Freestyle

Documentation from freestyle-sh/convex, recorded October 23, 2026. APIs and setup may differ in the Bijection adaptation.

Freestyle for Convex

Manage long-lived Freestyle VMs from Convex actions while keeping a reactive record of each VM in Convex.

Freestyle VMs are the most powerful VMs for AI agents. They are full Linux machines with root access, Docker, systemd, nested virtualization, FUSE, eBPF, and full Linux networking. VMs start quickly, preserve memory when paused, and can be snapshotted or branched from an exact machine state.

The component provides:

• idempotent VM creation with retry recovery;
• cached VM lifecycle and resource state for reactive queries;
• create, refresh, start, pause, resize, update, exec, snapshot, and delete helpers;
• explicit tenant isolation through an app-supplied ownerId; and
• protection against adopting an unrelated Freestyle VM with the same slug.

Install

Copy codenpm install @freestyle-sh/convex

Register the component in convex/convex.config.ts:

Copy codeimport { defineApp } from "convex/server";
import freestyle from "@freestyle-sh/convex/convex.config.js";

const app = defineApp();
app.use(freestyle);

export default app;

Set a Freestyle account API key on the Convex deployment:

Copy codenpx convex env set FREESTYLE_API_KEY your-api-key

Create an API key from the Freestyle dashboard or with the CLI:

Copy codenpx freestyle@latest login
npx freestyle@latest tokens create convex

Create an authenticated API

Instantiate the component client in your app's convex/ directory. Convex components cannot authenticate your app's users, so the wrapper must derive ownerId from trusted auth state. Do not accept ownerId as a client argument.

Copy codeimport { v } from "convex/values";
import { Freestyle } from "@freestyle-sh/convex";
import { components } from "./_generated/api.js";
import { action, query } from "./_generated/server.js";

const freestyle = new Freestyle(components.freestyle);

async function ownerId(ctx: {
  auth: { getUserIdentity(): Promise<{ subject: string } | null> };
}) {
  const identity = await ctx.auth.getUserIdentity();
  if (!identity) throw new Error("Unauthenticated");
  return identity.subject;
}

export const createWorkspace = action({
  args: { slug: v.string() },
  handler: async (ctx, { slug }) => {
    return await freestyle.create(ctx, {
      ownerId: await ownerId(ctx),
      slug,
      snapshotId: "freestyle/ubuntu",
      idleTimeoutSeconds: 600,
      firewall: {
        rules: [{ action: "allow", source: {}, destination: { public: true } }],
      },
    });
  },
});

export const listWorkspaces = query({
  args: {},
  handler: async (ctx) => {
    return await freestyle.list(ctx, { ownerId: await ownerId(ctx) });
  },
});

Freestyle has a default-deny network model, so firewall is required. Use { rules: [] } for an isolated VM, or declare only the traffic the workload needs. See the Freestyle quickstart for firewall examples.

Lifecycle and commands

Mutating operations make external requests and must run in Convex actions:

Copy codeawait freestyle.start(ctx, { ownerId, slug });
await freestyle.pause(ctx, { ownerId, slug });

const result = await freestyle.exec(ctx, {
  ownerId,
  slug,
  options: { command: "git status --short", timeoutMs: 300_000 },
});

await freestyle.resize(ctx, {
  ownerId,
  slug,
  options: { cpu: 8, memory: 16 * 1024, storage: 80 * 1024 },
});

const snapshot = await freestyle.snapshot(ctx, {
  ownerId,
  slug,
  options: { slug: `${slug}-configured` },
});

await freestyle.delete(ctx, { ownerId, slug });

get and list read cached records and can run in reactive Convex queries. Call refresh from an action when the application needs the current remote state:

Copy codeconst cached = await freestyle.get(ctx, { ownerId, slug });
const current = await freestyle.refresh(ctx, { ownerId, slug });

Creation and retries

create requires a stable Freestyle slug. The component reserves a Convex record first and adds a random ownership marker to the VM's Freestyle metadata. If the action is retried after the remote VM was created but before the Convex record was linked, the client finds the VM by slug and verifies that marker before linking it. A VM with the same slug and a different marker is rejected. The component reserves the convex_component_id metadata key and one of Freestyle's 64 VM metadata entries.

Freestyle slugs are account-wide. Two owners may use the same logical name in Convex, but their remote VM slugs still need to be unique within the Freestyle account. Prefix or hash tenant identifiers when generating slugs for a multi-tenant app.

Configuration

The constructor reads FREESTYLE_API_KEY from the consuming Convex app by default. Explicit options support multiple Freestyle accounts and local API testing:

Copy codeconst freestyle = new Freestyle(components.freestyle, {
  apiKey: process.env.SECONDARY_FREESTYLE_API_KEY,
  baseUrl: "https://api.freestyle.sh",
});

Each separately registered Convex component instance has its own tables. Each Freestyle client may also use a different API key.

Development

Copy codenpm install
CONVEX_AGENT_MODE=anonymous npx convex init
npm run build:codegen
npx convex codegen --typecheck disable
npm test
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm run format:check

The full backend-only example is in example/convex.