docs: edit Boundary documentation to reflect current functionality (#20403)

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Jiachen Jiang
2025-10-22 11:32:15 -05:00
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@@ -4,118 +4,47 @@ Agent Boundaries are process-level firewalls that restrict and audit what autono
![Screenshot of Agent Boundaries blocking a process](../images/guides/ai-agents/boundary.png)Example of Agent Boundaries blocking a process.
The easiest way to use Agent Boundaries is through existing Coder modules, such as the [Claude Code module](https://registry.coder.com/modules/coder/claude-code). It can also be ran directly in the terminal by installing the [CLI](https://github.com/coder/boundary).
> [!NOTE]
> The Coder Boundary CLI is free and open source. Integrations with the core product, such as with modules offering stronger isolation, are available to Coder Premium customers.
## Supported Agents
Boundary supports the securing of any terminal-based agent, including your own custom agents.
Agent Boundaries support the securing of any terminal-based agent, including your own custom agents.
## Features
Boundaries extend Coder's trusted workspaces with a defense-in-depth model that detects and prevents destructive actions without reducing productivity by slowing down workflows or blocking automation. They offer the following features:
- _Policy-driven access controls_: limit what an agent can access (repos, registries, APIs, files, commands)
- _Network policy enforcement_: block domains, subnets, or HTTP verbs to prevent exfiltration
- _Audit-ready_: centralize logs, exportable for compliance, with full visibility into agent actions
Agent Boundaries offer network policy enforcement, which blocks domains and HTTP verbs to prevent exfiltration, and writes logs to the workspace.
## Getting Started with Boundary
For Early Access, users can use Agent Boundaries through its [open source CLI](https://github.com/coder/boundary), which can be run to wrap any process or invoked through rules in a YAML file.
The easiest way to use Agent Boundaries is through existing Coder modules, such as the [Claude Code module](https://registry.coder.com/modules/coder/claude-code). It can also be ran directly in the terminal by installing the [CLI](https://github.com/coder/boundary).
### Wrap the agent process with the Boundary CLI
Below is an example of how to configure Agent Boundaries for usage in your workspace.
Users can also run Boundary directly in your workspace and configure it per template or per script. While free tier users won't get centralized policy management or the deeper, "strong isolation," they can still enforce per workspace network rules and log decisions locally.
```tf
module "claude-code" {
source = "dev.registry.coder.com/coder/claude-code/coder"
enable_boundary = true
boundary_version = "main"
boundary_log_dir = "/tmp/boundary_logs"
boundary_log_level = "WARN"
boundary_additional_allowed_urls = ["GET *google.com"]
boundary_proxy_port = "8087"
version = "3.2.1"
}
```
1. Install the [binary](https://github.com/coder/boundary) into the workspace image or at start-up. You can do so with the following command:
- `boundary_version` defines what version of Boundary is being applied. This is set to `main`, which points to the main branch of `coder/boundary`.
- `boundary_log_dir` is the directory where log files are written to when the workspace spins up.
- `boundary_log_level` defines the verbosity at which requests are logged. Boundary uses the following verbosity levels:
- `WARN`: logs only requests that have been blocked by Boundary
- `INFO`: logs all requests at a high level
- `DEBUG`: logs all requests in detail
- `boundary_additional_allowed_urls`: defines the URLs that the agent can access, in additional to the default URLs required for the agent to work
- `github.com` means only the specific domain is allowed
- `*.github.com` means only the subdomains are allowed - the specific domain is excluded
- `*github.com` means both the specific domain and all subdomains are allowed
- You can also also filter on methods, hostnames, and paths - for example, `GET,HEAD *github.com/coder`.
```hcl
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coder/boundary/main/install.sh | bash
```
You can also run Agent Boundaries directly in your workspace and configure it per template. You can do so by installing the [binary](https://github.com/coder/boundary) into the workspace image or at start-up. You can do so with the following command:
1. Use the included `Makefile` to build your project. Here are a few example commands:
```hcl
make build # Build for current platform
make build-all # Build for all platforms
make test # Run tests
make test-coverage # Run tests with coverage
make clean # Clean build artifacts
make fmt # Format code
make lint # Lint code
```
From here, there are two ways to integrate the open source Boundary CLI into a workspace.
#### Wrap a command inline with flags
1. Wrap the tool you want to guard. Below are some examples of usage:
```hcl
# Allow only requests to github.com
boundary --allow "github.com" -- curl https://github.com
# Allow full access to GitHub issues API, but only GET/HEAD elsewhere on GitHub
boundary \
--allow "github.com/api/issues/*" \
--allow "GET,HEAD github.com" \
-- npm install
# Default deny-all: everything is blocked unless explicitly allowed
boundary -- curl https://example.com
```
Additional information, such as Allow Rules, can be found in the [repository README](https://github.com/coder/boundary).
#### Use a config file (YAML) to set rules
Another option is to define rules in a YAML file, which only needs to be invoked once as opposed to through flags with each command.
1. Create a YAML file to store rules that will be applied to all `boundary` commands run in the Workspace. In this example, we call it `boundary.yaml`.
A config example can be seen below:
```hcl
allow:
- domain: [github.com](http://github.com)
path: /api/issues/*
- domain: [github.com](http://github.com)
methods: [GET, HEAD]
```
1. Run a `boundary` command. For example:
```hcl
boundary run --config ./boundary.yaml -- claude
```
You will notice that the rules are automatically applied without any need for additional customization.
### Unprivileged vs. Privileged Mode
There are two approaches you can take to secure your agentic workflows with Agent Boundary.
#### Unprivileged Mode
In this case, a specific agent process or tool (for example, Claude Code or a CLI agent) runs inside of a constrained sandbox. This is the default mode in which Boundary will operate in and does not require root access.
Agents are prevented from reaching restricted domains or exfiltrating data, without blocking the rest of the dev's environment.
This is the fastest way to add real guardrails, but a determined user could still operate a tool outside of Boundary restrictions because the broader environment allows it. This mode relies on tools respecting certain settings, like HTTP proxies, and can lead to silent failures if a tool bypasses them.
#### Privileged Mode
In this case, boundaries are enforced at the level of the environment that the agent lives in. These are workspace- or session-level controls, including how the developer connects to it.
Currently, this must be turned on with a flag and ran with higher-level permissions such as root access or `CapNetAdmin`.
In addition to process-level egress rules, privileged mode locks down all pathways that could bypass policy, such as restricting or disabling SSH tunnels or parallel unbound IDEs. This delivers deterministic, policy-as-code enforcement and offers the highest assurance for regulated environments, but results in slightly more friction for mixed human-and-agent workflows.
### Opting out of Boundary
If you tried Boundary through a Coder module and decided you don't want to use it, you can turn it off by setting the flag to `boundary_enabled=false`.
```hcl
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coder/boundary/main/install.sh | bash
```
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"title": "Agent Boundaries",
"description": "Understanding Agent Boundaries in Coder Tasks",
"path": "./ai-coder/agent-boundary.md",
"state": ["beta"]
"state": ["early access"]
},
{
"title": "AI Bridge",