# Gondolin

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Gondolin and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free open-source sandbox that runs AI coding agents' tool calls in a minimal ephemeral VM. Critics say the developer experience is not yet polished.

## Why people recommend it

- Inspired other agent sandbox projects (2 comments): "inspired by gondolin which does the same" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47860452)) "Heavily inspired by Gondolin" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49910556))
- Runs tool calls in ephemeral VM (2 comments): "Gondolin[1] is what you are describing. It's made by the same person who made the Pi coding agent and sends all of the agent's bash into a small QEMU vm." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48894389)) "It just executes the toolcalls in a minimal ephemeral VM, unlike most others which run the whole harness inside the sandbox." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49929996))
- Praised as sandboxing done right (2 comments): "Gondolin is sand boxes done right" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832321)) "Gondolin go hard or go home" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360449))

## What people warn about

- Developer experience less polished (2 comments): "the DX is not as polished" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240545)) "it's mostly the UX/DX where Gondolin is lacking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49242443))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Docker Sandboxes](https://hackerapproved.com/p/docker-sandboxes.md): 50 recommend
- [NVIDIA OpenShell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openshell.md): 36 recommend
- [Claude Code sandbox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-code-sandbox.md): 16 recommend
- [MXC (Microsoft Execution Containers)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mxc.md): 15 recommend
- [microsandbox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsandbox.md): 13 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Gondolin", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gondolin/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).