---
title: Templates
description: Save a prepared sandbox as a template and start new sandboxes from it in seconds.
---

A template is a saved copy of a sandbox's disk. Prepare a sandbox once, with your packages, repositories and configuration, save it, and every sandbox you start from the template begins exactly there.

```sh
pols template save web node-app --description "Node 24 with the app's dependencies"
pols template ls
pols new --name review --template node-app
pols template rm node-app
```

## Saving

`pols template save SANDBOX NAME` (`POST /v1/templates`) copies the disk of a running or stopped sandbox. The save takes about a second on the host; the template starts in status `creating` and becomes `ready` when the copy is done. The CLI waits for that; over the API, poll `GET /v1/templates/{template}` until `status` is `ready` before using it. A save that fails stays visible with status `failed` until it has been cleaned up.

A template does **not** keep the source sandbox's environment variables or [vault entries](/sandboxes/vault/). Name the secrets again when you create sandboxes from it.

Saving a running sandbox copies its disk as it is at that moment, without the contents of memory. Files an application has not yet written to disk are not in the template; stop the sandbox first, or flush and pause the application, when that matters.

## Using a template

Pass the template's name or ID to `pols new --template`. The new sandbox gets a copy of the template's disk, with a new machine ID and new SSH host keys. Its size must have a disk at least as large as the template's (`disk_gib`).

`ubuntu-24.04` is the system template every sandbox starts from by default. It is provided for every org and cannot be deleted.

## Deleting

`pols template rm NAME` (`DELETE /v1/templates/{template}`) deletes one of your org's own templates. The API answers `202` and removes it in the background; a `GET` returns `404` once it is gone. The CLI waits for that. Sandboxes already created from the template are not affected. While a template is still being saved, or a sandbox is still being created from it, deleting it is refused with `409 conflict`.

Your org may have up to 10 templates of its own; see [quotas](/getting-started/limits/#quotas).