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Limitations

agentOS is a Linux environment with a POSIX-compliant virtual kernel. It handles most agent workloads (coding, scripting, file I/O, networking) with near-zero overhead.

When a workload needs a full Linux OS, agents can escalate to a full sandbox on demand without changing code. The sandbox mounting extension mounts the sandbox as a filesystem and lets you execute commands on it, like mounting a hard drive on your own machine. Files written in the VM are available in the sandbox and vice versa.

See agentOS vs Sandbox for a detailed comparison.

agentOS uses its own software registry of popular tools cross-compiled for the runtime. You cannot download and install arbitrary binaries (for example via curl or apt), and standard Linux package managers (apt, yum) are not available since agentOS runs a streamlined Linux environment rather than a full distribution. Native binaries that are not yet available in the registry (such as Go, Rust, or C++ toolchains) require a full sandbox.

See Software for how to install and configure available packages.

agentOS provides a POSIX-compliant virtual Linux kernel with full filesystem operations, networking, and process management. It implements a focused subset of the kernel surface, so a few Linux-specific features are not available:

  • Kernel modules and eBPF
  • Container runtimes (e.g. Docker)
  • File watching (inotify, fs.watch)

The VM has no access to GPUs, USB devices, or other hardware.