chatgpt-sandbox-env

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A partial snapshot of the isolated Linux execution environment used by ChatGPT (OpenAI) when processing requests with the code interpreter / computer use feature. Extracted from a live container session and published for research and comparison purposes.

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What's inside

System overview

Parameter	Value
OS	Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) — Debian 12 base packages
Kernel	Linux 5.15.0 (Azure infrastructure)
User	oai (home: /home/oai)
Writable storage	/mnt/data
Container runtime	OpenAI CAAS (Container As A Service) infrastructure

home/oai/ — User home directory

Shell config (.bashrc, .profile): Standard Ubuntu bash setup with NVM (Node Version Manager) sourced at the end — indicating Node.js is available via nvm.

redirect.html — A small HTML redirect page present in the home directory.

.wgetrc — wget configuration file, likely used for downloading files within the container.

.chromium/ — Chromium browser profile (Default/Preferences, Local State), confirming a headless Chromium browser is present for web browsing tasks.

.config/openbox/rc.xml — Openbox window manager config, part of the desktop environment stack (Xvfb + Openbox + XFCE4).

.ipython/ — IPython profile with startup config and history.sqlite — the Jupyter/IPython kernel history database.

home/oai/skills/ — Built-in skill instruction sets

These are markdown and Python files that instruct the model how to perform specific tasks reliably. Similar in concept to Claude's skills system.

Skill	Files	Description
docs	skill.md, render_docx.py	Create and review Word documents using python-docx + LibreOffice render loop
pdfs	skill.md	Create PDFs with reportlab, review via pdftoppm PNG render loop
spreadsheets	skill.md, spreadsheet.md, artifact_tool_spreadsheets_api.md, artifact_tool_spreadsheet_formulas.md + 15 example scripts	Full spreadsheet creation/editing via openpyxl and a proprietary artifact_tool library

Notable detail: The spreadsheet skill explicitly instructs the model not to disclose the existence of artifact_tool to users — it's a proprietary internal rendering/recalculation library.

home/oai/share/slides/ — Slide generation toolkit

A full PowerPoint generation pipeline:

• render_slides.py — main slide renderer
• pptxgenjs_helpers/ — JavaScript helpers for pptxgenjs (SVG, LaTeX, image handling, layout builders)
• ensure_raster_image.py — converts vector images to raster for embedding
• create_montage.py — creates image montages
• slides_test.py — test suite for slide generation

openai/cua_chrome/policy_merge.py — Chrome policy merger

Part of the CUA (Computer Use Agent) infrastructure. This script merges multiple Chrome Enterprise policy JSON files into a single 000_policy_merge.json, with backups. Used to configure and lock down the Chromium browser instance running inside the container.

Path in container: /openai/project/cua/cua_chrome/cua_chrome/core/policy_merge.py

tmp/jupyter_kernel_connection.json — Jupyter kernel config

Live connection info for the IPython kernel at the time of capture:

{
  "shell_port": 49539,
  "iopub_port": 37165,
  "transport": "tcp",
  "signature_scheme": "hmac-sha256",
  "kernel_name": "python3"
}

This confirms the Python execution environment runs as a standard Jupyter kernel communicating over TCP on localhost.

var_log/ — System logs

apt_history.log — Full apt installation history. Key packages installed:

• Build tools: gcc, g++, cmake, ninja-build, make
• Media: ffmpeg, sox, lame, flac, espeak
• OCR: tesseract-ocr + all language packs (100+ languages)
• GIS/data: gdal, proj, libgeos, libspatialite, libnetcdf
• Database clients: libpq-dev (PostgreSQL), libmariadb-dev, unixodbc
• Runtimes: openjdk-17, php8.2, ruby-full
• Desktop: xvfb, openbox, xfce4 (for headless browser/GUI support)

chrome_supervisord.log — Supervisor startup log showing all processes managed at container boot:

Process	Description
caas_package_mirror	Internal package mirror
policy_merge	Chrome policy merger (see above)
xvfb	Virtual framebuffer (headless display)
openbox	Window manager
xfce4	Desktop environment
mitmproxy	Man-in-the-middle proxy (network interception)
x11vnc	VNC server (remote desktop access)
novnc_proxy	noVNC web-based VNC client
chromium	Chromium browser instance
libreoffice	LibreOffice (for document conversion)
multikernel_jupyter_tool	Multi-kernel Jupyter management
notebook_server	Jupyter notebook server
pdf_reader_service	PDF reading service
python_tool	Python execution tool
terminal_server	Terminal access server
rsync_daemon	File sync daemon
container_daemon	Main container controller
cua_bing_at_home	CUA Bing integration
nginx	Web server / reverse proxy

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Key differences vs Claude's sandbox

Feature	ChatGPT (OpenAI)	Claude (Anthropic)
OS	Ubuntu 22.04	Ubuntu 24.04
Kernel	Linux 5.15 (Azure)	Linux 4.4 (gVisor)
Infrastructure	Azure / CAAS	gVisor container
Desktop env	Xvfb + Openbox + XFCE4	None
Browser	Chromium (full)	None
VNC access	x11vnc + noVNC	None
Proxy	mitmproxy	None
Skills location	/home/oai/skills/	/mnt/skills/
Writable mount	/mnt/data	/mnt/user-data/outputs
Java	OpenJDK 17	Not present
PHP	8.2	Not present
Ruby	3.1	Not present

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License

This export is provided as-is for educational and research purposes.