Start from a template
Ready-to-run Beam VMs
curl -fsSL https://www.beam.cloud/install | sh -s -- --template agent-devboxTemplates
Publish your own template
Set a VM up the way you want it, then save its disk as a template. Anyone can start a public template from their own workspace with its ID; beam vm template create without --public keeps it in yours.
$ beam vm new my-box --docker-enabled
$ beam vm scp setup.sh my-box:/root/setup.sh
$ beam vm exec my-box -- sh /root/setup.sh
$ beam vm template create my-box my-template --publicA public template shares the VM's whole disk, including its history, so build it on a clean VM with no secrets on it. Environment variables, secrets and attached disks are never included. The recipes for the templates above are on GitHub
Questions
How is a template billed?
Like any Beam VM: per second for CPU, memory and any GPU while it runs, plus its disk. Templates start at the default size, 4 vCPU and 8 GiB of memory with a 50 GiB disk, and Blender adds an RTX 4090. Stop or pause the VM and its compute charges stop; a GPU VM stops rather than pauses.
What do I get when I start one?
An independent VM in your workspace, booted from a copy of the template's disk. What you change stays on your VM: nothing flows back to the template, and later versions of the template don't change your VM.
Why does it start signed out?
Everyone who starts a template gets a copy of the same disk, so it carries no accounts, API keys or chat apps. Each template's first step signs you in on your own VM, and those sign-ins stay on its disk. The terminal and desktop are only open to people signed in to your Beam workspace.
Can I change the size?
Yes. Add --cpu and --memory to beam vm new along with --template, for example beam vm new devbox --template ID --cpu 8 --memory 16384.
How do agents use this page?
https://www.beam.cloud/templates.md lists every template with its ID, commands and the arguments for Beam's MCP create_vm tool, and https://www.beam.cloud/templates.json has the same data as JSON. The installer looks up --template SLUG in that list.
Your template, your VM
Sign up, install the CLI, and start any template from your terminal or your coding agent.