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Profiles are pre-configured capability sets that define what a sandboxed process can access. Groups are the composable building blocks that profiles are made from. Together they codify security policy so you don’t have to specify flags manually every time.
Use nono profile to inspect, compare, and validate profiles and groups from the command line. See Profile Introspection for details.

Profiles

Why Profiles?

Manually specifying capabilities for every tool is tedious and error-prone:
Profiles simplify this:

Predefined Profiles vs User Profiles

Predefined profiles (shipped with nono or installed via packs) cover two things:
  • Agent packs — profiles for specific AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, opencode, openclaw). These grant the exact paths each agent needs to run, including its config directory, credential stores, and runtime group.
  • Language runtimes — profiles for common developer workflows (node-dev, python-dev, go-dev, rust-dev). These include the appropriate runtime group and a developer network profile.
Predefined profiles are intentionally narrow. They do not encode environment-specific paths because those vary by OS distribution, package manager, and installation method. A java-dev profile cannot know whether your JDK config lives in /etc/java-openjdk, /etc/java21-openjdk, or somewhere else entirely — that depends on your system. Environment-specific additions belong in a user profile. Write a profile that extends the closest predefined profile and adds only what your environment requires:
Save this to ~/.config/nono/profiles/java-dev-local.json and use it with:
This keeps the predefined profile stable and auditable while giving you full control over your local environment’s requirements. See Creating User Profiles below for the full workflow.

Profile Sources

Profiles can come from three sources, in order of precedence: CLI flags always override profile settings.
nono resolves config paths via $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nono/ on every platform. If you have not set XDG_CONFIG_HOME — typical on macOS — that is the same as ~/.config/nono/ shown above. Set XDG_CONFIG_HOME only when you want config elsewhere; profile JSON path grants should use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, $NONO_CONFIG, or $NONO_PACKAGES rather than hardcoded $HOME/.config/....

Profile Format

Profiles use JSON format:

Session Hooks

Session hooks are scripts that run before or after the sandboxed process, outside the sandbox with host privileges. Useful for setup and cleanup tasks the sandboxed process should not have access to — for example, creating a private TMPDIR per session.

Configuration

Both before and after are optional. Each hook specifies a script path and an optional timeout:
  • script (required): absolute path to an executable script.
  • timeout_secs (optional): kills the script if it exceeds this duration.

Before hook

Runs before the sandboxed process starts. The script receives NONO_SESSION_ID, NONO_WORKDIR, and NONO_ENV_FILE — a temporary file where KEY=VALUE lines can be written to export environment variables to the sandboxed process.

After hook

Runs after the sandboxed process exits. Receives NONO_SESSION_ID, NONO_WORKDIR, and NONO_EXIT_CODE. Cleanup only — does not export environment variables.

AF_UNIX Socket Grants

The unix_socket* filesystem fields grant connect(2) (and optionally bind(2)) on pathname AF_UNIX sockets. Abstract-namespace and unnamed sockets are never grantable — only filesystem-backed socket paths. unix_socket_dir* forms are non-recursive at the socket layer: only sockets directly inside the named directory are covered. Use unix_socket_subtree* when a tool creates sockets below nested subdirectories. The implied filesystem grant is recursive (Landlock’s only expressible granularity), so socket scope is enforced separately by the supervisor (Linux) or Seatbelt path emission (macOS). Today, macOS enforces the direct-child versus subtree distinction in Seatbelt. Linux V4+ currently relies on Landlock filesystem rules for pathname AF_UNIX, so directory socket grants are recursive there until the seccomp AF_UNIX allowlist mediation path is enabled. Under restricted network modes (--block-net or --network-profile), connect(2) to a Unix socket requires an explicit unix_socket* grant — a plain allow_file/allow grant no longer implicitly permits it.

Working Directory

The workdir section controls whether and how the current working directory is automatically shared with the sandboxed process. When a profile specifies a workdir access level, nono will prompt the user to confirm CWD sharing (unless --allow-cwd is used to skip the prompt). --allow-cwd grants access to the directory at that profile’s workdir level — so with "none" (the default profile) it grants nothing. Pair --allow-cwd with a profile that sets a workdir level, or grant the directory explicitly with --allow/--read.

