Thread

Cloudflare OS: an open platform for agents, apps, and work

641 points · 315 comments · speckx

rozenmd · 1785939425 · focus · HN ↗
I liked Kenton's take on this: <a href="https://x.com/KentonVarda/status/2084990137180590572?s=20" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/KentonVarda/status/2084990137180590572?s=20
Text from tweet:
Today we are releasing Cloudflare OS, a chatbot with connectors, just like every other tech company is doing.
Except actually, it's different. This is a remake of Sandstorm[.]io, my startup from 10 years ago, except this time built on Cloudflare Workers (the platform I've spent the last 9 years building) and deeply leveraging AI. This is more or less the culmination of my secret 10-year master plan.
This is a full-on personal app vibe coding platform, in which the sandbox is so secure that you can pretty much go wild -- the AI cannot introduce a significant security bug. We believe a company's security team can feel comfortable giving non-technical users permission to vibe code and then sleep soundly at night.
How is that possible? It's the Sandstorm security model, revisited. A "Gadget" is the same thing as a Sandstorm "Grain": a fine-grained app instance. For example, if you have a document editor app, each document runs as a separate instance of the app, in a separate sandbox (one "Gadget").
This means two things, both of which I think are Big Deals: 1. The platform can manage all access control, by controlling who can access the Gadget at all. There is no way the Gadget can accidentally leak itself to an attacker -- even an attacker who has access to other Gadgets based on the same app. 2. Since everyone is running their own copy of the code, everyone can freely modify their copy of the code.
Think about #2 a bit more.
What if, when you wanted a new feature in the software you are using, you could just prompt your agent to add it?
This doesn't work in the cloud Software-as-a-Service model, because you are not running your own copy of the app.
Sandstorm tried to change that 10 years ago, but the world wasn't ready, because not enough people had the skills or patience to actually modify their software. AI has changed that. Now you just ask the agent -- the same agent that you are using to help you interact with the Gadget can also modify the code of the Gadget.
And it is so fun.
1. fny · 1785940510 · focus · HN ↗
  That should have been the announcement.
  The article posted buries the lead. Cloudflare OS reads like almost any other AI knowledge base until midway when apps are introduced and then becomes overly technical with a code snippet.
  1. kentonv · 1785941774 · focus · HN ↗
    We really struggled with how to present this to multiple audiences at once.
    My tweet thread, and the GitHub readme, is really the presentation intended for the HN crowd. The blog post is for a different audience.
    <a href="https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflare-os" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflare-os
    philistine · 1785942835 · focus · HN ↗
    > The blog post is for a different audience.
    No one? Like literally, I don't understand a thing of what the blog post is saying. It's vague to the point of meaning nothing. Every piece of text I've seen that explains CloudflareOS is clear except the blog post.
    QuantumNoodle · 1785946776 · focus · HN ↗
    I used to read their blog regularly because it had lots of interesting technical details. Lately, though, there’s less of that, and I can’t quite put my finger on what changed. My guess is that they realized how popular the blog had become and started using that attention more for advertising. There’s nothing wrong with that, but earlier the “advertisements” actually made me want to try things out and bring them back to my team. I even considered applying to work there. Not so much anymore. I’ve even removed it from my RSS feed.
    I don’t like offering criticism without a solution, but I’m not really motivated to come up with one here. It looks like employees may read this, so maybe someone will see the feedback.
    jtwocents · 1785957742 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/three-chapters-at-cloudflare-programmer-to-cto-to-board-of-directors/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.cloudflare.com/three-chapters-at-cloudflare-pro...
    TL;DR; jgc stopped editing the blog, and AI slop took over:
    > Today, after more than 13 years at the company, I am joining Cloudflare’s board of directors and retiring from my full-time position as CTO.
    > ...
    > I wrote for, and edited, the Cloudflare Blog for many, many years
    ljm · 1785970131 · focus · HN ↗
    Nothing ever improves in the tech scene... it just decays until someone challenges it.
    Funnily enough CF has redesigned its navigation several times in the past year, just like GitLab used to do. Shuffling the UI like a deck of cards is pretty desperate.
    lytedev · 1785987229 · focus · HN ↗
    Of course it improves! Had to decay from somewhere, didn't it?

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