Rust quick start

This page launches a desktop from a Rust program. You need Rust 1.85 or newer and a container runtime running.

Add the dependency

Disable the default cli feature when your program needs only the library:

[dependencies]
holm = { git = "https://github.com/holm-inc/holm", default-features = false }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

Launch a desktop

use holm::{Button, Computer, Point};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let computer = Computer::launch().await?;

    if let Some(url) = computer.viewer_url() {
        eprintln!("watch it at {url}");
    }

    computer.open_url("https://example.com").await?;
    computer.click(Point::new(640, 81), Button::Left).await?;
    computer.type_text("driven from rust").await?;

    let png = computer.screenshot().await?;
    std::fs::write("screen.png", &png)?;

    computer.shutdown().await?;
    Ok(())
}

Computer::launch() starts one 1280x800 screen on Docker. The first launch builds the image, which takes a few minutes.

viewer_url() returns a URL where you can watch the desktop in a browser. shutdown() stops and removes the box.

Change the defaults

let computer = Computer::builder()
    .size(1920, 1080)
    .network(false)
    .memory("2g")
    .runtime("podman")
    .expires_after(std::time::Duration::from_secs(3600))
    .launch()
    .await?;

Method	Effect
`size(w, h)`	Screen size
`network(false)`	Block outbound network access
`memory(size)`	Memory limit
`runtime(name)`	`docker`, `podman`, or `nerdctl`
`keep_on_drop(true)`	Keep the box when the handle is dropped
`expires_after(duration)`	Remove the box after a fixed time
`expires_when_idle(duration)`	Remove the box after a time with no use

Computer::builder().config()? returns the resolved image, ports, environment, and boot command, and does not start a desktop.

Optional features

Feature	Adds
`e2b`	E2B cloud sandboxes
`vercel`	Vercel Sandbox
`daytona`	Daytona sandboxes
`modal`	Modal sandboxes
`microsandbox`	microVM boxes
`sqlite`, `postgres`, `s3`	Storage backends for the server

Run the example

From a clone of this repository:

cargo run --example quickstart

The examples/ directory has more programs, such as browser.rs, takeover.rs, and microvm.rs.