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 provisions an isolated container, runs Claude Code, and cleans up when done.

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.
• Task-to-PR foundation: Combined with 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.
• Scheduled tasks: Run Claude on a cron schedule — daily code reviews, nightly health checks, weekly summaries. Results are delivered via email, and recipients can reply to continue the conversation.
• Web dashboard: Monitor running tasks, view network activity logs, and configure the server.

Why Email and Slack?

Mature Tools You Already Use

Email and Slack already handle threading, search, notifications, and mobile access. Agent interactions show up where your team already works.

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.

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

CI Sandboxing

When an agent pushes a PR, CI workflows run the agent's code on the runner — outside the container sandbox. The airut-sandbox CLI and airutorg/sandbox-action GitHub Action solve this by running CI commands inside the same container isolation and network allowlisting used by the gateway. See doc/ci-sandbox.md for setup and security requirements.

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.

Screenshots

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
• doc/periodic-tasks.md — Scheduled tasks (cron, prompt/script modes, email delivery)
• doc/ci-sandbox.md — Sandboxing CI with airut-sandbox and airutorg/sandbox-action

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

uv tool install airut          # Install from PyPI
airut check                    # Validate system dependencies
airut install-service          # Install and start systemd service

Configure

Open http://localhost:5200 in your browser. Click Configure to open the config editor. From there you can add repositories, set up channels, configure credentials, and adjust resource limits.

See deployment.md for the full guide including channel setup, secrets management, and git credentials.

Onboard your repository by creating the .airut/ directory with container Dockerfile, network allowlist, and CLAUDE.md instructions.

Alternative: You can also edit ~/.config/airut/airut.yaml directly. See airut.example.yaml for the full schema. Changes are picked up automatically via file watching.

Send Your First Message

Email:

To: [email protected]
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

Testing

Airut enforces 100% unit test coverage in CI — every line must be tested, with no skips or exceptions. Integration tests verify end-to-end workflows including email, Slack, config reload, and session recovery. Config schema migrations are independently tested for correctness and idempotency. See doc/testing.md for details.

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.