Namespace TypeScript SDK

TypeScript/JavaScript SDK for Namespace Cloud APIs, providing authentication, client management, and type-safe API access.

Features

• Modular Authentication: Multiple token loading strategies (user tokens, workload tokens, environment-based)
• Token Management: Automatic token caching and refresh
• Type Safety: Full TypeScript support with generated types
• Dual Module Support: Works with both ESM and CommonJS
• Flexible Client Creation: Support for both bearer tokens and TokenSource instances

Installation

npm install @namespacelabs/sdk @connectrpc/connect @connectrpc/connect-node @bufbuild/protobuf

Quick Start

Basic Authentication

import { loadUserToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";
import { createRegionTransport, createClient } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";

// Load token from user configuration
const tokenSource = await loadUserToken();

// Create transport with token source
const transport = createRegionTransport("us", { tokenSource });

// Use with your service clients...

Using Bearer Tokens

import { bearerAuthInterceptor } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";

const transport = createRegionTransport("us", {
	token: "your-bearer-token",
});

Authentication

The SDK provides multiple ways to load authentication tokens, following patterns from the Go SDK:

Token Loading Functions

Each function returns a TokenSource (or a promise of one). Call and await them to load eagerly, or pass them uncalled wherever a token source is accepted (e.g. tokenSource: loadUserToken) — the SDK invokes and awaits them internally on first use, in the same style as AWS SDK credential providers.

loadDefaults()

Automatically detects and loads the appropriate token based on context:

1. Checks NSC_TOKEN_FILE environment variable
2. Tries /var/run/nsc/token.json (workload token)
3. Falls back to user token from config directory

import { loadDefaults } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

const tokenSource = await loadDefaults();
const token = await tokenSource.issueToken(5 * 60 * 1000); // 5 minutes

loadUserToken()

Loads token from user's local configuration:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ns/token.json
• Linux: ~/.config/ns/token.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%/ns/token.json

import { loadUserToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

const tokenSource = await loadUserToken();

loadWorkloadToken()

Loads token from workload environment:

• Checks NSC_TOKEN_FILE environment variable
• Falls back to /var/run/nsc/token.json

import { loadWorkloadToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

const tokenSource = await loadWorkloadToken();

fromBearerToken(token)

Creates a TokenSource from a bearer token string:

import { fromBearerToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

const tokenSource = fromBearerToken("nsct_...");

Token Source Interface

All token loading functions return a TokenSource that implements:

interface TokenSource {
	issueToken(minDuration: number, force?: boolean): Promise<string>;
}

• minDuration: Minimum duration (in milliseconds) the token should be valid
• force: Force token refresh even if cached token is valid

Token Caching

The SDK automatically caches tokens to minimize token refresh requests:

• Cached tokens are stored in token.cache next to the source token file
• Cache is validated against tenant ID and expiration time
• Cache files are created with secure permissions (0600)

Token Claims

Extract and validate JWT token claims:

import { extractClaims, isTokenExpired, getTenantId } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

const claims = extractClaims(token);
console.log(claims.tenant_id);

const expired = isTokenExpired(claims);
const tenantId = getTenantId(token);

Devboxes

The Devbox client exposes product-level resources for devboxes, blueprints, and images. A created or fetched devbox is an operational handle: starting it, establishing authenticated connections, and reusing those connections happen automatically.

import { createDevboxClient } from "@namespacelabs/sdk";
// Also available from the subpath: "@namespacelabs/sdk/devbox".

