GitHub - airutorg/airut: Airut - Sandboxed Claude Code over email and Slack

Airut

Sandboxed Claude Code over email and Slack. Named "Airut" (Finnish: herald/messenger). Created by Pyry Haulos.

What It Does

Send a message — email or Slack — with instructions, and get results back in the same thread. Starting a new task is as simple as starting a new conversation. Airut handles everything behind the scenes: workspace creation, container isolation, network sandboxing, session persistence, and cleanup.

Self-hosted: your code and conversations never leave your infrastructure.

You → Email/Slack → Airut → Claude Code (container) → PR → Reply → You

This project is developed entirely through its own workflow — from the first working version onward, all development has been done by sending instructions to Airut and reviewing the resulting PRs.

Key features:

• Zero-friction tasking: Send a message to start a task. No workspace setup, no session management, no cleanup. Airut provisions an isolated environment automatically and tears it down when done.
• Defense-in-depth sandboxing: Container isolation, network allowlist via proxy, and credential masking limit blast radius when agents run with full autonomy.
• Conversation persistence: Reply to continue where you left off. Claude Code session context is maintained across messages — iterate, don't re-explain.
• Task-to-PR foundation: Combined with proper repo configuration (CLAUDE.md, CI tooling, branch protection), enables end-to-end autonomous workflows where agents push PRs for human review.
• Email and Slack channels: Authenticate via DMARC (email) or workspace membership (Slack), with sender authorization per repo.
• Web dashboard: Monitor running tasks and view network activity logs.

Why Email and Slack?

Mature Tools You Already Use

Email and Slack are optimized for asynchronous communication — threading, search, notifications, and mobile clients all work out of the box. Agent interactions integrate naturally into the tools your team already lives in.

This also dramatically lowers the barrier to engage with an agent. Send a message from any device, get results when ready. No terminal session to keep open, no custom client to install.

Parallel Agent Management

Running multiple Claude Code agents requires isolation — each needs its own workspace, session state, and credentials. Airut provides this automatically: each conversation is fully isolated, and a configurable thread pool manages concurrent execution. Start as many conversations as you want; Airut handles the rest.

Code Review as Feedback

The recommended workflow has agents push PRs for review. You review the PR, leave comments, then reply to the thread. The agent reads review feedback and iterates. This provides:

• Human oversight before code lands
• Natural checkpoint for feedback
• Audit trail via git history

You: "Add user authentication"
    ↓
Agent: works → pushes PR → replies with PR link
    ↓
You: review PR, leave comments
    ↓
You: reply "Address the review comments"
    ↓
Agent: reads comments → fixes → updates PR → replies
    ↓
You: approve and merge

Example project: The airut.org website is a minimal Airut-managed repository that demonstrates the message-to-deploy workflow with Cloudflare Pages. Its .airut/ directory and CLAUDE.md serve as a good starting point for onboarding your own projects.

Documentation

High-Level Documentation

• doc/architecture.md — System architecture and data flow
• doc/security.md — Security model (channel auth, isolation, credentials)
• doc/execution-sandbox.md — Container isolation and resource limits
• doc/network-sandbox.md — Network allowlist and proxy architecture
• doc/deployment.md — Installation and server configuration
• doc/repo-onboarding.md — Onboarding new repositories
• doc/agentic-operation.md — Message-to-PR workflow patterns

Channel Setup

• doc/email-setup.md — Email provider selection, DMARC, and authorization
• doc/slack-setup.md — Slack app creation, tokens, and authorization rules
• doc/m365-oauth2.md — Microsoft 365 OAuth2 for email (IMAP/SMTP)

Implementation Specifications

• spec/ — Detailed specs for channels, config schema, dashboard, and tooling

Agent Instructions

• CLAUDE.md — Operating instructions for Claude Code agents

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Linux (dedicated VM recommended, Debian 13 tested)
• uv, Git, and Podman (rootless)
• At least one channel per repository:
  • Email: Dedicated email account with IMAP/SMTP access
  • Slack: Slack workspace with app installation permissions

Install and Configure

uv tool install airut          # Install from PyPI
airut init                     # Generate config at ~/.config/airut/airut.yaml

Edit ~/.config/airut/airut.yaml with your channel credentials, repo, and secrets. See deployment.md for the full guide including channel setup, secrets management, and git credentials.

Onboard your repository by creating the .airut/ directory with airut.yaml, container Dockerfile, and network allowlist. Create or update CLAUDE.md with instructions for the message-to-PR workflow.

Deploy

airut check                    # Validate config and system dependencies
airut install-service          # Install and start systemd service
airut check                    # Verify everything is running

Send Your First Message

Email:

To: airut@example.com
Subject: Fix the typo in README

Please fix the typo in the README file.

Slack: Open a new chat with your Airut app and type your instructions.

Update

airut update                   # Stop service, upgrade, restart

Project Structure

airut/
├── CLAUDE.md              # Agent operating instructions
├── doc/                   # High-level documentation
├── spec/                  # Implementation specifications
├── .airut/                # Repo-specific Airut configuration
├── config/                # Server configuration templates
├── airut/                   # Library code
│   ├── _bundled/          # Static resources bundled into wheel
│   │   ├── assets/        # Logo SVG
│   │   └── proxy/         # Network sandbox (proxy filter, DNS, AWS signing)
│   ├── conversation/      # Conversation directory layout and preparation
│   ├── dashboard/         # Web dashboard server
│   ├── gateway/           # Protocol-agnostic gateway service
│   ├── gh/                # GitHub API wrappers
│   └── sandbox/           # Sandboxed execution (container, proxy, session, image)
├── scripts/               # CLI tools
│   ├── airut.py           # CLI entry point (uv run airut)
│   ├── ci.py              # Local CI runner
│   └── pr.py              # PR workflow tool
└── tests/                 # Unit and integration tests

Development

This project is developed with Claude Code. See CLAUDE.md for conventions and workflow tools.

# Run local CI (auto-fix + all checks)
uv run scripts/ci.py --fix

# Monitor PR status
uv run scripts/pr.py ci --wait -v
uv run scripts/pr.py review -v

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.