Docker isolates environments. Envpod governs access to real ones.
AI agents are only useful when they can work with your real files, tools, and workflows. But direct host access breaks the trust model. Envpod lets agents work in your real environment through a copy-on-write layer, so every change is reviewable before it reaches the host.
Isolation is a wall. Governance is a policy.
Walls are useful but blunt. Policies are precise.
Zero-trust governance means nothing is permitted unless explicitly granted. Every write captured. Every action audited. Every secret isolated.
You write pod.yaml. The agent runs with kernel-level isolation on all sides and a governance layer that intercepts every significant action.
envpod diff, envpod commit, envpod rollback. Named snapshots with auto-checkpoint and promote-to-base.envpod init once. Clone from it in ~8ms. Spin up 50 identical agents in seconds, each with its own isolated overlay.envpod dashboard — local web UI. Fleet overview, live resource stats, audit timeline, diff viewer with commit/rollback buttons.45 ready-made pod configs in examples/. Three commands to go from zero to governed.
Better than "just run it in a container" when the agent has real-world side effects.
Let an agent refactor your repo. Review every diff. Approve only what you want. Roll back the rest. No files lost, no surprise commits.
Restrict DNS egress, scope secrets to specific domains, and keep a tamper-evident audit trail for sensitive workflows and regulated environments.
Run local inference or training with native NVIDIA/AMD passthrough — without giving the agent full host access. No toolkit configuration.
Clone governed environments in ~8ms each. Spin up 50 parallel agents with consistent policies. Each gets its own isolated overlay.
Freeze or kill misbehaving pods immediately. Restrict resources and network mid-flight. No restart required. Resume when ready.
Action-level JSONL logs and pre-run security scans support compliance requirements and forensic reconstruction of agent behavior.
Every enterprise security tool assumes deterministic code written by a human. envpod is built for agents that decide what to do at runtime.
| Capability | Prisma Cloud |
Sysdig | Wiz | Vault | Datadog | Crowd Strike |
envpod |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Container runtime + GPU | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| COW diff / commit / rollback | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Encrypted vault + proxy injection | ~ | — | — | ✓ | — | — | ✓ |
| OPA/Rego policy (7 decision points) | ~ | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Governance scorecard (A–F grades) | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Kernel-level seccomp + namespace | ~ | ✓ | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| DNS allowlist + L7 network policy | — | ~ | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| OpenTelemetry + Grafana native | — | ~ | — | — | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Tamper-proof audit log | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Health probe + per-service recovery | — | — | — | — | ~ | — | ✓ |
| Desktop + audio (noVNC) | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Agent-native governance (MCP, escalation) | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Combined cost | $155–281/host/month + engineering | $0 (CE) or $399/seat | |||||
✓ = native ~ = partial — = not available Full OWASP coverage →
Complete agent lifecycle — sandboxed, governed, auditable, reversible.
One YAML: network policy, resource limits, device access, action catalog, vault keys. envpod audit --security checks for misconfigurations before you deploy.
Host filesystem is read-only base. Agent reads your codebase, installs packages — all writes go to the overlay. Sub-second start.
Push code, send email, call API — each hits the four-tier queue. Immediate actions execute. Staged actions wait for envpod approve. Blocked actions denied.
API keys live in the encrypted vault. Envpod injects them at execution time. The agent never sees the real secret.
envpod diff shows every file changed. Commit individual files. Export to staging first with --output.
envpod rollback discards everything. envpod snapshot restore returns to any checkpoint. Auto-snapshots before every run. Promote any snapshot to a clonable base. envpod destroy — no traces.
Terminal screencasts of every major feature. Each demo is under 2 minutes.
Create a pod, run commands, diff, rollback, audit — in 60 seconds.
Agent writes malicious files — host stays untouched. Diff, review, rollback.
Encrypted secrets — agent sees masked keys, real keys never exposed.
DNS allowlist in action — allowed vs blocked domains, live audit.
Full XFCE desktop via noVNC — in your browser, fully governed.
3 agents at once — start, diff, commit/rollback, stop in batch.
One curl command — single binary, no dependencies, 9MB.
