A composable, containerized development sandbox for working with dangerous things like agentic coding tools and npm packages.

AI coding assistants are powerful, but they run code. So do npm packages, pip installs, and that sketchy shell script you found on Stack Overflow. Running untrusted code on your development machine is a risk—but constantly spinning up VMs or fighting with container configs kills your flow.

Glovebox gives you a sandboxed container environment that actually feels like home. Your shell, your editor, your tools—all running safely inside a container with your project mounted. Think of it as glamping on Jurassic Island: even in mortal danger, you still get your Nespresso.

What makes it different:

• Composable mods - Mix and match shells, editors, languages, and AI tools
• Layered images - Build once, extend per-project
• Persistent containers - Your changes survive between sessions
• Commit workflow - Optionally save ad-hoc changes back to the image

• macOS (Apple Silicon): Apple Containers — preferred, provides hardware-level isolation (brew install --cask container)
• macOS / Linux: Docker — universal fallback
• Go 1.25+ (only if building from source)

Glovebox auto-detects the best available runtime. See Runtime Support below.

brew tap joelhelbling/glovebox
brew install glovebox

This installs the glovebox command and a gb shorthand alias.

For other installation options, see Getting Started.

Create and build your base environment:

glovebox init --base    # Select OS, shell, editor, tools
glovebox build --base   # Build the base image

Run glovebox in any project directory:

cd ~/projects/my-app
glovebox run

You're now inside a sandboxed container with your project mounted at /my-app.

Remove all glovebox containers and images:

glovebox clean --all

For more commands like status, add, remove, and clone, see the Commands Reference.

Glovebox is for you if:

• You run AI coding assistants and want to limit the blast radius
• You evaluate npm packages, pip installs, or random scripts before trusting them
• You want a consistent dev environment across projects without VM overhead
• You're a hacker (in the good, MIT sense) who experiments with potentially hazardous stuff

Glovebox is NOT:

• Infrastructure for production environments
• A security solution for deployed code
• A replacement for proper sandboxing in CI/CD

Glovebox is a personal workbench tool. It doesn't go "in your code" and doesn't run on your production server. It's the toolbox on your workbench where you safely tinker with the unknown.

For secure infrastructure aimed at running AI-generated code in production, check out Daytona.

Glovebox automatically selects the best available container runtime:

On Apple Silicon Macs with Apple Containers installed, glovebox uses it by default. No configuration needed — just glovebox run. If Apple Containers isn't available, glovebox falls back to Docker and lets you know.

You can also choose explicitly:

glovebox --runtime apple run    # Force Apple Containers
glovebox --runtime docker run   # Force Docker

• Getting Started - Installation and first run
• Commands Reference - All available commands
• Architecture - How layered images and container persistence work
• Composable Mods - Available mods and how they work
• Custom Mods - Create your own mods
• Workflows - Common usage patterns
• Configuration - Profiles and environment variables
• Roadmap - Future plans

Contributions are welcome! Here's how to get started:

git clone https://github.com/joelhelbling/glovebox.git
cd glovebox
make build

make build    # Build binary with version from git tags
make test     # Run tests
make lint     # Run fmt and vet
make all      # Run lint, test, and build

./bin/glovebox build --base    # Build base image
./bin/glovebox run             # Test in a project directory
./bin/glovebox clean --all     # Clean up

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run make all to ensure tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

For bug reports and feature requests, open an issue.

MIT