{"slug": "openshell", "name": "OpenShell", "category": "security", "category_name": "Security and passwords", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 0, "score": 4.86, "rising": 2.67, "first": "2025-12-31", "latest": "2026-10-24", "why": "For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/open-shell/open-shell-menu", "official_url": "https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["OpenShell", "Open-Shell", "Open Shell"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803495456, "item_id": 50218466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218466", "by": "Suppafly", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Was hoping it was this: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu", "excerpt": "Was hoping it was this: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu not some bs from nvidia.", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows start menu", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 798841824, "item_id": 49927614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927614", "by": "rsalus", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "perhaps an integration with https://github.com/NVIDIA/openshell in the form of an extension?", "excerpt": "super interesting. I have so many half-considered questions... like sandboxing (it seems like it is BYO). would love to have some kind of policy engine.. perhaps an integration with https://github.com/NVIDIA/openshell in the form of an extension? also, I see most of the durability promise comes from persisting JSON documents locally and minimizing the amount of context/data kept in-memory, even during SQLite mode. wh", "context": "", "use_case": "sandbox policy engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pi Durable"}, {"id": 795378257, "item_id": 49711141, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49711141", "by": "Daneel_", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "excerpt": "I switched to Everything for search a while ago and haven\u2019t looked back. For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows Start menu replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27"}, {"id": 743171521, "item_id": 46448220, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46448220", "by": "leptons", "date": "2025-12-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu.", "excerpt": "The only thing keeps Windows 11 usable for me are these two mods.. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/open-shell/open-shell-menu/ They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu. It's like I never left Windows 10. And I've switched to Linux Mint for all my systems except my laptop, which still has some hardware limitations under Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "restore old start menu", "switched_from": "", "story": "2025 was a disaster for Windows 11"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "razuba", "context": "building a team policy layer above it", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201495", "date": "2026-10-22"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["windows start menu replacement", "windows start menu", "sandboxing", "sandboxing autonomous ai agents", "agent sandboxing", "sandbox policy engine"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50198675", "title": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49925969", "title": "Pi Durable", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49713261", "title": "What we have learned at OpenShell applying formal methods to control AI agents", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701004", "title": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46445491", "title": "2025 was a disaster for Windows 11", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 1, "neutral": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803495456, "item_id": 50218466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218466", "by": "Suppafly", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Was hoping it was this: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu", "excerpt": "Was hoping it was this: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu not some bs from nvidia.", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows start menu", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 803243632, "item_id": 50202727, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50202727", "by": "westurner", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Can MXC JSON be used for configuration of OS-portable sandboxing policies with OpenShell, too?", "excerpt": "Can MXC JSON be used for configuration of OS-portable sandboxing policies with OpenShell, too? \"feat(ai-sandbox): accept MXC policy JSON for protected execution \u00b7 westurner/sandbox@7538c33\" https://github.com/westurner/sandbox/commit/7538c3386af8cb6216caaaea457981b69704ad0c \"bwrap: Add the option to skip the procfs mount \u00b7 Pull Request #1508 \u00b7 microsoft/mxc\" https://github.com/microsoft/mxc/pull/1508 \"Manage Sandboxe", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxing", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 803223920, "item_id": 50201495, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201495", "by": "razuba", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We've been using OpenShell for a while", "excerpt": "We've been using OpenShell for a while - now enabling ourselves and other teams do this in a batteries-included kinda way. I've been working on a layer above it that also manages team policies, safe git usage (in case you don't want your agent to always have the same access as your user account), and SCA/SAST built in. Curious to see how others are dealing with these issues. The agent traces I've seen are wild and go", "context": "building a team policy layer above it", "use_case": "sandboxing autonomous AI agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 803198577, "item_id": 50199911, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50199911", "by": "smashed", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Looking at the complexity of OpenShell and the simplicity of just building on top of docker", "excerpt": "Well, I guess its time to shamelessly plug my agent sandbox, egzo.ai [1] Looking at the complexity of OpenShell and the simplicity of just building on top of docker, in a whitelist only mode.. I don't quite get the use-case of OpenShell. May be for large orgs where there is so much legacy and difficulty in organizing access to tools, OpenShell can simply re-use whatever you already have access to on your corporate ac", "context": "", "use_case": "agent sandboxing", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 798841824, "item_id": 49927614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927614", "by": "rsalus", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "perhaps an integration with https://github.com/NVIDIA/openshell in the form of an extension?", "excerpt": "super interesting. I have so many half-considered questions... like sandboxing (it seems like it is BYO). would love to have some kind of policy engine.. perhaps an integration with https://github.com/NVIDIA/openshell in the form of an extension? also, I see most of the durability promise comes from persisting JSON documents locally and minimizing the amount of context/data kept in-memory, even during SQLite mode. wh", "context": "", "use_case": "sandbox policy engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pi Durable"}, {"id": 795446752, "item_id": 49715422, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715422", "by": "xnx", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the open-source Windows Start menu replacement: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu", "excerpt": "For a moment I thought agentic AI had really spread to every project, but this is not related to the open-source Windows Start menu replacement: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows Start menu replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "What we have learned at OpenShell applying formal methods to control AI agents"}, {"id": 795378257, "item_id": 49711141, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49711141", "by": "Daneel_", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "excerpt": "I switched to Everything for search a while ago and haven\u2019t looked back. For the start menu I replace it with Open Shell, which seems to find apps much more reliably.", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows Start menu replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27"}, {"id": 743171521, "item_id": 46448220, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46448220", "by": "leptons", "date": "2025-12-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu.", "excerpt": "The only thing keeps Windows 11 usable for me are these two mods.. https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/open-shell/open-shell-menu/ They bring back the context menu and the old task bar, as well as the old start menu. It's like I never left Windows 10. And I've switched to Linux Mint for all my systems except my laptop, which still has some hardware limitations under Linux.", "context": "", "use_case": "restore old start menu", "switched_from": "", "story": "2025 was a disaster for Windows 11"}]}