Modal
containercloud-platformA serverless compute platform that isolates workloads with gVisor, stronger than runc, weaker than a hardware VM.
Modal is a proprietary serverless compute platform that isolates workloads with gVisor, Google's userspace kernel. That is stronger than a plain runc container because it interposes a userspace kernel and shrinks host-kernel attack surface, but it is still a shared-kernel boundary, not a hardware VM. is open by default with an allowlist API. It is one of the platforms agent frameworks rent isolation from.
Strengths
- gVisor isolation, reduced host-kernel attack surface, runs without nested virt
- Serverless ergonomics for running code at scale
- Egress allowlist API available
Limitations
- Shared kernel, gVisor is a hardened container, not a hardware boundary
- Proprietary; not self-hostable
- Egress open by default
Files & editor
edit-insideProgrammatic sandboxes driven from your code, not an interactive editor target.
How you get your project into the environment and edit it. Shared-kernel routes bind-mount host files for your desktop editor; own-kernel routes keep files in the guest, so a desktop editor attaches over remote, or you edit inside. Mounts and remote editing.
Secrets
secrets: managedModal Secrets inject environment variables into the sandbox; code can read them once injected.
The realistic agent threat is exfiltration, not a kernel escape. Keeping credentials out of the code's reach is what defends against a prompt-injected agent stealing your keys. Keeping keys out of the blast radius.