Filesystem Overrides and Group Composition

Fine-grained additive and subtractive composition lives across three canonical sections:
  • filesystem — path-based allow, deny, and deny-exemption entries
  • groups — policy group inclusion (include) and removal (exclude)
  • commands — startup-time command allow/deny (deprecated since v0.33.0; not enforced on child processes)
This is the primary mechanism for surgically customizing inherited profiles without redefining everything from scratch.
Renamed in issue #594. The old top-level policy section was dissolved into filesystem, groups, and commands in the canonical schema. Legacy names still deserialize with a deprecation warning; see the migration table in nono profile guide for the full mapping. The legacy keys will be removed in v1.0.0.

Adding a Deny Rule to an Inherited Profile

Block a specific path that a base profile would otherwise allow:

Blocking Container Access (Docker, Podman, kubectl)

Use filesystem.deny as the enforcement mechanism. commands.deny remains deprecated startup-only compatibility behavior:
On macOS, filesystem.deny on a socket path also emits a network-outbound deny — Seatbelt classifies connect(2) as a network operation, so a file deny alone won’t block it. Prefer path- and network-based controls; commands.deny is not enforced for child processes.

Adding Write-Only Access

Grant write-only access to a directory without granting read:

Removing Groups from an Inherited Profile

Remove the deprecated startup-only command-gating group to allow rm, chmod, etc.:

Overriding a Deny Rule for a Specific Path

Some deny groups (like deny_credentials) are marked as required and cannot be excluded. Use filesystem.bypass_protection to punch a targeted hole through a deny group for a specific path. The path must also be explicitly granted via another filesystem entry — bypass_protection only removes the deny rule, it does not implicitly grant access.
This allows access to ~/.docker even though deny_credentials blocks it by default. The deny override does not implicitly grant access — the matching filesystem.allow entry is required. This is equivalent to the CLI flag --bypass-protection:

Suppressing Save Suggestions Without Granting Access

Use filesystem.suppress_save_prompt when a path is expected to be denied and you do not want nono to keep offering it as a profile addition:
filesystem.suppress_save_prompt only suppresses the save-profile suggestion for matching denials. The sandbox still denies the path, and the diagnostic footer still shows the denial, annotated with [save skipped] so it is clear why the path does not appear in the save prompt. The interactive save prompt applies this to every listed path suggestion when you choose suppress; it does not create any allow/read/write grants.

Suppressing Expected macOS System-Service Diagnostics

Use diagnostics.suppress_system_services when a macOS Seatbelt operation is expected to be denied and you do not want nono to repeat the diagnostic footer (or offer a save-profile prompt) on every run:
This is macOS-only. Values are Seatbelt operation names from the sandbox log, such as user-preference-read (CFPreferences / NSUserDefaults probes from npm and other Node tools) or forbidden-exec-sugid. Suppression is output-only: the sandbox still denies the operation. Unlike filesystem.suppress_save_prompt, this hides matching violations from the diagnostic footer entirely. There is no CLI flag equivalent yet; add the operation name to your profile. To silence all post-run diagnostics instead, use --no-diagnostics.
filesystem, groups, commands, and diagnostics fields are additive across inheritance. A child profile’s filesystem.deny is merged with the base profile’s filesystem.deny, groups.exclude from both levels are combined, and diagnostics.suppress_system_services entries from both profiles are appended and deduplicated.

Network Configuration

The network section controls network access and credential injection.

Custom Credentials

The custom_credentials field lets you define credential services for any API: See Credential Injection for complete documentation.

Hooks

The hooks section defines hooks that nono will automatically install for specific applications.
Hook installation is idempotent - nono only installs or updates when needed.

Interactive Mode (deprecated)

The interactive field is parsed for backward compatibility but ignored. Supervised mode (the default) preserves the TTY, making this field unnecessary.

Rollback Exclusions

The rollback section controls which files are excluded from atomic rollback snapshots:
These exclusions are combined with gitignore patterns from the working directory.

Skip Directories

Use skipdirs to extend the built-in heavy-directory skip list for pre-exec trust scanning and rollback preflight:
Entries are matched as exact path component names. They do not grant or deny sandbox access; they only prune traversal during trust discovery and rollback heuristics.

Environment Variables

Profiles support these environment variables in path values:

Creating User Profiles

Use nono profile init to scaffold a new profile:
See Profile Authoring for the full workflow, including JSON Schema integration, editor autocomplete, and the LLM authoring guide. You can also load a profile by file path:

Overriding Pack Profiles

CLI flags always take precedence over profile settings:
To keep a base profile but clear an inherited network profile, set network.network_profile to null in the child:
You can also create a user profile with the same name to override a pack profile entirely.

