Why OpenShift

AI coding agents run arbitrary code in sandboxes. They install packages, modify files, execute shell commands, and make network requests - all autonomously. This is an inherently adversarial workload that requires defense-in-depth security controls.

OpenShift provides these controls as platform features. OGO integrates with them directly rather than reimplementing them.

Security Context Constraints (SCC)

OpenShift's SCC system enforces pod-level security policies that vanilla Kubernetes Pod Security Admission cannot match:

Force sandbox pods to run as non-root with specific UID ranges
Drop all Linux capabilities except the minimum required
Apply seccomp profiles that restrict system calls
Prevent privilege escalation even if the agent code attempts it

OGO configures SCC bindings for sandbox ServiceAccounts automatically.

SELinux

OpenShift enforces SELinux in enforcing mode by default. Even if an agent achieves a container escape, SELinux's mandatory access control prevents access to host resources, other containers, and sensitive kernel interfaces.

This is a layer of protection that does not exist on most vanilla Kubernetes distributions.

Network policy enforcement

OpenShift's OVN-Kubernetes CNI enforces NetworkPolicies at the kernel level using eBPF and Open vSwitch. The OpenShell supervisor's network policies (which control per-binary egress to specific hosts and ports) are enforced in addition to Kubernetes NetworkPolicies.

On vanilla Kubernetes, NetworkPolicy enforcement depends on the CNI plugin installed - and many CNIs don't enforce them at all.

Integrated OAuth

OpenShift includes a built-in OAuth server integrated with the cluster's identity provider (LDAP, OIDC, GitHub, etc.). OGO's auth-bridge translates OpenShift OAuth tokens into OIDC JWTs, giving users "Log in with OpenShift" without deploying a separate identity provider.

On vanilla Kubernetes, you would need to deploy and manage Keycloak, Dex, or another OIDC provider separately.

cert-manager operator

OpenShift's OperatorHub includes cert-manager as a supported operator. OGO uses cert-manager to issue Let's Encrypt certificates for the Envoy Gateway TLS listener, with automatic renewal.

Operator Lifecycle Manager

OLM provides managed operator installs with: - Console integration (Installed Operators page, CRD forms) - Automatic upgrades via catalog polling - RBAC and ServiceAccount management - Bundle validation and scorecard testing

Audit logging

OpenShift's API server audit logging captures every Kubernetes API call made by sandbox pods, the gateway, and the operator. This provides a complete audit trail for compliance and incident response.

What OGO uses from OpenShift

Feature	How OGO uses it
SCC	Privileged SCC for sandbox SA (container-in-container)
Routes	TLS passthrough to Envoy Gateway, edge TLS for auth-bridge
OAuthClient	Auth-bridge SSO registration
OAuth Server	User authentication for the CLI
cert-manager	Let's Encrypt certs for Envoy Gateway
OLM	Operator install and console integration