• Basic Usage
• Rendering HTML
• Incremental Updates with patch()
• Passing State
• Batch State Updates
• Handling Errors
  • render() rejection
• Injecting Scripts and Styles
• Setting Document Language and Title
• Hot-patching Named Styles
• Resize Notifications
• Tying Async Work to Sandbox Lifetime
• Configuring CSP
• Disposal
• Multiple Listeners
• Receiving Events from the Sandbox
• Awaiting Subsequent Renders
• Cancelling Renders with AbortSignal
• Building Sandbox Documents Directly
• Testing
• Framework Integration
• Working with Other Vielzeug Libraries
• Best Practices

New to Sandbox?

Start with the Overview for installation and a quick example, then come back here for in-depth usage patterns.

Basic Usage

Create a sandbox by passing a container element. The returned SandboxHandle is your entire interface to the iframe.

import { createSandbox } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

const container = document.getElementById('preview')!;
const sandbox = createSandbox(container);

await sandbox.render('<p>Hello from the sandbox</p>');

render() returns a Promise<void> that resolves when the sandbox document signals it is ready. No DOM is created until render() is called — createSandbox() is a cheap factory.

For reactive frameworks, subscribe via onMessage to receive error, custom, and resize events.

Rendering HTML

render(html) replaces the entire sandboxed document with a new one containing your HTML in the body.

await sandbox.render(`
  <style>body { font-family: sans-serif; }</style>
  <h1>Component Preview</h1>
  <ore-button variant="primary">Click me</ore-button>
`);

Each call to render() is a full page reset — scripts reinitialise, CSS is re-applied, and any DOM state is lost. For incremental updates, push state via setState() or patch styles via updateStyle() rather than re-rendering.

Incremental Updates with patch()

patch(html) replaces document.body.innerHTML in the live document without a full page reset. Scripts, event listeners, namedStyles CSS blocks, and any injected global state are all preserved.

Use it for streaming AI-generated output, live editor previews, or any scenario where you want to push new content without reinitialising the page.

// Initial render — sets up the document, scripts, and styles
await sandbox.render(`
  <script>
    document.addEventListener('sandbox:state-update', (e) => {
      document.body.dataset.theme = e.detail.value;
    });
  </script>
  <p>Loading…</p>
`);

// Subsequent updates — body swapped, script listener preserved
sandbox.patch('<p>First chunk arrived</p>');
sandbox.patch('<p>First chunk arrived</p><p>Second chunk…</p>');
sandbox.patch('<p>Complete response</p>');

patch() vs render():

	render()	patch()
Full page reset	Yes	No
Returns a Promise	Yes	No
Scripts re-run	Yes	No
namedStyles preserved	Re-injected	Yes
State listeners preserved	No (must re-register)	Yes
When to use	Initial load, major content change	Streaming, live updates

patch() must be called after render() resolves. The bridge must be initialized before patches can be received. A dev warning fires if called before the document is ready.

Passing State

setState(key, value) pushes data into the sandbox without re-rendering.

Always call setState() after render() resolves — calling it before the bridge finishes initializing will silently drop the update in a real browser, and a dev warning will fire.

// Correct: await render() before pushing state
await sandbox.render('<div id="root"></div>');
sandbox.setState('theme', 'dark');
sandbox.setState('user', { name: 'Alice' });

Inside the sandbox document, listen for the sandbox:state-update custom event on document:

<script>
document.addEventListener('sandbox:state-update', (e) => {
  const { key, value } = e.detail;
  if (key === 'theme') document.body.dataset.theme = value;
  if (key === 'user') document.querySelector('#name').textContent = value.name;
});
</script>

Batch State Updates

setStateAll(record) pushes multiple state values in a single postMessage — one call instead of one setState() per key. Use it for initial state setup where several values become available at the same time.

await sandbox.render('<div id="root"></div>');

// One postMessage instead of two setState() calls
sandbox.setStateAll({
  theme: 'dark',
  user: { name: 'Alice' },
});

The sandbox side listens the same way as for setState() — each key in the record fires its own sandbox:state-update event.