Groups

Groups are named, composable collections of security rules. Profiles reference groups by name in their groups.include field.

How Groups Compose

Every profile’s effective capability set is built through composition:
  1. default_profile_groups come from the built-in default profile
  2. profile.groups.include adds additional groups on top
  3. profile.groups.exclude removes groups from the composed set (exclusion wins)
  4. profile.filesystem.allow/read/write, profile.filesystem.deny, and profile.commands.allow/deny apply additive overrides
  5. profile.filesystem.bypass_protection punches targeted holes through deny groups (requires a matching grant in filesystem.allow/read/write)
  6. CLI overrides (--allow, --read, --bypass-protection, etc.) are applied last
profile.filesystem.suppress_save_prompt and --suppress-save-prompt are prompt filters only; they do not participate in capability enforcement. The older filesystem.ignore and --ignore-denied forms are accepted as aliases, but new examples use the explicit suppress wording to avoid suggesting an access grant. profile.diagnostics.suppress_system_services is also output-only (macOS). It hides recurring non-filesystem Seatbelt violations from diagnostic footers and save-profile prompts without granting the underlying operation. Exclusions are applied after group addition. If the same group appears in both groups.include and groups.exclude, the exclusion wins.

Group Taxonomy

Groups use a structured allow/deny taxonomy:

Allow Operations

Deny Operations

Other

Built-in Groups

nono ships with 32 built-in groups: Deny groups (block sensitive content):
  • deny_credentials - SSH keys, cloud credentials, GPG keys, container and package manager tokens
  • deny_keychains_macos - macOS Keychain databases, 1Password, password-store
  • deny_keychains_linux - Linux keyring, 1Password, password-store
  • deny_browser_data_macos - Browser data on macOS (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Arc, Brave)
  • deny_browser_data_linux - Browser data on Linux (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave)
  • deny_macos_private - macOS Messages, Mail, Cookies, MobileSync
  • deny_shell_history - Shell history files (.bash_history, .zsh_history, .python_history)
  • deny_shell_configs - Shell config files that may contain API keys (.bashrc, .zshrc, .profile, .env)
Protection groups:
  • unlink_protection - Prevents file deletion, with override for user-writable paths
  • dangerous_commands - Blocks rm, dd, chmod, sudo, mkfs, pip, npm, kill, etc.
  • dangerous_commands_macos - macOS-specific: srm, brew, launchctl
  • dangerous_commands_linux - Linux-specific: shred, mkfs.*, fdisk, systemctl, apt, yum, dnf, pacman
System path groups (grant necessary system access):
  • system_read_macos - macOS system libraries, frameworks, dyld cache
  • system_read_linux - Linux system libraries, locale data
  • system_write_macos - macOS temp directories, cache paths
  • system_write_linux - Linux temp directories
Cache groups (user-level caches and state):
  • user_caches_macos - ~/Library/Caches, ~/Library/Logs, ~/Library/Preferences
  • user_caches_linux - ~/.cache, ~/.local/state
Runtime groups (language toolchain paths):
  • node_runtime - nvm, fnm, npm, pnpm, volta
  • rust_runtime - rustup, cargo
  • python_runtime - pyenv, conda, pip, uv
  • go_runtime - ~/go, /usr/local/go
  • java_runtime - SDKMAN (/.sdkman), Maven (/.m2/repository, /.m2/wrapper), Gradle (/.gradle/caches, ~/.gradle/wrapper)
  • nix_runtime - Nix profile paths, /nix/store, /nix/var (Linux only)
  • user_tools - Local bins, .desktop files, man pages, shell completions
  • homebrew - /opt/homebrew, /usr/local/Cellar, /usr/local/opt (macOS only)
Tool-specific groups (paths for specific applications):
  • claude_code_macos - macOS Keychain for Claude Code credential storage
  • claude_code_linux - ~/.local/share/claude
  • claude_cache_linux - ~/.cache/claude-cli-nodejs
  • codex_macos - macOS Keychain for Codex credential storage
  • opencode_linux - ~/.opencode/bin (Linux only, needed for Landlock exec)
  • vscode_macos - ~/.vscode, ~/Library/Application Support/Code
  • vscode_linux - ~/.vscode, ~/.config/Code
Command blocking is a best-effort surface-level control. It matches against the executable name being invoked directly. A process can bypass this by calling the equivalent syscall from within an allowed interpreter (e.g., os.remove() in Python, fs.unlinkSync() in Node.js) or by invoking a renamed copy of the binary. For hard filesystem protection, rely on the kernel-enforced deny groups and unlink_protection, which cannot be bypassed from userspace regardless of how the operation is invoked.

