Comparison
Coding agents like Claude Code, Codex CLI and Gemini CLI install in a minute and run fine on a laptop. The question is what happens once you trust them with more: longer jobs, several at once, and fewer permission prompts. Here is how the two setups compare.
Get started| On your laptop | In a YOLO Studio workspace | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the agent runs | Your machine, as you | A Linux sandbox in its own virtual machine |
| What it can reach | Everything your user can: home directory, SSH keys, other projects | The workspace’s repository and files, nothing else |
| Skipping permission prompts | Risky: a mistake lands on your real machine | YOLO Mode inside a sandbox built for it |
| Several agents at once | Separate worktrees and ports you manage by hand | One lane per agent, each its own git clone |
| When you close the lid | The agents stop | They keep working; queued cards keep moving |
| Seeing the result | Run the app yourself | A live preview that reloads as the agent saves |
| Working offline | Possible, apart from the model calls | Needs a connection |
Every agent CLI has some way to stop asking before each command. On a laptop that switch is hard to flip with a clear conscience: the agent runs as you, so a bad command can touch anything you can.
In YOLO Studio the agent runs as a non-root user inside a sandbox with its own kernel, network rules that keep it away from other workspaces, and credentials delivered only to that session. Turning on YOLO Mode there trades a small, contained risk for an agent that gets on with the job.
Two agents editing one working copy will overwrite each other. Locally, the fix is git worktrees, separate dev-server ports and a lot of terminal tabs. In a workspace, each agent gets a lane: its own clone of the repository on its own branch, created for you. A Kanban board and the Background Runner can then hand out work to up to four lanes at a time and land the results as pull requests.
For a short back-and-forth on code you are actively editing, an agent in your own editor and terminal is hard to beat.
If the code needs a device plugged into your machine, or you are working without a connection, run the agent locally.
If policy says the source stays on company machines, a cloud workspace is not an option, however isolated it is.
Plenty of developers do both: quick edits locally, and longer or parallel jobs in the cloud. yolostart turns a local project into a workspace in one command, after you approve what uploads.
Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI and OpenCode come pre-installed. GitHub Copilot, Kiro, Aider, Goose, Qwen Code and others install the first time you pick them.
Each workspace runs in its own virtual machine with default-deny networking between workspaces, a non-root user and per-session credentials. The security page has the details.
Sign in with GitHub, open a workspace on your repository, and put your first agent to work in a few minutes.
Get started
