---
title: Create DigitalOcean Harness Runtime Environments (public)
description: Define an environment, save it as a reusable config, build a custom sandbox image, and set what the agent is allowed to do.
product: Managed Agents
url: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/create-harness-agents/
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
---

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# Create DigitalOcean Harness Runtime Environments (public)

Generated on 21 Oct 2026

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime provides managed, hardware-isolated microVM sandboxes with built-in tools such as Chromium to run harnesses and execute arbitrary code. Rich lifecycle APIs preserve conversational history and working state across sessions, letting you pause, resume, and fork work to control costs and adapt to the nonlinear nature of agentic workflows. Scale complete agents such as Claude Code or use sandboxes independently for code execution, all through the same service. See [What You Can Build](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/details/what-you-can-build/index.html.md) for example use cases.

[How to Create an Environment Using a Coding Adapter](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/create-managed-agent/index.html.md): Choose a Harness Runtime adapter for Codex CLI, Claude Code, or OpenCode and start a session from a YAML spec or the Control Panel.

[How to Use Environment Configs](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/use-agent-configs/index.html.md): Save a Harness Runtime spec as a reusable Environment Config, then start sessions from it without resubmitting the YAML.

[How to Use a Custom Sandbox Template (BYOT)](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/use-custom-template/index.html.md): Build a Container Registry image, register it as a Harness Runtime template, and start a session from it.

[How to Configure Agent Permissions](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/configure-permissions/index.html.md): Write session permission policies that allow, deny, or require approval for agent actions.

[How to Secure DigitalOcean Harness Runtime Sessions](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/how-to/secure-sessions/index.html.md): A checklist for hardening a Harness Runtime session, covering workload isolation, credentials, egress, permission policies, unattended controllers, and cleanup.