Export from LLM workspace to host | Dagger | Page 1

ornate copper Mar 31, 2025, 8:58 PM

#

Hi, I'm struggling to figure out why exporting files/directories from a workspace of an LLM instance seems to be not working. This is a the dagger module I have (where builderWorkspace is similar to the toyWorkspace example, with read/write tools):

  @func()
  async exportTest(repository: Directory): Promise<Container> {
    const workspace = dag.builderWorkspace(repository);
    let llm = dag
      .llm()
      .withBuilderWorkspace(workspace)
      .withPrompt("Write the text `Hello world` to `/hello.txt`");

    const content = await llm.builderWorkspace().container().file("/hello.txt").contents();
    console.log("Verifying the content of hello.txt: ", content);

    await llm.builderWorkspace().container().file("/hello.txt").export("./hello.txt");
    console.log("The above line seems to not work");

    // returning the container just for debugging purposes
    return llm.builderWorkspace().container();
  }

The export line seems to not do anything whether I call export-test from the interactive terminal or directly from shell. This is the output from a shell run:

❯ dagger call --progress plain export-test --repository .
<omitted irrelevant output>
116 : File.export(path: "./hello.txt"): String!
117 : │ export file /hello.txt to host ./hello.txt
117 : │ export file /hello.txt to host ./hello.txt DONE [0.0s]
116 : File.export DONE [0.0s]

115 : Container.file DONE [0.1s]

118 : File.contents: String!
118 : [0.0s] | Hello world
118 : File.contents DONE [0.0s]

90  : ForgeBuildAgent.exportTest(
90  : │ │ repository: Host.directory(include: ["./dagger.json", "./**/*"], path: "/Users/jet/Development/forge"): Directory!
90  : │ ): Container!
90  : [8.4s] | Verifying the content of hello.txt:  Hello world
90  : [8.4s] | The above line seems to not work
90  : ForgeBuildAgent.exportTest DONE [8.5s]

Am I exporting the file to the dagger runtime container or the LLM container, instead of host? Appreciate any pointers and help! Thank you!

#

Additionally, what's weird is that, if I make a chained call from the interactive terminal, like so

✔ export-test . | file /hello.txt | export ./hello.txt

It does actually work as expected and I will see hello.txt on my host file system, even though the above call from terminal should be exactly equivalent to llm.builderWorkspace().container().file("/hello.txt").export("./hello.txt"), right?

tame flame Mar 31, 2025, 10:06 PM

#

Hi @ornate copper , it's actually not a LLM-specific issue, but a normal (but sometimes confusing) side effect of module sandboxing.

When you write a Dagger Module, all your module's functions are executed in a strict sandbox, that forbids access to the caller's true environment, including its host system. Instead, when you call host, the function accesses its own environment. And since it's running inside a container... The host system is that container. So export() actually exports to your function's ephemeral filesystem.

ornate copper Mar 31, 2025, 10:08 PM

#

ahhh, got it! i was suspecting that's the case. what would you recommend as the best way if my goal is to export files produced by LLM onto my host system then?

tame flame Mar 31, 2025, 10:09 PM

#

the recommended pattern is to have your function return a directory, then the caller can decide to export or not. If the caller is the CLI, then it might be:

your-function | export ./dest

#

You don't need to return the container for debugging purposes really, because for debugging you can:

Call with dagger -i, then get an interactive shell at the moment of failure

or

Inject .terminal() calls in your container for temporary debugging

ornate copper Mar 31, 2025, 10:11 PM

#

ohhh, this^ helps a lot too, was not aware of this capability

#

the files need to be further processed by other containers/workflows, so i was just at a point of needing to inspect these files being reasonable before writing more downstream code, but it was really annoying to get to look at them, i could potentially just pass around the content for now

#

and eventually, i will want to just have a typescript script CLI that use my module and connect from @dagger.io/dagger, at that point, my understanding is that it should be flexible to just use fs:writeFile to write files to wherever needed. does that seem right?

tame flame Mar 31, 2025, 10:14 PM

#

if the function returns a Directory or File, you can inject debugging in the terminal also

#

for a directory, you can call terminal against it also, and you get an interactive shell with the directory mounted

#

for file you can call contents, digest or export from the shell, that works well also

tame flame Mar 31, 2025, 10:16 PM

#

ornate copper and eventually, i will want to just have a typescript script CLI that use my mod...

Yes that should work fine. You would have the option of querying the file contents to get the bytes, or calling export to have the engine write directly to local filesystem

#

If your file is very large, export is probably safer

ornate copper Mar 31, 2025, 10:17 PM

#

perfect! thanks for the help!

glad plover Apr 10, 2025, 5:59 AM

#

I try to do this exact command, but I cant see any changes goes to the host.

my-func "add new ec2 instance" | export --path "./"

I do see the output suggesting that it creates the desired terraform file, but when the command is done, there's no new file / modified file on the host.

#Export from LLM workspace to host