# GhostBox 6 Hacker News commenters recommended GhostBox and 20 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended as a CLI for disposable dev machines on your own GitHub Actions minutes, with real SSH access. Critics warn it likely violates GitHub's terms of service. ## Why people recommend it - Uses your own Actions minutes (4 comments): "ghost uses your own Actions minutes, for your own workflows/ghost boxes, on your own GH account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48072965)) "helps you run dev workflows in your own GitHub account, using your own Actions minutes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073027)) "ghost aligns with ToS: it's a CLI porcelain driving the user's own GitHub account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073387)) - Disposable dev machines on demand (4 comments): "a charity of ghost machines. GH provides these amazing free compute minutes, and this is a way to use them to focus on dev tasks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976320)) "I literally built a utility that protects you against supply chain attacks by giving you safe, disposable sandboxes on demand." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148540)) "this is just using GH Actions runners as ephemeral dev machines for your software work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976593)) - Better interface to Actions (3 comments): "this just makes it even more useful and faster to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982933)) "ghost just provides a better interface to Actions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48089558)) "it's just a CLI that makes Actions more useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982944)) ## What people warn about - Abuses GitHub's free compute goodwill (6 comments): "this is an infrastructure abuse and it will have net negative impact on most fair users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47981340)) "Weird to have a .charity TLD but promote abusing Github Actions as free compute." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975846)) "These are not your computers to resell or reoffer as you please, even for free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47988657)) - Likely violates GitHub terms of service (4 comments): "Clearly either you are doing something wrong (violating the ToS), or you are advertising a service that appears to be violating the ToS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48001125)) "since it abuses the subsidised free tier of GitHub Actions to run a service like and it is likely against the GitHub TOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975814)) "You're probably violating their TOS and abusing the good will they're putting out towards open source projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47979464)) - Broken links and missing docs (3 comments): "this looks cool, but notice that your README and github links are ghosting us" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975585)) "None of the links to Github work because you're pointing at the main branch instead of your default branch ghosts-only" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976141)) "some basic technical docs would go a long way to help people understand the project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976072)) - Closed source raises trust concerns (3 comments): "I'm not going to trust a closed source binary with anything related to my personal projects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47983830)) "You used to publish open source projects, now this is closed source. Why?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47988370)) "it’s proprietary code that’s free to use during a “preview”." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976073)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [fzf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fzf.md): 78 recommend - [jq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jq.md): 75 recommend - [grep](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grep.md): 65 recommend - [Atuin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atuin.md): 63 recommend - [GitHub CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-cli.md): 49 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GhostBox", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ghostbox/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).