Cloudflare OS: an open platform for agents, apps, and work • Hacker News Board

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

#31

Post by layer8 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

rozenmd wrote: post #4

I liked Kenton's take on this: 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 deep…

> the sandbox is so secure that you can pretty much go wild -- the AI cannot introduce a significant security bug.

This can only be correct when the application can’t affect anything outside the sandbox. Which would significantly restrict useful applications.

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

#32

Post by fny » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

rozenmd wrote: post #4

I liked Kenton's take on this: 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 deep…

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.

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

#33

Post by hobofan » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

mosura wrote: post #25

rozenmd wrote: post #4

I liked Kenton's take on this: 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 deep…

Sandstorm without self hosting has no interest though. (Edit: see below, where the creator states it _can_ be run locally) Buzz looks like a more reasonable direction than this does.

Yes, just like SaaS was a limitation to it's utility, PaaS is still a limitation, just on a different level.

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

#34

Post by bearjaws » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

wxw wrote: post #7

This is effectively a Codex/Claude app competitor. Good move from Cloudflare since it helps them sell their core infra offerings. I like the direction they’re going with access control.

The real question is, can Cloudflare become a equal or better OpenAI / Claude provider, while offering a vastly more robust platform than either?

I think the answer is yes, simply because both OAI and Anthropic leverage CF for their hosting today.

I used to meme back in 2008 (when Google docs first was becoming big) that "The problem has always been the sandbox". The problem Chrome and Firefox solved was the Sandbox - you can browse some random code across the web without worrying about getting hacked. The same problem has arisen today but now with AI agents.

There is likely to be huge winners in the AI space simply based on who can create the best way to contain AI agents and "expose AI value" safely.

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

#35

Post by dgellow » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

wxw wrote: post #7

This is effectively a Codex/Claude app competitor. Good move from Cloudflare since it helps them sell their core infra offerings. I like the direction they’re going with access control.

So, that means even more pressure on OpenAI and Anthropic. I really don’t see how they will stay competitive long term. Cloudflare can offers way better product by integrating with the rest of their platform and offering a variety of models, including open models they host themselves

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

#36

Post by pelagicAustral » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

Probably better if they make it obvious that you need Workers paid plan:

"Your Cloudflare account is on the Free plan, but the Cloudflare OS backend needs Dynamic Workers, which requires the Workers Paid plan."

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

#37

Post by nater5000 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

yomismoaqui wrote: post #16

Everytime I read about new things from Cloudflare they look really cool but I cannot shake the feeling of not wanting to use them for fear of lock-in, am I too paranoid?

Cloudflare seems mature enough at this point that if you're willing to accept any kind of vendor lock-in, then accepting it through them is likely acceptable. I won't say they're on-par with the big cloud providers, but if they offer the services you need and you'd be willing to lock-in with AWS, etc., then they should be considered.

If you're generally opposed to any vendor lock-in, then Cloudflare is definitely a hard sell. Many of their services are pretty specific to their ecosystem and I imagine trying to keep things portable would be infeasible any many scenarios. Granted, this is true in a provider like AWS, too, if you were depending heavily on their proprietary, managed services. But there's definitely value in knowing that you can stick to "generic" services as much as possible in AWS and be able to move away relatively easily.

Cloudflare is definitely becoming a "real" cloud provider (I'd say their release of R2, for me, pushed them into the "serious contender" category), but they focus on pretty specific features that aren't very portable. This Cloudflare OS service is a good example of that. If it is exactly what you need, then it is worth checking out and taking on the risk of vendor lock-in. But if you're doing something where long-term planning and portability is important, then you'll have a hard time warranting even considering them.

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

#38

Post by radlad » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

thehamkercat wrote: post #2

Why are companies slapping "OS" in their product naming? it's stupid

I think because the idea of an "agent operating system" is starting to feel more and more inevitable. Since I can use AI to:

  - Pull information from external sources
  - Transform and/or augment that information
  - Publish information

I almost do not need a traditional OS anymore. This obviously isn't entirely true: I still use it to interact directly with humans, and it's the way I access my LLM. For now.

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

#39

Post by kentonv » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

mosura wrote: post #25

rozenmd wrote: post #4

I liked Kenton's take on this: 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 deep…

Sandstorm without self hosting has no interest though. (Edit: see below, where the creator states it _can_ be run locally) Buzz looks like a more reasonable direction than this does.