Instead of starting from the stock Ubuntu image, your box boots with the filesystem contents of whatever image you choose.

The workflow is two commands. First, prepare the image (this pulls it and builds a bootable rootfs):

$ ssh shellbox.dev image prepare docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim

Preparing image, this may take a couple of minutes...
Image prepared: docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim
Digest: sha256:abc123...
Status: ready

Then create a box from it:

$ ssh shellbox.dev create-from-oci mydebian docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim

Creating box...

Box 'mydebian' created successfully (x1)
URL:   https://mydebian-a1b2c3d4.shellbox.dev
Email: mydebian-a1b2c3d4@in.shellbox.dev

Connect with: ssh mydebian@shellbox.dev

If the image hasn't been prepared yet, create-from-oci will prepare it for you automatically — you'll see a "Preparing image..." message while it works.

You can check image preparation status anytime:

$ ssh shellbox.dev image status docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim

Image: docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim
Canonical ref: docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim
Status: ready
Digest: sha256:abc123...
Architecture: amd64
Guest layer: v1

Once prepared, images are cached on the server. Creating additional boxes from the same image is instant — no re-downloading.

OCI-backed boxes show up in list with an oci source tag and show displays the image reference and digest:

$ ssh shellbox.dev list

NAME          SIZE  SRC    STATE    URL
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
dev1          x2    stock  running  https://dev1-a1b2c3d4.shellbox.dev
mydebian      x1    oci    stopped  https://mydebian-a1b2c3d4.shellbox.dev

$ ssh shellbox.dev show mydebian

Name: mydebian
State: stopped
Size: x1
Source: oci
Image ref: docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim
Image digest: sha256:abc123...

What's Supported

Current OCI support focuses on:

• Public images (no private registries yet)
• linux/amd64 architecture
• Ubuntu-like images with apt-get available (Ubuntu, Debian, and derivatives)

Good starting points:

• docker.io/library/ubuntu:24.04
• docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim
• docker.io/library/node:22-bookworm
• docker.io/library/python:3.13-bookworm
• docker.io/library/rust:bookworm
• docker.io/library/golang:1.23-bookworm

What It's Not

OCI-backed boxes are normal Firecracker VMs — not Docker containers. The image provides the filesystem contents, but Docker runtime semantics like CMD, ENTRYPOINT, EXPOSE, and health checks are not preserved. You SSH in and run whatever you want. See the FAQ for more details.

SSH Rate Limit Raised to 200/min

The per-IP SSH connection rate limit has been raised from 100 to 200 connections per minute. This helps with workflows that open many short-lived SSH connections in quick succession — automated scripts, CI pipelines, or rapid scp transfers.

If you were hitting the old limit, you shouldn't anymore.

Try It

# create a stock box with Docker
$ ssh shellbox.dev create dev1
$ ssh dev1@shellbox.dev
root@dev1:~# docker run hello-world

# create a box from a Debian image
$ ssh shellbox.dev create-from-oci mydebian docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim

# create a box from a Python image
$ ssh shellbox.dev create-from-oci pybox docker.io/library/python:3.13-bookworm

Questions or issues? Open an issue or email support@shellbox.dev.