Bx
macOS native sandbox for AI and coding tools
Details
- External ID
- 47674056
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- Bx
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- April 7, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 8
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.4813624678663239
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
Description
Wrapper around Apple's macOS sandbox-exec tool, which usually sandboxes native apps. It is "allow-first" i.e. it will not overprotect everything, just crucial information and therefore allows most tools to run without issues. Limiting is done using a .gitignore like file schema. Further TOML config options available.I built it because Docker sandboxing requires config and planning. Build in sandboxing of AI tools instead is limited to the very tools themselves, instead I wanted to have a simple cage around Claude running inside VSCode. Also needed to protect files inside a folder like .env.local or keys.Install via: brew install holtwick/tap/bxRun like: bx claude .
Enrichment
- Theme
- Claude integrations and coding agents
- Vertical
- —
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- AI feature
- Project type
- Commercial product
- Normalized one-liner
- macos sandbox for ai and coding tools
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Partial While wrapping the macOS sandbox-exec CLI is straightforward, designing robust, secure sandbox profiles (.sb / Scheme files) that prevent filesystem escapes without breaking developer workflows requires deep OS-level knowledge.
What it would actually take: The project requires generating dynamic Apple Seatbelt / Scheme-based sandbox profiles and interfacing with macOS Security frameworks (`sandbox_init` / `sandbox-exec`). The hard part is preventing bypasses (such as symlink attacks, IPC escapes, or unmapped temp directories) while gracefully permitting developer tooling (compilers, package managers, network sockets). Requires deep macOS systems programming and reverse-engineered Seatbelt internals expertise.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 146 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #78 of 147 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 141 days after the earliest competitor.
- A usable macOS sandbox for Claude Code · ph · 2026-09-30 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.56
- Lima-devbox · hn · 2026-01-22 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- Fence · hn · 2026-01-20 · 78 upvotes · similarity 0.48
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- AgentBox · hn · 2026-04-23 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Sanbox, batteries included sandboxes for AI agents · hn · 2026-07-12 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Fermata · ph · 2026-09-30 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Era · hn · 2025-11-27 · 62 upvotes · similarity 0.45
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.