Handling Errors

Subscribe to onMessage before calling render() to catch runtime errors in sandbox content.

sandbox.onMessage((msg) => {
  if (msg.type === 'error') {
    console.error('[sandbox error]', msg.message);
    if (msg.stack) console.debug(msg.stack);
  }
});

Both synchronous errors (window.onerror) and unhandled promise rejections (unhandledrejection) are forwarded as { type: 'error' } messages.

render() rejection

render() rejects with a SandboxTimeoutError if the document never signals 'ready' within 5 seconds — this happens in every build, not just dev. It usually means the document is missing the bridge script (custom srcdoc HTML built by hand instead of via buildDocument()). Always handle it:

import { SandboxError } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

try {
  await sandbox.render(html);
} catch (err) {
  if (SandboxError.is(err)) {
    console.error('Sandbox failed to load:', err.message);
  }
}

A second render() call superseding the first does not trigger this — the superseded Promise resolves, not rejects.

Injecting Scripts and Styles

Use SandboxOptions to inject external scripts and styles into every rendered document.

const sandbox = createSandbox(container, {
  scripts: [
    'https://cdn.example.com/ore.js',
    'https://cdn.example.com/refine.js',
  ],
  namedStyles: {
    base: `
      :root { --color-primary: #0066cc; }
      body { margin: 0; font-family: var(--font-sans); }
    `,
  },
});

Script URLs are injected before user content. Their origins are automatically added to script-src in the CSP — you do not need to configure buildCsp separately.

Setting Document Language and Title

Use lang and title to set the generated document's <html lang="…"> attribute and <title>. Both improve screen-reader behaviour for sandboxed content.

const sandbox = createSandbox(container, {
  lang: 'de',
  title: 'Component Preview',
});

lang defaults to 'en', title defaults to ''. Both values are HTML-escaped automatically before being written into the document.

Hot-patching Named Styles

namedStyles injects named <style id="key"> blocks into the document <head>. Named blocks can be updated live without a full re-render using updateStyle(id, css).

const sandbox = createSandbox(container, {
  namedStyles: {
    theme: ':root { --color-primary: #0066cc; --bg: #fff; }',
  },
});

await sandbox.render('<ore-button variant="primary">Click me</ore-button>');

// Switch theme live — no re-render
sandbox.updateStyle('theme', ':root { --color-primary: #bb33ff; --bg: #111; }');

updateStyle() sends a postMessage to the iframe, patching <style id="theme"> in place. It also updates the baseline so the next render() starts with the patched CSS. Safe to call before the first render (baseline only — no postMessage sent to an uninitialized iframe).

Resize Notifications

The bridge script automatically emits resize messages via a ResizeObserver on document.body. No manual wiring is needed in your sandbox content.

sandbox.onMessage((msg) => {
  if (msg.type === 'resize') {
    container.style.height = `${msg.height}px`;
  }
});

The resize message fires whenever the document.body height changes — on initial load, after content updates via setState(), and after style patches via updateStyle().

Tying Async Work to Sandbox Lifetime

disposalSignal is an AbortSignal that is aborted when the sandbox is disposed. Pass it to any async operation that should stop when the sandbox is torn down.

const sandbox = createSandbox(container);

// Polling loop tied to sandbox lifetime
async function poll() {
  while (!sandbox.disposalSignal.aborted) {
    const data = await fetch('/api/data', { signal: sandbox.disposalSignal }).then(r => r.json()).catch(() => null);
    if (data) sandbox.setState('data', data);
    await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));
  }
}

poll();

When sandbox.dispose() is called, disposalSignal aborts, cancelling in-flight fetches and stopping the loop.

