Clean and profile a messy CSV with an AI agent

An agent profiles a CSV with real commands in a sandbox and reports duplicates, missing values, bad formats and outliers.

Files
Shell
Budget cap

Watch a real run

A real run on Oct 7, 2026, replayed. Model: openai/gpt-6-luna.

Succeededrun_a95629e4250a32c985f2bd387bfe25f3$0.006427 of $0.05

0.00Queuedbudget $0.05 reserved
2.41MicroVMmicroVM ready
2.44MicroVMworker started · shell on · web off
5.20Fileread orders.csv
5.20Shell$ python3 - <<'PY' import csv p='/tmp/ephemeral-run-s2TPIy/bundle/orders.csv' with open(p,newline='')…
15.01Shell$ python3 - <<'PY' import csv,re,datetime,collections p='/tmp/ephemeral-run-s2TPIy/bundle/orders.csv'…
26.01MicroVMmicroVM destroyed

26.02Succeeded3 model calls, 9,333 tokensRecorded output (English)

Verdict: Found data-quality issues in missing values, duplicates, email, casing, dates, and quantity.

Issue	Count	Affected data rows	Suggested fix
Missing `customer_email`	1	3	Populate or explicitly mark unknown.
Missing `unit_price`	1	9	Populate or explicitly mark unknown.
Duplicate full rows	2	7, 8	Remove one duplicate.
Duplicate `order_id`	2	7, 8	Confirm which order is valid; make IDs unique.
Invalid email	1	4	Correct the address (e.g., add a valid domain).
Inconsistent country casing	1	2	Normalize `de` to `DE`.
Inconsistent status casing	1	12	Normalize `Shipped` to `shipped`.
Date not in `YYYY-MM-DD` format	1	5	Convert to `2026-09-02`.
Nonexistent date	1	14	Correct `2026-09-31` to the intended valid date.
Negative quantity	1	6	Verify and correct the quantity.
Extreme quantity outlier (`1000`)	1	15	Verify against the source order.

26.41Worker destroyed$0.006427 charged, $0.043573 released

Model $0.001027 · Web $0.00 · Compute $0.0054

Run it yourself

Open the sample in the playground with the whole request filled in. It runs on your own account, within the budget shown, against the same read-only sample systems.

Budget for this sample: $0.05

Open in the playground Sign up to run it Sign in

How it works

The file is read-only and the sandbox has no network, so the data stays where it is. The agent counts problems with the shell instead of eyeballing them, and lists each issue with row numbers and a suggested fix.

What the agent can and cannot do

The permissions are part of the request. Anything not listed here is not available to the run.

Setting	Allowed
Connections	None
Web	Off
Shell	On, inside the sealed machine
Files	orders.csv (read-only)
Zero data retention	Off: the record is kept for 30 days
Budget	$0.05, a hard cap
Timeout	120 seconds

Credentials never enter the machine: a broker adds them to each call and enforces the methods above.

The code

This is the exact request the sample sends. Set EPHEMERAL_API_KEY to a member key of your organization.

curl -X POST $EPHEMERAL_URL/v1/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EPHEMERAL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d @request.json

Files in the request

Passed inline, so nothing is uploaded first. The agent sees each one as a read-only file.

orders.csv

orders.csv

order_id,customer_email,country,order_date,quantity,unit_price,status
1001,[email protected],DE,2026-09-01,2,19.90,shipped
1002,[email protected],de,2026-09-01,1,19.90,shipped
1003,,US,2026-09-02,3,9.50,shipped
1004,carla@example,US,2026-09-02,1,49.00,delivered
1005,[email protected],FR,02/09/2026,1,49.00,delivered
1006,[email protected],FR,2026-09-03,-1,19.90,refunded
1007,[email protected],US,2026-09-03,2,9.50,shipped
1007,[email protected],US,2026-09-03,2,9.50,shipped
1008,[email protected],GB,2026-09-04,1,,shipped
1009,[email protected],JP,2026-09-04,5,19.90,delivered
1010,[email protected],DE,2026-09-05,1,19.90,shipped
1011,[email protected],US,2026-09-05,1,9.50,Shipped
1012,[email protected],KR,2026-09-06,1,49.00,delivered
1013,[email protected],US,2026-09-31,2,9.50,shipped
1014,[email protected],DE,2026-09-07,1000,19.90,shipped
1015,[email protected],FR,2026-09-08,1,19.90,delivered
1016,[email protected],GB,2026-09-08,2,49.00,delivered
1017,[email protected],US,2026-09-09,1,9.50,cancelled
1018,[email protected],DE,2026-09-09,1,19.90,delivered
1019,[email protected],US,2026-09-10,2,9.50,shipped
1020,[email protected],JP,2026-09-10,1,49.00,delivered

Full request body request.json

The same body, with the files inline.

request.json

{
  "prompt": "Profile orders.csv (columns: order_id, customer_email, country, order_date, quantity, unit_price, status). Use the shell (python3, awk, sort, uniq, whatever is installed) to count the problems; do not count by eye. Check duplicate rows and duplicate order_ids, missing values per column, invalid emails, inconsistent country or status casing, dates that are not YYYY-MM-DD or do not exist, negative quantities and extreme outliers. Reply in Markdown, at most 220 words: a one-line verdict, then a table of issue, count, affected row numbers (data rows, header excluded) and a suggested fix. If a check finds nothing, omit it.",
  "files": [
    {
      "path": "orders.csv",
      "content": "order_id,customer_email,country,order_date,quantity,unit_price,status\n1001,[email protected],DE,2026-09-01,2,19.90,shipped\n1002,[email protected],de,2026-09-01,1,19.90,shipped\n1003,,US,2026-09-02,3,9.50,shipped\n1004,carla@example,US,2026-09-02,1,49.00,delivered\n1005,[email protected],FR,02/09/2026,1,49.00,delivered\n1006,[email protected],FR,2026-09-03,-1,19.90,refunded\n1007,[email protected],US,2026-09-03,2,9.50,shipped\n1007,[email protected],US,2026-09-03,2,9.50,shipped\n1008,[email protected],GB,2026-09-04,1,,shipped\n1009,[email protected],JP,2026-09-04,5,19.90,delivered\n1010,[email protected],DE,2026-09-05,1,19.90,shipped\n1011,[email protected],US,2026-09-05,1,9.50,Shipped\n1012,[email protected],KR,2026-09-06,1,49.00,delivered\n1013,[email protected],US,2026-09-31,2,9.50,shipped\n1014,[email protected],DE,2026-09-07,1000,19.90,shipped\n1015,[email protected],FR,2026-09-08,1,19.90,delivered\n1016,[email protected],GB,2026-09-08,2,49.00,delivered\n1017,[email protected],US,2026-09-09,1,9.50,cancelled\n1018,[email protected],DE,2026-09-09,1,19.90,delivered\n1019,[email protected],US,2026-09-10,2,9.50,shipped\n1020,[email protected],JP,2026-09-10,1,49.00,delivered\n"
    }
  ],
  "web": false,
  "shell": true,
  "timeout_seconds": 120,
  "max_cost_micros": 50000
}