An AI coding agent can read a repository, run shell commands, install packages, and send network requests. That is useful until a tool call reaches the wrong file, leaks a token, or downloads code that behaves differently than expected.

Two projects now aim to put a boundary around that work: NVIDIA OpenShell and Docker Sandboxes. They solve related problems, but they are not interchangeable products. OpenShell is a policy-driven runtime and control plane for governing agent access across sandboxes. Docker Sandboxes is a developer-facing way to run coding agents in isolated local or cloud environments.

The right comparison is not "which sandbox is more secure?" Both vendors describe substantial isolation controls, and documentation alone cannot prove that one is safer in every configuration.…