Skip to content

Include backend filesystem requirements before approving sandbox policy #5108

Open

Description

@shiju-nv

User Story

I run OpenShell workloads through backends with different filesystem layouts. I need the policy approved by the gateway to include the paths the selected backend requires, before startup begins.

Problem Statement

Supervisor proxy setup can add Linux paths after the gateway has composed the effective policy. Backends cannot provide their own filesystem baseline through the shared interface or explicitly select an empty baseline to suppress those defaults.

The policy used at startup can therefore differ from the one the gateway approved. Checking the gateway host's filesystem does not solve this: the workload may run on another operating system.

Impact / Why This Matters

A backend can correctly refuse to attach because its runtime policy differs from the approved policy. Configuration and status can also disagree about which effective policy is in use.

Including backend requirements before approval lets OpenShell describe one consistent policy while respecting explicit empty baselines and read-only permissions.

Proposed Design

Let a compute driver advertise trusted workload-namespace prerequisites and compose them into the effective policy before admission and identity calculation. The selected supervisor BackendSetup supplies the same baseline. An explicit empty baseline suppresses legacy defaults; explicit read-only grants stay read-only. Keep the legacy Linux behavior for drivers that do not negotiate the contract.

Example workflow for review: Create a sandbox whose backend declares the paths required inside the workload, such as a macOS backend that needs macOS paths instead of Linux defaults. Configuration and endpoint-status inspection must show the same admitted effective-policy identity, including after Loaded acknowledgement, without widening explicit read-only grants.

Acceptance Criteria

  • Endpoint-status reports use the same effective-policy hash and provider revision as delivered configuration, before and after Loaded acknowledgement.
  • Create and current effective configuration include the advertised prerequisites before admission and hashing.
  • Advertised paths are independent of the gateway host filesystem.
  • Explicit read-only grants and an explicit empty baseline are respected.
  • Policy ownership, provider environment composition and legacy Linux behavior remain consistent.

Alternatives Considered

Hardcoding every platform in the supervisor couples policy to implementation details and still risks late widening. Authored policy workarounds cannot suppress supervisor additions. Providers, middleware and interceptors do not own backend filesystem prerequisites.

Agent Investigation

No response

Checklist

  • I've reviewed existing issues and the published docs
  • This is a design proposal, not a "please build this" request

Activity

  1. added a commit that references this issue on Nov 2, 2026
    955284b
  2. changed the title [-]feat(policy): admit backend filesystem prerequisites before launch[/-] [+]Include backend filesystem requirements before approving sandbox policy[/+] on Nov 3, 2026
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

      Milestone

      No milestone

      Relationships

      None yet

      Development

      No branches or pull requests

      Issue actions