Build a Lovable clone in one day with Lizard Sandboxes

Description and use

Automated sandbox workflow for generating, building, and previewing React apps with Lizard Sandboxes, enabling a one‑day MVP.

Problem

Developers need isolated, reproducible workspaces to generate, build, and preview React applications from model output without provisioning servers.

Outcome

All test checks passed except a 401 on unauthenticated preview request. First run completed in ~22 s, demonstrating feasibility of a one‑day MVP for a Lovable clone.

Workflow

• Create Lizard SDK client with project ID and API key
• Prepare trusted React + Vite starter files with lockfile
• Create sandbox of type "interpreter" (small, 10 min timeout)
• Verify sandbox runtime is Firecracker
• Run setup script to install Node.js 22.23.3 and verify versions
• Upload starter files and model‑generated appTsx/appCss to sandbox
• Execute "npm install" and "npm run build"
• Start preview server and obtain private HTTPS URL
• Return URL to project owner
• Persist sandbox ID, owner, and file version in database
• Validate ownership before subsequent operations

Evidence

The first successful run took about 22 seconds from creating the sandbox to receiving a working preview.

Source

On October 15, 2026, we ran the execution workflow in Small Firecracker Sandboxes in us-east-1 using Lizard SDK 0.1.69.

Source

The sandbox object exposes its ID as sandbox.sandboxId.

Source