// With no options, authentication defaults to the workload token when
// running in a Namespace workload, falling back to the local user token.
const client = createDevboxClient();

// Or pass an explicit token source (invoked and awaited internally
// on first use):
//   createDevboxClient({ tokenSource: loadUserToken })

const blueprint = await client.blueprints.create("typescript", {
	image: "builtin:default",
	size: "m",
	environment: { NODE_ENV: "development" },
});

const devbox = await client.devboxes.create({
	name: "my-devbox",
	blueprint: blueprint.name,
});

// Structured argv: arguments are passed literally and do not expand in a shell.
const result = await devbox.exec(["node", "--version"]);

// Shell syntax, without allocating a TTY.
await devbox.shell("npm install && npm test", {
	cwd: "/workspace",
});

// Services start immediately by default and continue running independently.
await devbox.services.create({
	name: "web",
	command: "node",
	args: [
		"-e",
		"require('node:http').createServer((_request, response) => response.end('Hello!')).listen(3000)",
	],
});

// Commands run through the devbox agent, which retains each command and its
// output for later inspection (`devbox logs`). Relative `cwd` paths resolve
// against the devbox workspace directory. When `cwd` is omitted, commands run
// in the devbox default directory; if the devbox checks out a repository, that
// directory only exists once the checkout completes, so pass an explicit `cwd`
// when running commands immediately after creation.

await devbox.fs.upload("./package.json", "/workspace/package.json");
await devbox.fs.download("/workspace/results.json", "./results.json");
await devbox.fs.copy("/workspace/results.json", "/workspace/results-copy.json");

const text = await devbox.fs.read("/var/log/app.log");
const bytes = await devbox.fs.read("/var/log/app.log", {
	format: "bytes",
	offset: 1024,
	length: 64 * 1024,
});
const stream = await devbox.fs.read("/data/output.bin", { format: "stream" });
for await (const chunk of stream) process.stdout.write(chunk);

// PTY sessions are explicit and separate from shell execution.
const terminal = await devbox.terminal.open({ columns: 120, rows: 40 });
terminal.onData((data) => process.stdout.write(data));
terminal.write("pwd\n");

terminal.close();
client.close();

Asynchronous execution

devbox.executions.start() and devbox.executions.startShell() return an execution handle as soon as the agent accepts the command, without waiting for it to exit. Unlike foreground exec()/shell(), these commands continue when the client disconnects.

const client = createDevboxClient({ connectionTimeoutMs: 90_000 });
const devbox = await client.devboxes.get("my-devbox");
const execution = await devbox.executions.start(["bash", "-lc", "sleep 3; echo done"], {
	cwd: "/tmp",
	env: { CI: "true" },
	timeoutMs: 10_000,
});
const id = execution.id; // Save this together with the devbox ID.
client.close();

const otherClient = createDevboxClient();
const sameDevbox = await otherClient.devboxes.get(devbox.id);
const reattached = await sameDevbox.executions.get(id);
const status = await reattached.status(); // running | completed | missing
const result = await reattached.wait({ timeoutMs: 30_000, maxOutputBytes: 1024 * 1024 });
console.log(result.exitCode, result.stdout, result.stderr, result.error);

// Discover retained commands, including commands started by other clients:
const executions = await sameDevbox.executions.list();
for (const entry of executions) console.log(entry.id, await entry.status());

// Alternatively, consume retained and live bytes without collecting output:
for await (const chunk of reattached.logs({ timeoutMs: 30_000 })) {
	process.stdout.write(chunk.stdout);
	process.stderr.write(chunk.stderr);
	if (chunk.result) console.log("exit", chunk.result.exitCode, chunk.result.error);
}
otherClient.close();