Configuring CSP

Use allowedStyleOrigins, allowedFontOrigins, and allowedImageOrigins to allow CDN resources.

const sandbox = createSandbox(container, {
  allowedStyleOrigins: ['https://fonts.googleapis.com'],
  allowedFontOrigins: ['https://fonts.gstatic.com'],
  allowedImageOrigins: ['https://images.example.com'],
});

Then render HTML that uses those resources:

await sandbox.render(`
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter">
  <p style="font-family: Inter, sans-serif">Hello</p>
`);

Origin values and the nonce are sanitized before being written into the policy, and the generated CSP always includes base-uri 'none' to block <base>-tag injection — you do not need to strip untrusted characters yourself.

Disposal

Dispose the sandbox when it is no longer needed. This removes the iframe from the DOM and clears all message listeners.

// Explicit
sandbox.dispose();

// Using explicit resource management (TypeScript 5.2+)
{
  using sandbox = createSandbox(container);
  await sandbox.render('<p>Temporary preview</p>');
} // sandbox.dispose() called automatically

Multiple Listeners

onMessage supports multiple independent subscriptions. Each call returns its own unsubscribe function.

const unsubErrors = sandbox.onMessage((msg) => {
  if (msg.type === 'error') logError(msg);
});

const unsubEvents = sandbox.onMessage((msg) => {
  if (msg.type === 'custom') handleCustomEvent(msg);
});

// Remove a single subscription
unsubErrors();

// Remove all — dispose() clears all listeners at once
sandbox.dispose();

Receiving Events from the Sandbox

Sandbox code calls window.__sandbox__.emit(event, detail) to send events to the host. Receive them via onMessage with msg.type === 'custom'.

<!-- Inside sandbox content -->
<button onclick="window.__sandbox__.emit('button:click', { label: 'Save' })">Save</button>

// Host
sandbox.onMessage((msg) => {
  if (msg.type === 'custom' && msg.event === 'button:click') {
    console.log('Sandbox button clicked:', msg.detail);
  }
});

TypeScript support for sandbox-side code — add an ambient declaration referencing SandboxBridge:

// sandbox-env.d.ts
declare interface Window {
  __sandbox__: import('@vielzeug/sandbox').SandboxBridge;
}

Awaiting Subsequent Renders

render() returns a Promise<void> that resolves when the new document signals ready. Await it directly for each render:

await sandbox.render(firstHtml);   // first render complete
await sandbox.render(secondHtml);  // second render complete

If a second render() starts before the first resolves, the first Promise resolves immediately (superseded). Multiple concurrent callers can each await their own returned Promise.

Cancelling Renders with AbortSignal

Pass an AbortSignal to render() to skip the render if it has already been cancelled. Useful in streaming or queued workflows:

let controller = new AbortController();

async function streamRender(html: string) {
  controller.abort();                            // cancel previous pending render
  controller = new AbortController();
  await sandbox.render(html, { signal: controller.signal });
}

If the signal is already aborted when render() is called, the render is skipped with no warning and no DOM change.

Building Sandbox Documents Directly

To generate a complete sandbox HTML document outside of createSandbox (for example in a server context or @vielzeug/codex), use buildDocument.

import { buildDocument } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

const html = buildDocument('<p>Hello</p>', {
  allowedStyleOrigins: ['https://fonts.googleapis.com'],
  allowedFontOrigins: ['https://fonts.gstatic.com'],
  namedStyles: {
    theme: ':root { --bg: #fff; }',
  },
});

// html is a complete <!doctype html> document — assign directly to srcdoc
iframe.srcdoc = html;

Use buildCsp if you only need the CSP string for an existing document template:

import { buildCsp } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

const csp = buildCsp({ allowedFontOrigins: ['https://fonts.gstatic.com'] });
// → "default-src 'none'; ... font-src https://fonts.gstatic.com; ..."

