How Nyia compares¶
Nyia Keeper is a workflow + data-control layer for running AI coding assistants — not a new isolation technology. The honest one-liner: if you need a hardware escape boundary, use a microVM (Docker Sandboxes) — possibly underneath Nyia. What Nyia adds is keeping the agent off your secrets, a git-safe reviewable workflow, and one setup across several assistants.
| Nyia Keeper | Docker Sandboxes | Dev Containers | Raw CLI (agent on host) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation boundary | Container (shares host kernel) | microVM (hardware) | Container | None — full host access |
| Hides your secrets from the agent | Yes — auto-excluded + you curate | No — mounts the project wholesale | No | No |
| Git-safe by default (protected branches) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Network egress control | Opt-in allowlist (Linux) | Yes (its own) | No | No |
| Reviewed workflow (plan → review → checkpoint) | Yes, shipped | No | No | No |
| Multi-assistant (Claude/Gemini/Codex/OpenCode/Vibe) | Yes (5) | Runs agents, not an orchestration layer | No | One at a time |
| Runs | On your machine | On your machine | On your machine / IDE | On your machine |
| Setup cost | Low (Docker) | Higher (microVM) | Medium | None |
When to use which¶
- Raw CLI — you trust the tool with your whole machine and just want speed. Nyia exists because that made the author uncomfortable.
- Dev Containers — you want a reproducible toolchain for humans; hiding secrets from an agent and git guardrails aren't the goal.
- Docker Sandboxes — you need a true escape boundary (untrusted code, hostile input). It mounts your project wholesale, so it does not hide your secrets from the agent — pair it under Nyia if you want both.
- Nyia Keeper — you want the agent to work on your project without seeing your secrets, on a git-safe branch, with a reviewable workflow, across several assistants — on your own machine, with ordinary Docker.
Nyia cedes VM-grade escape isolation on purpose (a container shares the host kernel — see the Security model). It competes on data control and workflow, not on the isolation boundary.