The outcome

Create a repeatable local environment that limits the impact of mistakes or hostile repository content.

OpenHands is a open-source AI software development agent with cloud, terminal, IDE, and local interfaces. Delegating bounded repository tasks to an agent that can inspect code, edit files, run commands, and test changes inside a controlled execution environment. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.

Before you begin

Set the boundary before the tool starts.

Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.

Troiana principle

AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.

Step by step

A workflow you can repeat.

  1. 01

    Choose the current Docker-based setup, inventory host risks, and define which project files, services, and model provider the agent truly needs.

  2. 02

    Use a dedicated repository checkout and minimal read-write mount, keeping unrelated directories, sockets, credential stores, and production data outside the sandbox.

  3. 03

    Provide short-lived least-privilege credentials through approved configuration and restrict outbound access or tools where your environment permits.

  4. 04

    Enable action confirmations and security analysis, then test harmless, destructive, unknown-risk, network, and secret-access scenarios before real work.

  5. 05

    Document setup, image and dependency versions, logs, cleanup, credential rotation, and an incident procedure; review the boundary after every upgrade.

Working standard

What good use looks like.

  • Prefer Docker isolation to direct host execution.
  • Use short-lived least-privilege credentials.
  • Test rejection and cleanup paths.

OpenHands can execute commands, access the network, use supplied credentials, and modify or delete mounted files. Prefer an isolated sandbox, mount only the intended workspace, keep secrets out of prompts and repositories, enable confirmations for risky actions, constrain network and tool access, review every diff and test result, and never let an agent merge or deploy without the authorization your workflow requires.

Official references

Check the current product documentation.

Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.