README

[!IMPORTANT]
 New in OpenShell 0.1.x: a stable release cadence, new isolation primitives, an expanded extension surface, and new APIs. Read the 0.1.0 upgrade guide.

OpenShell is the safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents. Agents are most useful when they can read files, install packages, call APIs, and use credentials. OpenShell gives them that capability without giving them unrestricted access to your data, secrets, or network. You declare what each agent can touch in a policy, and OpenShell enforces it.

 How It Works

OpenShell governs what agents can do in two ways: it instruments the kernel to enforce policy on every file access, system call, and network connection at runtime, and it uses formal verification to check what a policy change would allow before it is applied.

- Kernel-level enforcement. Each agent runs in an isolated sandbox. Kernel controls confine which files it can access and which system calls it can make, and every network connection passes through a policy check before it leaves the sandbox. Agents never see real credentials; OpenShell adds them only to requests bound for approved endpoints.
- Formally verified policy changes. Before a policy change is approved, OpenShell uses formal verification to flag risky new access it would grant, such as reaching a new host with credentials or calling a new API method, so those changes wait for human review.

See Architecture for how the gateway, supervisor, and sandbox fit together.

 Quickstart

You need Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, or Windows with WSL 2 (experimental), plus Docker, Podman, or host virtualization. See the Support Matrix for details.

shell
curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/main/install.sh | sh
openshell sandbox create --name demo


The installer sets up the CLI and a local gateway. The default sandbox image is minimal Ubuntu with no agent installed. To run a real agent, follow Run Your First Agent: it runs OpenCode against a free OpenRouter model and shows how to approve new access as the agent needs it.

For native Windows support through Microsoft MXC, see the Windows build and runtime guide for setup and current limitations.

 Explore Further

- Sandboxes: images, runtimes, GPUs, and lifecycle.
- Policies: filesystem, network, and process rules, with the advisor and prover for reviewing changes.
- Providers: credentials that work only at approved endpoints, including inference.
- Gateways: the control plane for sandboxes, policy, and access.
- Kubernetes: deploy the gateway with Helm. Your CNI must enforce NetworkPolicy.
- Extensibility: middleware, interceptors, and compute drivers.
- Tutorials: step-by-step policy and agent walkthroughs.
- Prerelease and development builds: try an upcoming release or the latest commit on main.

 Agent Skills

Install the public OpenShell skills for your coding agent:

shell
npx skills add NVIDIA/OpenShell


The skills teach your agent to drive the OpenShell CLI, write sandbox p