The image ships pi with no provider and no preferences, so a sandboxed run
meant configuring the model twice. ai-sandbox now reads the host
~/.pi/agent/{models,settings}.json and rewrites them instead of copying them:
every provider apiKey becomes "$AI_API_TOKEN" (pi resolves an env reference
itself, so no value is written to disk), '!command' header values are dropped
rather than executed, settings that point into $HOME are dropped because that
path is not mounted, and auth.json / models-store.json / sessions / extensions
are never read.
The rewritten pair is seeded into /home/sandbox/.pi/agent at container start,
owned by uid 1000 and mode 600, and is treated as managed: a host change is
re-seeded, an edit made inside the sandbox is kept and reported, a deletion
takes the host version again.
The token follows the existing environment rules -- one variable, passed by
name through the 0600 env file, announced when auto-passed. A bridged run
whose token variable is unset or empty is refused instead of starting a pi
that cannot reach its model, and the bridge never widens the allowlist: it
warns with the exact --allow to add.
Docs and examples now use a self-hosted gateway (https://aipi.reeseapps.com)
instead of vendor API endpoints, since that is the only thing this tool is
used against. 391 assertions pass (make lint, ./tests/run.sh --e2e).
LLM-Generated: true
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AGENTS.md
Working notes for anyone (human or agent) changing this repository.
What this project is
One bash script, bin/ai-sandbox, that runs another program — usually an LLM
coding harness — inside a rootless podman container with a strict, explicit policy:
only the current directory mounted, no inherited environment, no root or
capabilities inside the container, resource caps, and egress limited to an
allowlist that the sandboxed process cannot lift.
Non-negotiables
- Single script. The Containerfile, the container entrypoint, the squid
config, the nftables rules and the bridged pi config are all generated from
bin/ai-sandbox(containerfile(),entrypoint_script(),write_squid_conf(),gen_rules()inside the entrypoint,pi_config_bridge()). Keep it that way; do not split policy into files that can drift from the script. - Fail closed. Any path where the sandbox cannot guarantee its policy must
refuse to start rather than degrade: no allowlist in
allowmode, missing policy file in the entrypoint (exit 78), ruleset that cannot be installed (exit 77),--env NAMEwhere NAME is unset, a bridged pi config whose credential variable is unset or empty. Escape hatches exist but must be explicitly named (--allow-unenforced,--insecure-keep-root,--net full,--no-pi-config). - Never leak a secret. Values go through a
0600env file, never argv. Nothing that prints (--dry-run,--print-policy, the session log, error messages) may echo a value. If you add output, add a test that a canary value does not appear in it. The pi bridge is the case that tests this hardest: it reads a file that may hold a live key, so it rewritesapiKeyto"$VAR", drops!commandvalues instead of running them, never touchesauth.json, andtests/unit/08_pi_config.shasserts a canary secret from the host agent directory appears nowhere in ai-sandbox state. - No hardcoded machine paths, usernames or ports. Everything is overridable
via
AISB_*or a config file; defaults must work for any user on any host. - Measure, don't assume, about podman. Rootless networking varies by version
and distro. Run
tests/spike_network.shon a new host and updatedocs/networking.mdwhen reality disagrees with the design. - Nothing about a build may be silently mutable. The base enters the
Containerfile as a digest, and that digest is part of
image_hash(); Node is version-pinned and checksum-verified;piis version-pinned. A refresh is an explicit, dated event (update); a build with no digest is announced asUNPINNEDand labelled that way; preview modes must never reach the network. If you add a dependency, decide which of those three it is and cover it intests/unit/07_base.shortests/e2e/10_image.sh.
Layout
bin/ai-sandbox the application
install.sh symlink + optional alias
config/*.example documented examples (never loaded directly)
docs/networking.md the measurements behind the enforcement model
docs/threat-model.md what is and is not protected -- keep it honest
docs/recipes.md per-harness and per-language setups
tests/run.sh runner: unit (no containers) | --e2e (real containers)
tests/spike_network.sh re-measure the host
Commands
make test # unit tests -- fast, no containers, no network
make e2e # plus real container/egress tests (needs network + the image)
make lint # shellcheck in a container
make style # bash -n on every shell file
make check # lint + unit
./bin/ai-sandbox --dry-run --allow example.com --print-policy # introspection
Before finishing a change: make check green, and if you touched enforcement,
networking or the image, make e2e green too.
Conventions
- bash ≥ 4.4,
set -Eeuo pipefailin the main script;set -uo pipefailin the test runner (assertions report, they do not abort). - Option flow is always: defaults → config files →
AISB_*env → CLI flags. The built-in defaults live inresolve_opts(); the top of the script only sets variables that have no config-file counterpart. Breaking this is the single easiest way to introduce a precedence bug. POL[...]holds resolved policy,P_*arrays resolved lists,OPT_*raw flags,CFG_*config-file values. Do not read raw env vars deep in the code. A helper called asX="$(helper)"runs in a subshell: it can return text, but anyPOL[..]it assigns is discarded — return a value and assign it in the caller (seebase_pin_digest()+base_ref_of()).- Preview paths (
--dry-run,--print-policy,--print-entrypoint,--print-containerfile) must not build images, start containers, write state or reach the network. That is why digest resolution has acache_onlymode, and whyinspect(asks the machine now) is a separate surface from--print-*(which stays deterministic and scriptable). - Tests use
t_name+assert_*fromtests/lib.sh; each file gets its ownAISB_STATE_DIR/AISB_CACHE_DIR/AISB_CONFIG_DIR. Never let a test touch the real~/.config,~/.local/stateor~/.cache, and never overrideHOME(podman storage lives there).
Areas that deserve the most care
entrypoint_script()— the enforcement half. It is rendered into the image and runs as root there. A bug here is a security bug.tests/unit/06_entrypoint.shchecks the generated rule shape;tests/e2e/11_net.shchecks it in a container.split_target()/classify_allows()— the mapping from what the user typed to what the firewall and the proxy enforce.build_argv()— every isolation flag lives here.