Base Snapshots

Boot a base snapshot by passing its slug as snapshotId. They start in about a second:

const { vm } = await freestyle.vms.create({
  // Required: a VM reaches nothing it has not been allowed to.
  firewall: { rules: [{ action: "allow", source: {}, destination: { public: true } }] }, snapshotId: "freestyle/debian-13" });

Hardware is baked in: a snapshot boots with the vCPU, memory, and disk listed below. Omit snapshotId to get the default.

Available images

Click a slug to copy it.

Which sizes you can use depends on your plan’s per-VM maximums.

Which one to pick

• freestyle/ubuntu-2404 — the default. Broadest compatibility; everything in the guides works here. It is built from the Ubuntu container base image, so it starts where a container starts: no systemd, and no ping/curl until you apt install them.
• freestyle/ubuntu-2404-systemd — the same Ubuntu, built to be a machine instead. systemd is pid 1, so systemctl, journalctl, units, and timers all work; ping, curl, dig, ss, traceroute, tcpdump, git, python3, vim, sudo, and man pages are already there; and wg/wg-quick run against a kernel with WireGuard built in, so a VM can join a tunnel with nothing to install. There is an ubuntu user with passwordless sudo alongside root. Newer than the others — pick it when you want a normal Linux box, and freestyle/ubuntu-2404 when you want the long-standing default.
• freestyle/debian-13 — leaner Ubuntu alternative: apt and glibc without the extras. Also a container base image, with the same caveat.
• freestyle/busybox-nano — minimal appliance: no package manager, musl, sh only. For smoke tests and CI. Too small for editor connections: the VS Code/Cursor remote server needs a dynamic libc and more than nano’s 128 MiB of memory. Terminal SSH is fine — for IDE work, pick an Ubuntu or Debian snapshot.
• -large/-xl are the same images with more memory and disk.

Custom snapshots

Start from a base snapshot, set it up however you want, resize if you need more, and capture its exact memory and disk. The source VM must be running or paused:

const { snapshotId, snapshot } = await vm.snapshot({
  slug: "configured-worker",
});

const { vm: clone } = await freestyle.vms.create({
  // Required: a VM reaches nothing it has not been allowed to.
  firewall: { rules: [{ action: "allow", source: {}, destination: { public: true } }] }, snapshotId });

New snapshots are private, and snapshot() returns once the snapshot is fully materialized and ready to boot.

Manage snapshots from freestyle.vms.snapshots:

const { snapshots } = await freestyle.vms.snapshots.list({ sourceVmId: vmId });
const current = await freestyle.vms.snapshots.get(snapshotId);
await freestyle.vms.snapshots.update(snapshotId, { slug: "golden-image" });
await freestyle.vms.snapshots.delete(snapshotId);