• executions.startShell(script, options) uses the devbox's configured shell, with an optional shell override. Start options support cwd, env, and initial stdin (string or bytes), just like foreground execution. Output callbacks onStdout and onStderr belong on wait(), not on the start call.
• Only completed status has an exit code and completion time. An exit code of zero in agent metadata does not imply completion. Nonzero exits and command-start failures resolve normally with exitCode and optional error.
• executions.get() rejects with ExecutionNotFoundError for an absent ID; an existing handle's status() returns missing if it is no longer retained. stop(), logs(), and wait() reject with ExecutionNotFoundError for missing executions. Transport/authentication failures reject, never masquerade as missing.
• executions.list() returns handles for all command executions retained by the current agent, running and completed, sorted by start time. Boot operations are excluded. There is no pagination or durable history. A listed execution may be evicted before its status or logs are read. Connection failures reject rather than returning an empty list.
• Each wait()/logs() call has its own reader, including concurrent calls. Every reader replays from the beginning of retained output, then follows live output until a final result. Repeated waits invoke callbacks again; nothing is cached in the handle. Streams do not automatically reconnect. There is no cursor, so reopening after a failure may duplicate output: exactly-once delivery across reconnects is not guaranteed. Decode UTF-8 incrementally when consuming byte chunks, since a character can span chunks.
• wait() captures at most 10 MiB of combined stdout/stderr by default. Set a finite, non-negative integer maxOutputBytes to change the limit. Exceeding it rejects with ExecutionOutputLimitError; use logs() for large output. Streaming does not collect output and applies transport backpressure.
• Client connectionTimeoutMs bounds connection establishment. Start-call timeoutMs covers connection acquisition plus the start RPC, not command runtime. wait()/logs() timeoutMs starts after connection acquisition; their signal also cancels acquisition. status(), executions.get(), and executions.list(), as well as stop(), use one operation timeout including acquisition. Start options never carry over to later reads. Read timeouts reject with DevboxTimeoutError.
• Aborting, timing out, breaking iteration, exceeding the output limit, or closing a client only stops reading an asynchronous execution. None of these operations kills the remote command. If StartExec fails after being sent, the command may already exist. The SDK never retries it automatically; blindly retrying may launch a duplicate.
• Execution IDs are agent-local, and log retention is not indefinite. Do not rely on IDs or output surviving VM replacement. Looking up an execution is connection-backed and may activate a stopped devbox, but cannot restore an execution lost with its previous agent.

To terminate an execution, stop() defaults to graceful termination:

await execution.stop(); // Send SIGTERM; equivalent to { mode: "graceful" }.
// If needed, a separate request escalates to SIGKILL:
await execution.stop({ mode: "force", timeoutMs: 5_000 });
const result = await execution.wait({ timeoutMs: 10_000 });

stop() acknowledges the request, not completion; status(), logs(), or wait() provide the final result. Graceful stop allows cleanup and never escalates automatically. Forced stop sends SIGKILL without cleanup. Repeating the same or weaker mode, or stopping an already completed execution, is a no-op. Cleanup can exit successfully or with its own nonzero code. Signal termination reports exit code -1 and agent error detail; ExecResult.signal remains null because the protocol does not provide a structured signal field.

Stop targets the original process group only until its leader exits; detached or surviving descendants are not managed. Canceling or timing out the stop RPC does not undo a request already accepted by the agent. The SDK does not retry it automatically. Agents without StopExec reject with ConnectError code Unimplemented; there is no shell-based fallback. Arbitrary signals, incremental stdin, and stdin-close still require backend changes.

Run the opt-in integration tests against an authenticated Linux devbox with bash, cat, head, ps, and sleep installed (no devbox is created or deleted):

SDK_TEST_DEVBOX=my-devbox npm run test:devbox

Checkout configuration

For direct creation (without a blueprint), omit versionControl and repository to inherit the tenant's default repository configuration. Pass versionControl to explicitly configure checkout; an empty object or empty repositories list disables checkout entirely.

To create a scratch devbox without checking out any repository:

const scratch = await client.devboxes.create({
	name: "scratch",
	imageName: "builtin:base",
	versionControl: {},
});

const checkout = await client.devboxes.create({
	name: "checkout",
	versionControl: {
		repositories: [
			{
				repository: "https://github.com/namespacelabs/typescript-sdk",
				ref: "main", // Optional branch, tag, or commit SHA; defaults to the default branch.
			},
			{ repository: "https://github.com/namespacelabs/docs" },
		],
	},
});

Each of the up to 20 repository entries can select its own branch, tag, or commit with ref, and its own "git-clone" or "git-snapshot-unpack" checkout method. Blueprint definitions accept the same versionControl field. Returned Devbox information and blueprints expose checkout configuration through versionControl.repositories.

