MXC (Microsoft Execution Containers)
Ranked 4 of 17 agent sandboxes by recommenders
Free, MIT-licensed library that runs code under per-command permissions, with a learning mode for finding needed settings. Critics note poor documentation, missing macOS support and an early, unstable state.
Free, MIT-licensed library that runs code under per-command permissions, with a learning mode for finding needed settings. Critics note poor documentation, missing macOS support and an early, unstable state.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 47%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Per-command permissions and learning mode
“I like the ‘learning’ mode for figuring out what perms/config a runtime needs, the MIT license”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” “Very interesting concept to make permissions specific to individual shell commands”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” Generally useful, addresses a real problem
“MXC seems generally useful, but it's just poorly executed.”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “Mxc: Microsoft Execution Containers version 1.0.0” “this does look like it might solve a real problem for me”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Largely LLM-written, sloppy code
“almost this entire project was done by a recent-gen LLM that interpreted its instructions as "make these things work at all costs"”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” “almost this entire project was done by a recent-gen LLM that interpreted its instructions as “make these things work at all costs””
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Mxc: Microsoft Execution Containers version 1.0.0” “I feel like there are more vulnerabilities in this vibe coded slop sandboxes”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” Missing macOS support and features
“They have this for Windows and Linux, but it's sadly missing for macOS”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” “Things macOS is missing include "Allow/deny by hostname" and "Allow/deny by IP, CIDR, port, or protocol"”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “MXC - a sandboxed code execution system” Poor or missing documentation
“Most of the features are undocumented. I think because most of the behavior is not really defined and varies greatly between the different backends.”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “Mxc: Microsoft Execution Containers version 1.0.0” “It all looks very sloppy. And documentation is basically non-existent.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Mxc: Microsoft Execution Containers version 1.0.0”
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)This page | 15 | 17 | 47% | 1 | — | — |
| microsandbox | 13 | 2 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
34 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“That sounds like more than just the named destination is reachable”
“MXC seems generally useful, but it's just poorly executed.”
“I don't see why I want to use this wrapper over using bubblewrap directly.”
“velocity of the project is much lower than you would expect from a Microsoft project”
“Most of the features are undocumented. I think because most of the behavior is not really defined and varies greatly between the different backends.”
“it's not a 1.0 release. This is more like an early tech preview.”
“It all looks very sloppy. And documentation is basically non-existent.”
“Some backends like LPAC on Windows cause many exes to straight up fail during startup”
“I don't believe this is what MXC accomplishes.”
“This is a first step: uncertain, unstable, with many improvements to build upon”
“almost this entire project was done by a recent-gen LLM that interpreted its instructions as “make these things work at all costs””
“I'm still not sure what I can do now that I couldn't a week ago.”
“Naturally, this will be gated to corporate customers - the plebs do not get access to better security unless they pay for a top tier license.”
“a very sloppily written announcement”
“Its a good idea and enterprise customers will love it.”
“this does look like it might solve a real problem for me”
“almost this entire project was done by a recent-gen LLM that interpreted its instructions as "make these things work at all costs"”
“MXC is still sharing the host kernel.”
“Apparently node does fancy temp folder things and it just wouldn't go”
“it's a weird design. It's a library you include with your application? Why not an external layer?”
“Things macOS is missing include "Allow/deny by hostname" and "Allow/deny by IP, CIDR, port, or protocol"”
“They have this for Windows and Linux, but it's sadly missing for macOS”
“Very interesting concept to make permissions specific to individual shell commands”
“this is a great option to integrate into agent harnesses/pipelines”
“has a few major/critical security issues”
“their build scripts do windows-exclusive work on all platforms”
“I'm not enthusiastic about this project”
“They have a sandbox escape in there.”
“It does look nice and easy.”
“I trust 350k lines of Rust way more than that!”
“350,000 of mostly Rust SLOC”
“I like the ‘learning’ mode for figuring out what perms/config a runtime needs, the MIT license”
“this one puts multi-platform support as a high requirement”
“I feel like there are more vulnerabilities in this vibe coded slop sandboxes”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.