Platform-Specific Groups

Groups with a platform field only apply on that OS:
Groups without a platform field (like deny_credentials) apply on all platforms. Platform-specific groups use _macos or _linux suffixes by convention.

Platform Differences

macOS (Seatbelt) supports full deny-within-allow semantics. A group can allow /Users but deny /Users/luke/.ssh and the deny takes precedence. Linux (Landlock) is strictly allow-list. Deny groups are implemented as exclusion filters - broad allow groups that overlap deny paths will generate warnings. Avoid granting access to parent directories of deny paths on Linux.

Available Profiles

default

The base profile that all other profiles extend. Provides system path access, deny groups for sensitive content, and deprecated startup-only command gating. Does not grant working directory access or any user-specific paths. Groups: deny_credentials, deny_keychains_macos, deny_keychains_linux, deny_browser_data_macos, deny_browser_data_linux, deny_macos_private, deny_shell_history, deny_shell_configs, system_read_macos, system_read_linux, system_write_macos, system_write_linux, user_tools, homebrew, dangerous_commands, dangerous_commands_macos, dangerous_commands_linux Network: Allowed CWD: None

claude-code

Groups: claude_code_macos, claude_code_linux, user_caches_macos, claude_cache_linux, node_runtime, rust_runtime, python_runtime, vscode_macos, vscode_linux, nix_runtime, git_config, unlink_protection (plus default groups) Filesystem: ~/.claude (read+write), ~/.claude.json and ~/.claude.json.lock (read+write), plus platform-specific Claude Code and VS Code paths from the matching _macos or _linux groups, and git config files from git_config group Network: Allowed CWD: Read+write Special: Auto-installs Claude Code hooks. OAuth2 login support via open_urls (allows https://claude.ai and localhost). Profile opts into allow_launch_services for macOS browser opening.

codex

Groups: codex_macos, node_runtime, rust_runtime, python_runtime, nix_runtime, git_config, unlink_protection (plus default groups) Filesystem: ~/.codex (read+write), plus git config files from git_config group Network: Allowed CWD: Read+write Special: OAuth2 login support via open_urls (allows https://auth.openai.com and localhost). Profile opts into allow_launch_services.

opencode

Groups: user_caches_macos, user_caches_linux, node_runtime, opencode_linux, git_config, unlink_protection (plus default groups) Filesystem: ~/.config/opencode, ~/.cache/opencode, ~/.local/share/opencode, ~/.local/share/opentui (all read+write), plus git config files from git_config group Network: Allowed CWD: Read+write

openclaw

Groups: node_runtime (plus default groups) Filesystem: ~/.openclaw, ~/.config/openclaw, ~/.local, $TMPDIR/openclaw-$UID (all read+write) Network: Allowed CWD: Read-only

python-dev

Groups: python_runtime (plus default groups) Network: Allowed, with developer network profile for host filtering CWD: Read+write

node-dev

Groups: node_runtime (plus default groups) Network: Allowed, with developer network profile for host filtering CWD: Read+write

go-dev

Groups: go_runtime (plus default groups) Network: Allowed, with developer network profile for host filtering CWD: Read+write

rust-dev

Groups: rust_runtime (plus default groups) Network: Allowed, with developer network profile for host filtering CWD: Read+write

java-dev

Groups: java_runtime (plus default groups) Network: Allowed, with developer network profile for host filtering CWD: Read+write
java-dev covers SDKMAN-managed JDKs, Maven, and Gradle. It does not include system JDK config paths (e.g. /etc/java21-openjdk) because these vary by distribution and installation method. Add them in a user profile that extends java-dev — see Predefined Profiles vs User Profiles.

Requesting New Profiles

If you’d like a profile for a tool not listed here:
  1. Open an issue on the nono GitHub repository
  2. Include:
    • Tool name and repository URL
    • Required filesystem access patterns
    • Network requirements
    • Any special considerations
Profiles are reviewed for security before inclusion.