Perplexity has open-sourced SPACE, the execution platform behind its Computer agent. The release gives developers infrastructure for running agent-generated code in isolated workspaces, preserving progress, and controlling access to outside services.
An execution environment, not another model
SPACE is not another AI model or a complete assistant. Its name stands for Sandboxed Platform for Agentic Code Execution. The Apache-2.0-licensed repository includes an HTTP API for creating Linux sandboxes, executing commands, and collecting results, using Firecracker microVMs with separate writable filesystems.
The application decides what code to run and which results to retain. SPACE manages the execution workspace, its processes, and the connection carrying command output.
State and controls beyond the prompt
- Resumable work: pause, resume, recovery, and branching support longer tasks and alternative approaches.
- Controls outside the agent: network policy and platform-held credentials are managed outside the untrusted sandbox.
- Production experience: Perplexity says SPACE has powered all Computer sessions since July. That is a company-reported deployment claim, not an independent security guarantee.
Why it matters for builders
A capable model still needs somewhere to execute code, retain files, and recover after interruptions. SPACE makes that infrastructure inspectable and reusable. It fits the broader agent-engineering focus discussed in our coverage of NVIDIA’s open agent-safety platform: the surrounding system matters alongside the model.
For a small app studio such as SunMarc, a practical evaluation could be an isolated code-checking or data-processing task that pauses for review before continuing. This is a proposed evaluation, not an announced SunMarc deployment.
Deployment still requires infrastructure work
The documented local setup uses Linux x86_64, KVM, and a Kubernetes-based Kind cluster. Those instructions do not run directly on macOS. The Kind setup is a documented local deployment path, not a claim that every SPACE deployment requires Kubernetes.