isolate

A Go CLI and library that runs commands in a sandboxed environment using bubblewrap, and resource limits using cgroups.

I wanted to have docker-like isolation when running some binaries that I don't trust, or when I wanted to make sure that they don't have network access, bwrap directly seemed too low-level, and also I couldn't set resource limits on the app, this package use bwrap for sandboxing, and cgroups(via systemd-run) for resource limits.

Install

Download binary

curl -Lo isolate.tar.gz https://github.com/Shadi/isolate/releases/download/v1.1.0/isolate-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xzf isolate.tar.gz

# either use directly
./isolate --help

# or install system-wide
sudo mv isolate /usr/local/bin/

From source

go install github.com/shadi/isolate/cmd/isolate@latest

Requirements

bwrap and systemd-run must be available on the host.

Quick Start

go install github.com/shadi/isolate/cmd/isolate@latest
isolate -v "$HOME/.local:$HOME/.local:ro" -v "$HOME/.claude:$HOME/.claude" -v "$HOME/.claude.json:$HOME/.claude.json" claude

add an alias to .bashrc:

alias iclaude='isolate -v "$HOME/.local:$HOME/.local:ro" -v "$HOME/.claude:$HOME/.claude" -v "$HOME/.claude.json:$HOME/.claude.json" claude'

Usage

isolate [flags] command [args...]

Flags

Flag	Description
--max-memory	Memory limit using k8s format (256Mi, 1Gi, 512M) — enforced via cgroups
--max-cpu	CPU limit in cores or millicores (1, 0.5, 500m) — enforced via cgroups
-v, --volume	Bind mount as target:source[:ro] (repeatable)
--mount-cwd	Auto-mount current directory into sandbox (default: true, disable with --mount-cwd=false)
--no-network	Disable network access
--full-etc	Mount all of /etc (default only mounts safe paths like resolv.conf, ssl/, hosts)
--bare	Skip all default mounts — you control everything via --volume
--workdir	Working directory inside the sandbox

Examples

Run a command in the current directory (auto-mounted by default):

isolate /usr/bin/python3 train.py

Run with memory and CPU limits:

isolate --max-memory 256Mi --max-cpu 2 /usr/bin/python3 train.py

Mount an additional directory and restrict network:

isolate --no-network -v /data:/mnt/datasets /bin/ls

Full /etc access (exposes secrets — use only when needed):

isolate --full-etc /usr/bin/curl https://example.com

Bare mode with manual mounts:

isolate --bare -v /usr:/usr:ro -v /app:/home/user/code /usr/bin/myapp

Default mounts

Unless --bare is set, the sandbox includes:

• Current working directory (read-write, same path inside sandbox)
• /usr (read-only), /lib, /bin, /sbin (symlinks into /usr)
• /proc, /dev, /tmp
• Safe /etc subset: resolv.conf, ssl/, ca-certificates/, ld.so.*, nsswitch.conf, localtime, hosts
• systemd-resolved socket (for DNS)

Library usage

import "github.com/shadi/isolate/sandbox"

s, _ := sandbox.New(&sandbox.Config{
    Command:   "/usr/bin/python3",
    Args:      []string{"train.py"},
    MaxMemory: "256Mi",
    MaxCPU:    "500m",
    NoNetwork: true,
    Volumes:   []sandbox.Volume{{Source: "/home/user/ml", Target: "/workspace"}},
})
s.Run(context.Background())

How it works

Resource	Mechanism
Filesystem isolation	bubblewrap namespaces
Memory limit	systemd-run -p MemoryMax=... (cgroups v2)
CPU limit	systemd-run -p CPUQuota=... (cgroups v2)
Network isolation	bwrap --unshare-net