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Comment by mg | Hacker News Reader

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I wonder if we really need agents to have control of a full computer.

Maybe a browser plugin that lets the agent use websites is enough?

What would be a task that an agent cannot do on the web?

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Not sure if this is a joke

But how would claude code work from a browser environment?

Or how would an agent that orchestrates claude code and does some customer service tasks via APIs work in a browser environment?

Would you prefer it do customer service tasks via brittle and slow browser automation instead?

    how would claude code work from a browser environment?

If you want an agent (like OpenClaw) to write software, why have it use another agent (Claude Code) in the first place? Why not let it develop the software directly? As for how that works in a browser - there are countless web based solutions to write and run software in the cloud. GitHub Codespaces is an example.

But OpenClaw is "Claude Code" with bells and whistles so it can be contacted via messaging services and be woken up to do things at specific times.

I personally won't allow full control for a long time.

On the other hand LLMs have been a very good tool to build bespoke tools (scripts, small CLI apps) that I can allow them to use. I prefer the constraints without having to think about sandboxing all of it, I design the tools for my workflow/needs, and make them available for the LLM when needed.

It's been a great middle ground, and actually very simple to do with AI-assisted code.

I don't "vibecode" the tools though, I still like to be in the loop acting more as a designer/reviewer of these tools, and let the LLM be the code writer.

But does the agent have access to a whole computer to write those tools?

Couldn't it write them in a web based dev environment?

No, it doesn't, I only run agents in a dedicated development environment (somewhat sandboxed in the file system) but that's how I've used them since the beginning, I don't want it to be accessing my file system as a whole, I only need it to look at code.

Don't think a web-based dev environment would be enough for my use case, I point agents to look into example code from other projects in that environment to use as as bootstraps for other tools.

Why can't that "dedicated development environment" be a cloud VM with a web interface, a GitHub codespace for example?

You could put the example code on the filesystem of that VM too.

It could be…

Browser plugins have a security problem that's easy to miss: the agent runs inside your existing browser profile. That means it has access to your active sessions, stored credentials, autofill data — everything you're already logged into. A sandboxed machine is actually the safer primitive for untrusted agent tasks, not the more paranoid one. I work on Cyqle (https://cyqle.in), which uses ephemeral sessions with per-session AES keys destroyed on close, because you want agents in a cryptographically isolated context — not loose inside your personal browser where one confused-deputy mistake can reach your bank session.

Every week there is a news article about some script kiddie who shot themselves in the foot after vibe coding their production-ready app, without the help of any senior engineer, because, let's face it, who needs them, right? Only to end up deleting their production database, or leaking their credentials on a html page or worse, exposing their sensitive personal data online.

I'm actually pro-agents and AI in general - but with careful supervision. Giving an unpredictable (semi) intelligent machine the ability to nuke your life seems like the dumbest idea ever and I am ready to die on this hill. Maybe this comment will age badly and maybe letting your agents "rm -rf /" will be the norm in the next decade and maybe I'll just be that old man yelling at clouds.

Run anything multi threaded?

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