The existing top-level repository option remains supported. Setting it to a repository URL checks out that repository; an empty string inherits defaults and does not disable checkout. repository and versionControl cannot be combined, even when either is empty. Neither can be used with a blueprint. Invalid combinations are rejected by TypeScript and throw TypeError before any RPC.

upload() and download() transfer one file. copy() operates inside the devbox and accepts { recursive: true } for directories. read() returns UTF-8 text by default; pass format: "bytes" for a Uint8Array or format: "stream" for a ReadableStream. Its offset and length options are byte-based. The existing readFile() returns the complete file as a Uint8Array. All operations accept AbortSignal and timeout options.

Devboxes with a graphical display — macOS devboxes — expose screen access through devbox.display, backed by VNC. Methods reject with DevboxDisplayUnavailableError when the devbox has no display (for example, Linux devboxes):

import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
import { DevboxDisplayUnavailableError } from "@namespacelabs/sdk";

const macos = await client.devboxes.create({
	name: "my-mac",
	os: "macos",
	size: "m",
});

try {
	const screenshot = await macos.display.screenshot();
	await writeFile("screen.png", screenshot.png);

	// Click at framebuffer coordinates (origin top-left).
	await macos.display.click(100, 200);
	await macos.display.click(100, 200, { button: "right" });
} catch (error) {
	if (error instanceof DevboxDisplayUnavailableError) {
		// This devbox has no display.
	}
	throw error;
}

Like other connection-backed operations, using devbox.display on a stopped devbox activates it first, and the underlying VNC session is cached and reused across calls.

The VNC client behind devbox.display is also available standalone as @namespacelabs/sdk/vnc (openVnc): a minimal RFB 3.8 client over websockets with Apple Remote Desktop authentication, raw encoding, and PNG screenshots — no native dependencies and no Namespace-specific behavior.

Images can be registered from an existing image reference, listed, inspected, optimized for a site, and deleted:

const image = await client.images.register({
	name: "node-22",
	ref: "node:22",
});

// Image optimization defaults to iad when no site is specified.
await client.images.optimize(image.name);

API Clients

The SDK provides high-level client factories for each Namespace Cloud API:

Available APIs

• Compute (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/compute) - Instance management, regional
• IAM (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/iam) - Tenant and token management, global
• Builds (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/builds) - Container image builds, regional
• Storage (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/storage) - Artifact storage, regional
• Registry (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/registry) - Container registry, global
• Vault (@namespacelabs/sdk/api/vault) - Secrets management, regional
• Devboxes (@namespacelabs/sdk/devbox) - Devboxes, blueprints, and images

Using API Clients

Each API provides a client factory function:

import { loadUserToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";
import { createComputeClient } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api/compute";
import { createIAMClient } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api/iam";

const tokenSource = await loadUserToken();

// Create a compute client for US region
const computeClient = createComputeClient({
	region: "us",
	tokenSource,
});

// Use the client
const instances = await computeClient.compute.listInstances({
	tenantId: "your-tenant-id",
});

// Create an IAM client (global)
const iamClient = createIAMClient({ tokenSource });

// Use the IAM client
const tenants = await iamClient.tenants.listTenants({});

Creating a macOS Instance

The macOS instance example uses the Compute API to create a macOS Tahoe instance on Apple Silicon with 6 vCPUs and 14 GiB RAM, waits for it to be ready, and runs uname -a in the guest. It prints stdout and stderr and exits with the command's exit code.

Run it from a checkout of this repository with Node.js 22:

npm ci
npm run build
nsc login
npx tsx examples/compute/create-macos-instance.ts

createComputeClient() defaults to the US region and loads authentication lazily using loadDefaults(): a workload token inside Namespace, or your local user token from nsc login. You can also set NSC_TOKEN_FILE to a token file. Your workspace must have macOS capacity available.

