/bin/sh -c inside a kernel-enforced filesystem jail — sandbox-exec (Seatbelt) on macOS, bwrap (bubblewrap) on Linux — and refuses to run unless it has measured that the jail actually blocks writes.
Quick Start
1
Run the coding agent sandboxed
PRAISON_SHELL=sandboxed drives the OS sandbox — a real shell inside Seatbelt or bwrap.2
Watch an escape get denied by the kernel
A write outside the workspace hits a real OS denial, not a soft warning.
Two Backends
Each platform uses its native primitive; everywhere else, no wrapper is built.
The writable set always includes the workspace and the temp dir;
network=False denies network by default.
Refuse, Never Degrade
A sandbox that is assumed but not enforcing is worse than none — callers relax on a belief that isn’t true.PRAISON_SHELL=sandboxed refuses to run when the OS primitive is missing or not enforcing, rather than silently falling back to an uncontained shell. To accept an uncontained shell deliberately, use PRAISON_SHELL=unsafe.
Probe Before Claiming
probe_enforcement() measures the jail instead of trusting it.
The probe runs a child under the wrapper that writes an in-jail canary and attempts a write outside the writable set:
- If the escape write succeeds, the backend is reported unavailable.
- The canary guards against a false positive — if the wrapper couldn’t start the child at all, the missing escape file proves nothing, so the canary must exist for the result to count.
(enforcing: bool, backend: str, detail: str) and cached per process. Flipping to a permissive Seatbelt profile flips the probe from (True, 'seatbelt', 'blocked …') to (False, 'seatbelt', 'did not block a write outside the writable set').
Not SandboxConfig.native()
Best Practices
Trust the refusal
Trust the refusal
If
sandboxed mode refuses because containment can’t be proven, install the primitive (bwrap on Linux) rather than switching to unsafe.Scope the writable set
Scope the writable set
The workspace and temp dir are writable by default. Keep other paths out so an escape attempt is a real out-of-jail write the kernel can deny.
Leave network off unless needed
Leave network off unless needed
network=False unshares the network on Linux and denies it in the Seatbelt profile. Enable it only when a build step genuinely needs it.Pair with approval
Pair with approval
The sandbox runs behind the
critical-risk execute_command approval — containment and human sign-off reinforce each other.Related
Shell Modes
The
PRAISON_SHELL modes that drive this sandbox.Sandbox Guarantees
What each sandbox surface actually isolates.
Sandbox Backends
Docker, E2B, sandlock and other SDK backends.
Tool Approval
The critical-risk wrap on the real-shell path.

