Two weeks ago, one of my friends called me and asked if it was a good idea to install OpenClaw on a personal machine. The immediate thought that crossed my mind was how about security and how to reduce the blast radius if the OpenClaw is compromised. Autonomous agent tools are reshaping how we work. Tools like OpenClaw and Picoclaw can write code, make API calls, read files, and interact with external services on your behalf. They’re incredibly useful. But they’re also a significant security risk if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with these tools on my Mac and Linux workstations. I have friends running agents with full access to their home directory. They have stored API keys in plaintext environment files. They have connected agent machines to their main network with no isolation. Each time we interact, I realize how quickly things could go wrong.
Read the original article: