export const meta = {
  title: 'Overview',
  description: 'Product overview, main capabilities, and deployment shape.',
  section: 'Introduction',
  order: 10,
  slug: '',
}

# OnlyBoxes Overview

OnlyBoxes is a self-hosted code execution sandbox platform for individuals and small teams.

A typical control-plane and execution-plane split architecture, ready for horizontal scaling.

## What it provides

For regular users, OnlyBoxes provides:

- A simple yet fully capable MCP endpoint
  - echo: connectivity test
  - pythonExec: stateless Python code execution
  - terminalExec: stateful terminal code execution
  - readImage: read multimodal image data
  - computerUse: command execution on the user's own host machine via `worker-sys`
  - exportFile: export session files to the configured object store
- Session isolation between users
- Web UI dashboard

For admin users, OnlyBoxes additionally provides:

- User management
- Worker management

## Core capabilities

| Area | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| Deployment | No external dependencies, control plane and execution plane can be deployed independently |
| Scalability | Multiple heterogeneous workers can be added horizontally |
| Runtime model | Docker, boxlite, and OS-process based execution backends |
| Interfaces | REST API, MCP endpoint |
| Management | Dashboard, Open API |

## Main components

- `console`: the control node, responsible for auth, worker registration, dashboard APIs, and MCP exposure.
- `worker-*`: execution nodes, responsible for task execution.
  - `worker-docker`: a worker implementation backed by Docker containers.
  - `worker-boxlite`: a worker implementation backed by boxlite.
  - `worker-sys`: a worker implementation backed by host OS processes for direct device control scenarios.

## Typical usage

1. Start the control node.
2. Sign in to the dashboard and create a worker record.
3. Start a worker using the generated worker id and secret.
4. Use the dashboard, REST API, or MCP endpoint to execute tasks.

## Next steps

- Read the [Architecture](/en/docs/architecture) page for the system model.
- Linux/Mac one-click install experience — see [Install](/en/docs/install).
- If you prefer the manual setup flow, go to [Quick Start](/en/docs/quick-start).