The example creates a real, billable instance in the US region and leaves it running for inspection. It prints the instance URL and an nsc destroy <instance-id> command; a 30-minute deadline limits its lifetime even if the script fails while waiting. To select another macOS version, change the macos.version shape selector using the available selectors.

Creating Transports

The SDK provides transport creation utilities for different API endpoints:

Regional Transport

For regional APIs (Compute, Builds, Storage, Vault):

import { createRegionTransport } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";

// With token source
const transport = createRegionTransport("us", {
	tokenSource: await loadUserToken(),
});

// With custom base URL
const transport = createRegionTransport("us", {
	tokenSource,
	baseUrl: "https://custom.api.endpoint.com",
});

Global Transport

For global APIs (IAM, Registry):

import { createGlobalTransport } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";

const transport = createGlobalTransport({
	tokenSource: await loadUserToken(),
});

Interceptors

The SDK provides an interceptor for adding authentication to requests:

bearerAuthInterceptor(tokenSource, minDuration?)

Dynamically fetches tokens for each request from a TokenSource:

import { bearerAuthInterceptor } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";
import { loadUserToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";
import { createConnectTransport } from "@connectrpc/connect-node";

const tokenSource = await loadUserToken();

const transport = createConnectTransport({
	baseUrl: "https://api.example.com",
	interceptors: [
		bearerAuthInterceptor(tokenSource, 5 * 60 * 1000), // 5 minutes
	],
});

The interceptor automatically refreshes tokens as needed based on the minDuration parameter (default: 5 minutes).

Project Structure

typescript-sdk/
├── src/
│   ├── auth/              # Authentication module
│   │   ├── types.ts       # Core types and interfaces
│   │   ├── claims.ts      # JWT claims extraction
│   │   ├── token.ts       # Token loading and management
│   │   └── index.ts       # Module exports
│   ├── api/               # API client module
│   │   ├── clients.ts     # Transport creation utilities
│   │   ├── interceptors.ts # Auth interceptors
│   │   └── index.ts       # Module exports
│   └── index.ts           # Main SDK export
├── dist/                  # Compiled output (CJS, ESM, types)
├── examples/              # Example usage
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

Module Exports

The SDK provides multiple export paths:

• @namespacelabs/sdk - Main entry point (re-exports auth, API clients, and Devboxes)
• @namespacelabs/sdk/auth - Authentication module only
• @namespacelabs/sdk/api - API client utilities only
• @namespacelabs/sdk/devbox - Devbox product API

Each export path supports both ESM and CommonJS:

// ESM
import { loadUserToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

// CommonJS
const { loadUserToken } = require("@namespacelabs/sdk/auth");

Environment Variables

• NSC_TOKEN_FILE - Override default token file location
• XDG_CONFIG_HOME - Linux config directory (defaults to ~/.config)
• APPDATA - Windows config directory

Error Handling

The SDK provides specific error types:

import { NotLoggedInError } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";

try {
	const tokenSource = await loadUserToken();
} catch (error) {
	if (error instanceof NotLoggedInError) {
		console.error("Please run `nsc login` first");
	}
}

TypeScript Support

The SDK is written in TypeScript and provides full type definitions:

import type { TokenSource, TokenClaims, CachedToken } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/auth";
import type { CreateRegionTransportOpts, CreateClientOpts } from "@namespacelabs/sdk/api";

Development

Building

npm run build

This generates:

• CommonJS output in dist/cjs/
• ES Module output in dist/esm/
• Type declarations in dist/types/

Clean

npm run clean

Comparison with Go SDK

This TypeScript SDK follows similar patterns to the Go integrations/auth package:

Go SDK	TypeScript SDK
auth.LoadDefaults()	loadDefaults()
auth.LoadUserToken()	loadUserToken()
auth.LoadWorkloadToken()	loadWorkloadToken()
api.TokenSource	TokenSource interface
auth.ExtractClaims()	extractClaims()
Bearer token via gRPC metadata	Bearer token via HTTP Authorization header

License

Apache-2.0

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues or pull requests on GitHub.

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Namespace Documentation
• NPM Package