Boxes.

Create

prized box new                                   # a fruit name, the size your balance runs comfortably
prized box new mango --size Small --ttl 4h --wait

Create from the CLI (flags under CLI: box new) or the dashboard's New box page. A new box boots in about a minute; --wait blocks until it is running. Sizes mix freely, each at its own rate (Billing); a size the balance could not run for four hours cannot be picked unless overage is on.

prized box ls lists your boxes; prized box info mango shows one in full. What each size is made of is on Machines.

States

Pause and resume

prized box pause mango
prized box resume mango --wait

The disk always survives a pause: files, tools, and git state stay put, and billing drops to the sleep rate at once. Running processes depend on the size:

prized ssh wakes a suspended box on connect. A box's desktop follows the same table.

Auto-pause

Set per box: Auto-pause on the box's dashboard page (30 minutes to 24 hours), prized box auto-pause mango 2h (up to 7 days), or prized box new --auto-pause 45m. The box pauses itself once nothing has used it for that long. Off by default on a plan; a box started on the free credit gets one hour unless its create says otherwise.

• Counts as use: typing or output in any terminal session, sustained CPU (builds, agents, test loops), sustained network traffic. A forgotten shell prompt does not.
• The 30 minute floor is how long the box waits before calling itself idle; the box page shows the idle time so far.
• It is exactly a pause: sleep rate, disk kept, processes per the size table. The event list shows it as reconciler:auto_pause.
• A workspace policy can cap the window (auto-pause floor); quiet hours pause the whole workspace nightly.

Pause deadline

prized box new ci-run --ttl 2h          # pauses two hours from now
prized box extend mango --ttl 12h       # set, or push back, the deadline
prized box extend mango --no-deadline

The other pause rule: a time. The box pauses itself then, busy or idle (a resize or move in flight finishes first). Set it with --ttl at create, prized box extend later, or Pause at on the box page; 5 minutes to 30 days.

• One pause, not a schedule. The deadline clears when it fires or when the box wakes.
• Extending replaces. A new --ttl counts from now; --no-deadline removes it.
• It needs a running box. Setting one on a paused box is refused; clearing is always allowed.
• It stacks with auto-pause. Whichever comes first pauses the box.
• It is exactly a pause, shown in the event list as reconciler:pause_deadline.

Resize

prized box resize mango Medium

The box stops, changes size, and starts again, files intact, metering at the new rate from that moment. Any size your balance can keep running is allowed.

• Sizing up grows the disk during the same restart. Rarely a just-grown disk must wait about six hours before growing again; the resize still lands and the space appears on the next restart.
• Sizing down keeps the disk you have (disks never shrink), which keeps costing its own sleep rate.
• A box mid-change cannot be resized: refused while creating, resizing, or moving. Suspended boxes resize fine and take the new size when they next start.
• A box with a bigger disk than its size normally has is priced with that disk, so the resize check quotes what you will actually pay.

Regions

New boxes are created in US West (Oregon); boxes can also run in US West (N. California). Move with the box page's Move region button or prized box move mango california (prized box new --region california creates in Oregon and moves after the first boot).

• The box stays up while the disk copies, then goes offline for a few minutes and comes back in the new region with its name, files, tools, vars, and secrets.
• The public IP changes; prized ssh follows the box.
• Metering continues at the normal rate throughout, and a size costs the same in both regions.
• Only a running box moves, one move at a time.
• A move that cannot finish leaves the box in its original region on its original disk.
• Four moves per box in 24 hours, counting only moves that ran; moving needs a funded balance.

Snapshots

Snapshot a box's disk without stopping it, restore into a new box, fork a running box, save named templates, or set a schedule. Take one before risky changes. See Snapshots.

Infinite storage (alpha)

Some boxes keep their files in a storage pool that grows on demand instead of on a fixed disk. A box like this shows an Alpha - infinite storage label and reports how much it is using rather than a disk size. You write to it exactly like a local disk: the same /home, the same Docker, the same tools, with space added behind the scenes as you fill it.

The alpha is opt-in and enabled per workspace by the Prized team. While a box is on it, disk snapshots, forks, templates, and region moves are paused for that box; everything else works as usual. Ask us if you want a box on it.

If the storage service on such a box fails, the box reboots itself and is back in about a minute. Files you saved are safe; writes from the last few seconds before the failure can be lost, as on a laptop that loses power.

Environments

An environment is what a new box inherits: repos, a setup script, env vars, secret files, and which credentials the box may receive. Pick one at create time or mark a default; every save is a new version, and a running box keeps its version until you upgrade it. See Environments.

Several boxes

Every box has a hostname: a fruit name unless you pick one (lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens, up to 32 characters). prized ssh mango connects to any box.

The box prized setup connected first (or prized login, when your account had exactly one) is the default box: what every command means when you name none. Every other box gets a config and a daemon of its own.

prized setup --box mango            # connect a second box: its own config and daemon, then the usual setup steps
prized --box mango status           # aim any command at it
PRIZED_BOX=mango prized sync ls     # the same from the environment

• Adding a box. prized setup --box mango writes boxes/mango.toml, starts its daemon, and runs the normal setup flow; prized init --box mango only connects. With no default box yet, either makes the box the default.
• Aiming commands. --box NAME (or PRIZED_BOX) works on every command, by hostname or, for setup and init, box id. --config PATH overrides everything and is the escape hatch, not the everyday way.
• Changing the default. prized init --force --box mango rewrites the default config (backed up first) and restarts the default daemon. A box with its own file is refused; prized --box mango daemon uninstall and delete boxes/mango.toml first.
• Same-named projects. Two boxes cannot sync a project under one name; the second prized sync add asks for --name.
• The same port on two boxes shows as conflicted in prized ports ls; toggle it off on one box, or list it under [ports].never in that box's config.

On Windows these sit under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Prized\boxes\.

Delete

prized box delete mango        # asks you to type the name; -y skips the prompt

Deleting a box terminates the machine and erases its disk. Anything you synced is already on your machine.

The disk's last state is kept for 7 days under Recently deleted on the Snapshots page; restoring it undoes the delete. See Data retention, including zero data retention, which turns the undo window off.