Pools, claims, and guest services

How Cua Fleets organizes hosted capacity, reserves computers, and routes clients to guest services.

Cua Fleets adds hosted capacity and routing to the Sandbox model. A pool defines reusable capacity. A claim reserves one computer from that pool. Named guest services give an authenticated client a route to software that is already running inside the claimed computer.

Pools own reusable capacity#

A pool combines a guest image, resource settings, replica capacity, and named service declarations. The platform can keep replicas ready for later claims, so releasing one claim does not delete the pool or guarantee that hosted capacity is gone.

Delete capacity you no longer need, or configure an expiry policy. A pool can continue to incur usage charges after a workload releases its claim.

Claims reserve one computer#

A claim binds one workload to one available computer from a pool. Leaving a pool.claim() context releases that claim. Disconnecting a client only closes the connection; it does not by itself release the claim or delete the pool.

Keep the pool and claim names when a process is interrupted. They identify the existing resources to inspect and clean up before creating replacements.

Services are part of the connection contract#

A service declaration gives Fleet a named route to a port in the guest. It does not install the application, start a listener, or prove that the service is ready. The selected image and its startup behavior must provide the service that the client expects.

The default Sandbox APIs use computer-server for shell, files, terminals, and screenshots. Cua Driver is a separate typed desktop-control surface. A guest must advertise the compatible Driver service before a client can connect to it; choosing an image alone does not establish that support.

Readiness belongs to the service#

A running VM and a usable service are different states. Wait for the named service required by the task, then verify a representative request before handing the computer to a workload. For the creation and connection sequence, follow Create Fleet capacity and Claim a Sandbox.