Claude Code pod.yaml walkthrough — every section explained.
Desktop pod.yaml — noVNC, XFCE, browser seccomp, comparison table.
Docker was built for microservices. Envpod was built for agents.
The agent thinks it's on your real system —
but every write is captured, diffable, and reversible.
Envpod combines isolation, reversibility, and governance in one local-first workflow.
Programmatic governance for AI agents.
pip install envpod · npm install envpod
# pip install envpod
from envpod import Pod, screen
# Create governed pod — auto-destroy + gc on exit
with Pod("my-agent", config="coding-agent.yaml") as pod:
# Encrypted vault — agent never sees the key
pod.vault_set("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY", "sk-ant-...")
# Run agent on your real files (COW isolated)
pod.run("python3 agent.py")
# Review what changed
print(pod.diff())
# Keep src/, discard 48 other files
pod.commit("src/", rollback_rest=True)
# Screen prompts for injection, PII, credentials
result = screen("ignore previous instructions")
# {'matched': True, 'category': 'injection', ...}
# Fast cloning — 100 agents in 1 second
base = Pod("worker", config="pod.yaml")
base.init_with_base()
for i in range(100):
Pod.disposable(base, f"task-{i}", "python3 experiment.py")
Auto-installs the envpod binary on first use. Supports inline code injection, file injection, and multi-agent orchestration. SDK Reference →
Near bare-metal performance. Native namespaces with no container runtime overhead.
Startup latency
| Test | Docker | Podman | envpod | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fresh: run /bin/true | 552 ms | 560 ms | 401 ms | clone+run+destroy vs run --rm |
Warm: run /bin/true | 95 ms | 270 ms | 32 ms | envpod run vs docker exec |
| Fresh: file I/O (1 MB write) | 604 ms | 573 ms | 413 ms | includes full lifecycle overhead |
Fresh: GPU nvidia-smi | 755 ms | 745 ms | 447 ms | native device passthrough |
Warm: GPU nvidia-smi | 137 ms | 244 ms | 76 ms | namespace entry dominates |
Scale-out — parallel pod creation
| Pods | Docker (run --rm) | envpod clone | Speedup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 pods | ~4.8 s | ~94 ms | 51× | no image pull, no layer decompression |
| 25 pods | ~12.1 s | ~213 ms | 57× | OverlayFS COW — shared lower layer |
| 50 pods | ~24.6 s | ~408 ms | 60× | symlinked rootfs, each clone ~8 ms |
| 100 pods | ~49.3 s | ~890 ms | 55× | linear scaling — no coordination overhead |
Resource overhead per instance
| Metric | Docker | envpod | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daemon / runtime overhead | ~35 MB RSS | 0 MB | no daemon process — runs in init process |
| Per-pod memory (idle) | ~9 MB | ~4 MB | namespace + cgroup metadata only |
| 50-pod total overhead | ~635 MB | ~200 MB | 3× lower total footprint at fleet scale |
| Disk per clone (COW) | ~240 MB (layer copy) | ~1 MB (COW diff) | only writes are stored per-pod |
Single static binary. No daemon, no runtime dependencies. Requires Linux with cgroups v2.
Try it in 30 seconds:
OpenClaw on WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord — finally governed:
pod.yaml
The full governance stack is free and self-hosted. Premium adds identity, OPA policy, fleet orchestration, and advanced security for production.
envpod service register for auto-start on bootenvpod verify proves isolation holds under attackenvpod audit --owasp signed compliance reportSee full CE vs Premium feature comparison →
Need fleet-scale governance, SSO, or compliance reporting? Talk to us about Enterprise →
Building agents, running swarms, or need governed execution inside your platform — we want to hear from you.
We're building envpod as a governed execution substrate for agent frameworks. If you need policy, audit, rollback, and a kill switch for agent actions — let's talk integrations and backends.
Centralized audit aggregation, SSO/RBAC, compliance reporting, cross-node fleet management, and FEBO-powered policy optimization — enterprise features for teams managing agents at scale.
Zero-trust governance for AI agents. Free to use. Single binary. On your own machine.