Gondolin
Shares rank 10 of 17 agent sandboxes by recommenders
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.
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.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Inspired other agent sandbox projects
“inspired by gondolin which does the same”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Some secret management belongs in your HTTP proxy” “Heavily inspired by Gondolin”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Dots: Always-on agents” Runs tool calls in ephemeral VM
“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.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Clawk – Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop” “It just executes the toolcalls in a minimal ephemeral VM, unlike most others which run the whole harness inside the sandbox.”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Pi Durable” Praised as sandboxing done right
“Gondolin is sand boxes done right”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Herdr: One terminal to rule them all” “Gondolin go hard or go home”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Shall I implement it? No”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Developer experience less polished
“the DX is not as polished”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents” “it's mostly the UX/DX where Gondolin is lacking”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents”
Other agent sandboxes people recommend
The four most recommended other agent sandboxes, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docker Sandboxes | 50 | 39 | 56% | 9 | — | — |
| NVIDIA OpenShell | 36 | 8 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Claude Code sandbox | 16 | 18 | 47% | 6 | — | — |
| MXC (Microsoft Execution Containers) | 15 | 17 | 47% | 1 | — | — |
| GondolinThis page | 9 | 3 | 75% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It just executes the toolcalls in a minimal ephemeral VM, unlike most others which run the whole harness inside the sandbox.”
“Heavily inspired by Gondolin”
“I'd say it's not ready for prime time yet unfortunately”
“the pi-extension example in the gondolin repo is very outdated”
“it's mostly the UX/DX where Gondolin is lacking”
“is not what i'm looking for”
“the DX is not as polished”
“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.”
“Gondolin is sand boxes done right”
“inspired by gondolin which does the same”
“has some cool projects like around like gondolin”
“Gondolin go hard or go home”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.