A real isolated sandbox, reachable from any browser — not tied to one editor.
TL;DR
Cursor's agent runs primarily against your local machine. Copilot Workspace is built around GitHub's issue-and-PR flow.
rigless is a real Linux sandbox reachable from any browser — no editor fork, no ecosystem lock-in.
Sessions run in an isolated microVM, not a permission scope inside your own laptop.
If your whole workflow already lives in VS Code or GitHub, their native integration is a real advantage.
Cursor and GitHub Copilot Workspace both bring agent capabilities to where developers already work — Cursor as an AI-native VS Code fork, Copilot Workspace as a GitHub-native flow tied to issues and pull requests. Both are strong at what they're built for, and both come with a boundary baked in: you're operating inside their surface.
Cursor's agent runs mostly against your local machine through its editor. Copilot Workspace is built around GitHub's issue-and-PR model. Both are excellent if that's already how you work — but the agent's environment is either your laptop or a GitHub-hosted abstraction, not a portable sandbox you can reach the same way from a phone or a teammate's browser.
rigless isn't an editor plugin or a GitHub feature. It's a real Linux sandbox reachable from any browser. No install, no editor fork, no dependency on whatever device you opened it from last.
Because Cursor's agent often executes against your local filesystem, "what can the agent touch" is really "what can touch your machine." rigless sessions run in an isolated microVM per session — a genuinely separate computer, not a permission scope inside the one you use for everything else. Close the session, and your laptop was never in the blast radius.
Both Cursor and Copilot Workspace bundle specific models into specific tiers. rigless works with whichever model you bring — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, Moonshot, Zhipu, or a custom endpoint — plus a bundled starter tier to get going immediately.
Cursor / Copilot Workspace | rigless | |
|---|---|---|
Runs on | Your laptop, or a GitHub-hosted abstraction | Isolated cloud microVM |
Reachable from | The one editor / GitHub | Any browser, any device |
Blast radius if something breaks | Your local machine (Cursor) | Contained to the session |
Model | Fixed by subscription tier | Any — BYO key or bundled starter |
Your whole workflow already lives inside VS Code or GitHub's issue tracker.
You want the agent working directly in the editor you already use daily.
You want the agent on a real, isolated computer instead of your own machine.
You want to reach the same session from wherever you are, not just one editor.
You want model choice instead of a fixed subscription tier.