Introduction
Sandbox Runtime is a lightweight sandboxing tool published by Anthropic Experimental. It enforces filesystem and network restrictions at the operating system level for arbitrary processes without requiring full containerization. The project emphasizes low runtime overhead and simple integration, making it suitable for finely controlling permissions of untrusted binaries.
Key features
- OS-level filesystem and network access controls.
- Process isolation without containers, reducing deployment complexity and resource usage.
- Fine-grained policy configuration for reuse and auditability across environments.
Use cases
- Isolating third-party build steps in CI/CD to reduce security risks.
- Running plugins, scripts, or untrusted workloads with short-lived isolation.
- Replacing heavy container solutions in constrained edge or development environments.
Technical highlights
- Leverages OS primitives (namespaces/permissions) to provide sandboxing with good performance and compatibility.
- Implemented in TypeScript for easy integration with modern toolchains.
- Released under Apache-2.0 license to facilitate adoption and contribution.