What is a cold start?

A cold start is the time from asking for a sandbox to being able to run code in it. It covers starting the machine, loading the image and getting the first process ready.

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What makes it longer or shorter

The isolation type, the size of the image and the size of the sandbox all change the start time. Starting from a snapshot is usually faster than starting from an image, because the setup has already been done.

When it matters

It matters when a person waits for the result, for example in a chat that runs code. It matters less for a long job that starts once.

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