NVIDIA OpenShell
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 17 agent sandboxes by recommenders
Recommended as a free NVIDIA-backed sandbox for AI agents, with policy controls and isolation beyond plain Docker. Critics say it still warns against production use and collects default telemetry.
Recommended as a free NVIDIA-backed sandbox for AI agents, with policy controls and isolation beyond plain Docker. Critics say it still warns against production use and collects default telemetry.
44 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 36
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 36 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Classic Windows Start menu replacement
“switch back to the classic GUIs (like with OpenShell) so you don't have to deal with the laggy new UIs”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11” “you just need a Start Menu replacement like OpenShell to get a sane Start Menu appearance”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Why Windows 95 Was Tech's Last True Revolution” “They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “2025 was a disaster for Windows 11 as bugs and intrusive features erode trust” - Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Apache Burr: Build reliable AI agents and applications”
- Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Meta and Microsoft take steps to reduce employee usage of Claude AI”
- Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons”
- Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27”
- Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft isn't removing Copilot from Windows 11, it's just renaming it”
- Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality”
- Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone”
Sandboxing and policy engine
“A lot of good ideas like network sandbox that does TLS decryption and use of policy engine to set the rules.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Nvidia NemoClaw” “It's a neat piece of architecture - the OpenShell piece that does the security sandboxing.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Nvidia NemoClaw” “It brings some extra sandboxing features compared to just a docker container.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Grok uploaded my user directory to xAI's servers” - Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents”
- Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “OpenCode 2.0”
Backed by NVIDIA, fits Kubernetes
“we like it because it is backed by NVIDIA and fits natively within our k8s env”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents” “Isn't Nvidia's openshell exactly what you're looking for?”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents” “looking very promising for nvidia”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Nvidia Open-Sources OpenShell: Agent Runtime with Security Guardrails” Works reliably and instantly
“Still playing around with it, but so far I've been liking the setup.”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Share your AI Setup, Learn from others” “things still work correctly and instantly with OpenShell”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft please get your tab to autocomplete shit together” “it worked surprisingly well”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Collects default telemetry
“the documentation listing the collected telemetry uses weasel words like "such as"”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” “Taking default telemetry is insane.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” “OpenShell collects anonymous telemetry”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” Security claims seem overstated
“the blurp reads like it can do it all, but now secure. That can't be true.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” “just calling something private and safe out the box genuinely makes me think it's likely to fail at all of those claims”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” Simpler alternatives can do it
“Looking at the complexity of OpenShell and the simplicity of just building on top of docker”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents” “Honestly I don't get openshell. You can do the same with bubblewrap on linux, on any shell.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “OpenShell – A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous 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 OpenShellThis page | 36 | 8 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Claude Code sandbox | 16 | 18 | 47% | 6 | — | — |
| MXC (Microsoft Execution Containers) | 15 | 17 | 47% | 1 | — | — |
| microsandbox | 13 | 2 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 52 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Honestly I don't get openshell. You can do the same with bubblewrap on linux, on any shell.”
“a nice package for running agents is useful”
“the blurp reads like it can do it all, but now secure. That can't be true.”
“I do mantain it is the best product in the space”
“it worked surprisingly well”
“the documentation listing the collected telemetry uses weasel words like "such as"”
“just calling something private and safe out the box genuinely makes me think it's likely to fail at all of those claims”
“Looking at the complexity of OpenShell and the simplicity of just building on top of docker”
“OpenShell collects anonymous telemetry”
“the level of control is cool, almost too pedantic”
“this looks like a great way to manage those containers”
“Taking default telemetry is insane.”
“I quite like their sandboxing and policy system”
“That seems like what you're looking for.”
“The first things I install on Windows 11 are OpenShell and ExplorerPatcher”
“Something like openshell is the answer here”
“Still playing around with it, but so far I've been liking the setup.”
“Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably”
“it's probably my preferred of all the sandboxes I've tried out”
“we definitely see folks using it for production use cases”
“we like it because it is backed by NVIDIA and fits natively within our k8s env”
“Isn't Nvidia's openshell exactly what you're looking for?”
“OpenShell looks like a good alternative, but it still has "Do not use in production" plastered all over the website”
“It brings some extra sandboxing features compared to just a docker container.”
“If you use OpenClaw, OpenShell is nice.”
“you just need a Start Menu replacement like OpenShell to get a sane Start Menu appearance”
“This is solved by OneCLI and OpenShell via MITM proxies which seems more elegant to me.”
“Guardrails is where I've gotten the most value of openshell being a neat package”
“Switch to Open-Shell's start menu and don't look back.”
“looking very promising for nvidia”
“It still works if you use ClassicShell / OpenShell”
“It's a neat piece of architecture - the OpenShell piece that does the security sandboxing.”
“The LLM will easily leak these credentials out.”
“A lot of good ideas like network sandbox that does TLS decryption and use of policy engine to set the rules.”
“switch back to the classic GUIs (like with OpenShell) so you don't have to deal with the laggy new UIs”
“these are the things I've collected and used in the past”
“Windows is borderline unusable to me without Open Shell”
“They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu.”
“things still work correctly and instantly with OpenShell”
“since the new start menu did not convince me”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.