> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.continuouslabs.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# API Box

> A running copy of one API, with its own state, started from an API Box Snapshot.

An API Box serves one API at its own endpoint, with its own state. Your agent calls it as it would call the real API. Nothing reaches the real system.

## Snapshots

An API Box starts from a ready API Box Snapshot. `GET /v1/apibox-snapshots` lists the Continuous catalog's Snapshots and your workspace's. To build your own, send an OpenAPI, WSDL or GraphQL document to `POST /v1/apibox-snapshots`. The build runs the same way as a [Simulator build](https://docs.continuouslabs.ai/concepts/simulators.md#build-a-simulator): it starts in `pending`, runs in `building`, and ends in `ready`, `failed`, or `canceled`. A ready Snapshot never changes.

## Create and call

`POST /v1/apibox` with a ready `snapshot_id` returns the API Box in `starting`, with its `endpoint` and `token`. Read the API Box until it is `running`. Then send requests to the endpoint, with the token in this header:

```text theme={null}
X-Continuous-APIBox-Token: <token>
```

The token lasts as long as the API Box. `GET /v1/apibox/{id}/connection` returns the endpoint and token again. Do not send your API key to the endpoint.

Each API Box runs in real time and has its own state. Two API Boxes from the same Snapshot do not share data.

## Stop, start and delete

`POST /v1/apibox/{id}/stop` saves the state and releases the runtime. `POST /v1/apibox/{id}/start` restores it, with the same token. `DELETE /v1/apibox/{id}` removes the API Box and its state; the Snapshot stays.

## Steps

Each request that changes state is one step. `GET /v1/apibox/{id}/steps` lists them in order while the API Box runs.

Running API Boxes, Web Boxes, MCP Boxes and Simulations share one workspace limit. See [Quotas and limits](https://docs.continuouslabs.ai/api-reference/quotas.md).


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