Testing

Use createSandboxTestHelpers from the /testing subpath to simulate sandbox→host messages without a real srcdoc script execution (jsdom does not execute iframe srcdoc scripts).

import { createSandbox } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';
import { createSandboxTestHelpers } from '@vielzeug/sandbox/testing';
import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';

describe('preview panel', () => {
  it('forwards a custom event from the sandbox', async () => {
    const container = document.createElement('div');
    const sandbox = createSandbox(container);
    const helpers = createSandboxTestHelpers(container);

    const received: unknown[] = [];

    sandbox.onMessage((msg) => received.push(msg));

    const renderPromise = sandbox.render('<button>Save</button>');

    helpers.fireReady(); // simulate the bridge script's initial postMessage
    await renderPromise;

    helpers.fireCustom('button:click', { label: 'Save' });
    expect(received).toEqual([{ type: 'custom', event: 'button:click', detail: { label: 'Save' } }]);

    sandbox.dispose();
  });
});

SandboxTestHelpers also exposes fireResize(height) and fireError(message, stack?) for testing resize and error handling without a live browser.

Framework Integration

Create the sandbox once per mount and dispose it on unmount — the container element is stable for the component's lifetime.

React

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import { createSandbox } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

function SandboxPreview({ html }: { html: string }) {
  const containerRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!containerRef.current) return;

    const sandbox = createSandbox(containerRef.current);

    sandbox.render(html);

    return () => sandbox.dispose();
  }, [html]);

  return <div ref={containerRef} />;
}

Vue 3

<script setup lang="ts">
import { onMounted, onUnmounted, ref } from 'vue';
import { createSandbox, type SandboxHandle } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

const props = defineProps<{ html: string }>();
const containerRef = ref<HTMLDivElement>();
let sandbox: SandboxHandle | undefined;

onMounted(() => {
  if (!containerRef.value) return;
  sandbox = createSandbox(containerRef.value);
  sandbox.render(props.html);
});

onUnmounted(() => sandbox?.dispose());
</script>

<template>
  <div ref="containerRef" />
</template>

Svelte

<script lang="ts">
  import { onMount } from 'svelte';
  import { createSandbox } from '@vielzeug/sandbox';

  export let html: string;
  let container: HTMLDivElement;

  onMount(() => {
    const sandbox = createSandbox(container);

    sandbox.render(html);

    return () => sandbox.dispose();
  });
</script>

<div bind:this={container}></div>

Working with Other Vielzeug Libraries

With Codex: The generate-sandbox-document and get-state-bridge-spec MCP tools in @vielzeug/codex are designed to work with Sandbox. They generate complete sandbox-ready document templates and document the bridge protocol.

// After codex generates an HTML document:
await sandbox.render(generatedDocument);

With Refine: Inject the Refine/Ore runtime into the sandbox via scripts:

const sandbox = createSandbox(container, {
  scripts: ['https://cdn.example.com/refine.iife.js'],
  namedStyles: {
    theme: '/* refine theme tokens */',
  },
});

await sandbox.render('<ore-card><ore-button>Save</ore-button></ore-card>');

Best Practices

• Await render() before calling setState()/setStateAll() — both warn in dev if called before the bridge is ready. Use setStateAll() to bootstrap several values in one postMessage instead of calling setState() repeatedly.
• Use await sandbox.render(html) for each render — render() returns a Promise<void> that resolves when the document is ready. No separate readiness API is needed.
• Use updateStyle() for theme switching — patching a named style is faster than a full render() and preserves all script and DOM state.
• Check disposed before deferred calls — across async operations, check sandbox.disposed before calling any method to avoid spurious dev warnings.
• Tie async work to disposalSignal — pass disposalSignal to fetch and other async operations so they cancel automatically on dispose.
• Treat all messages as untrusted — sandbox code controls SandboxMessage payloads. Do not eval() or execute any message field.
• One sandbox per preview — createSandbox() is a cheap factory; create a new sandbox per user session or component rather than reusing across unrelated renders.
• Use using in functions — in TypeScript 5.2+ contexts, using guarantees cleanup even on exceptions.
• Prefer patch() or setState() over re-renders for incremental updates — render() resets all script state. Use patch() to swap body content and setState() to push data without losing listeners or CSS state.