Docker Sandboxes
Docker's microVM-based sandbox for running AI coding agents isolated from the host machine.
HN commenters use it as a ready-made microVM sandbox for coding agents123 that works out of the box, with an outbound firewall and secret injection that replace hand-rolled setups.456 The most common complaints are that it is closed source and needs repeated logins,789 and some users doubt how well its isolation holds up.10
Why people recommend it
Works out of box · 3
Several users call it a daily driver that works well without much setup.
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
“been using this for a while - works great!”
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“Recently I moved to Docker Sandboxes. This removed most of what I was having to hand roll.”
MicroVM isolation · 3
Users value that it isolates workloads with microVMs rather than shared-kernel containers.
“switched to Docker sandboxes since they switched to mircoVMs too”
“Docker sandboxes seem to be a good solution that also employs virtualization.”
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“Docker also has a sandbox (microvm based) product now.”
Network policy · 2
An outbound firewall with an allowlist and request log limits what sandboxed code can reach.
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
Secret injection · 3
Credentials are injected through placeholders instead of being stored in the sandbox.
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
“Recently I moved to Docker Sandboxes. This removed most of what I was having to hand roll.”
Show 1 more
“Docker also has a sandbox (microvm based) product now.”
Git integration · 2
Its git setup makes moving work in and out of the sandbox easy.
“Recently I moved to Docker Sandboxes. This removed most of what I was having to hand roll.”
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
Caveats and dissent
Closed source · 3
Being closed source makes it hard to customize or to verify how well the sandbox isolates.
“I had multiple issues with it, the disk space usage was growing significantly, I need to login multiple times for each sandbox, it's closed source”
“I use it (sbx), but I don't 100% trust that it actually works”
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“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
Repeated logins · 2
Users have to log in separately for each sandbox.
“I had multiple issues with it, the disk space usage was growing significantly, I need to login multiple times for each sandbox, it's closed source”
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
Limited flexibility · 2
Some users built their own tools after finding it hard to adapt to multi-repo or custom workflows.
“I had multiple issues with it, the disk space usage was growing significantly, I need to login multiple times for each sandbox, it's closed source”
“I used this for a while then decided to build my own suites”
Disk usage · 1
One user saw its disk space usage grow significantly.
“I had multiple issues with it, the disk space usage was growing significantly, I need to login multiple times for each sandbox, it's closed source”
Token renewal · 1
Renewing short-lived tokens is still left to the user.
“Recently I moved to Docker Sandboxes. This removed most of what I was having to hand roll.”
Threads where it came up
- Docker Sandboxes – Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents 6 mentions
- Software sandboxing: The basics (2025) 1 mention
- Ask HN: How do you gate an autonomous coding agent's shell access? 1 mention
- Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin 1 mention
- Grok Build Is OSS 1 mention
- Let's Discuss Sandbox Isolation 1 mention
Also written as Docker sandboxes. Data: docker-sandboxes.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 11
“Recently I moved to Docker Sandboxes. This removed most of what I was having to hand roll.”
“Docker also has a sandbox (microvm based) product now.”
“Docker sandboxes seem to be a good solution that also employs virtualization.”
“TLDR facts about Docker Sandboxes (based on its install)”
“I had multiple issues with it, the disk space usage was growing significantly, I need to login multiple times for each sandbox, it's closed source”
“I use it (sbx), but I don't 100% trust that it actually works”
“I used this for a while then decided to build my own suites”
“this has been my daily driver for a while now because it works great out of the box”
“been using this for a while - works great!”
“You can run it using Docker Sandboxes”
“switched to Docker sandboxes since they switched to mircoVMs too”