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Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

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Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#51

Post by nine_k »

avaer wrote: post #8

This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think…

For historical reasons (FFI), Python has access to excellent vector / tensor mathematics (numpy / scipy / pandas / polars) and ML / AI libraries, from OpenCV to PyTorch. Hence the prevalence of Python in science and research. "Everybody knows Python".

I do like Typescript (not JS) better, because of its highly advanced type system, compared to Python's.

TS/JS is not inherently fast, it just has a good JIT compiler; Python still ships without one. Regarding security, each interpreter is about as permissive as the other, and both can be sealed off from environment pretty securely.

Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#53

Post by issat982 »

simonw wrote: post #5

I got a WebAssembly build of this working and fired up a web playground for trying it out: https://simonw.github.io/research/monty-wasm-pyodide/demo.ht... It doesn't have class support yet! But it doesn't matter, because LLMs that try to use a class will get an error message and rewrite their code to not use classes instead. Notes on how I got the WASM build working here: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic…

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Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#54

Post by giancarlostoro »

avaer wrote: post #8

This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think…

Having been doing Python for over a decade and JavaScript. I would pick Python any day of the week over JavaScript. JavaScript is beautiful, and also the most horrific programming language all at once. It still feels incomplete, there's too many oddities I've run into over the years, like checking for null, empty, undefined values is inconsistent all around because different libraries behave differently.

Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#56

Post by OutOfHere »

simonw wrote: post #41
OutOfHere wrote: post #10

It is absurd for any user to use a half baked Python interpreter, also one that will always majorly lag behind CPython in its support. I advise sandboxing CPython instead using OS features.

How do I sandbox CPython using OS features? (Genuine question, I've been trying to find reliable, well documented, robust patterns for doing this for years! I need it across macOS and Linux and ideally Windows too. Preferably without having to run anything as root.)

Docker and other container runners allow it. https://containers.dev/ allows it too.

https://github.com/microsoft/litebox might somehow allow it too if a tool can be built on top of it, but there is no documentation.

Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#57

Post by OutOfHere »

avaer wrote: post #11
OutOfHere wrote: post #10

It is absurd for any user to use a half baked Python interpreter, also one that will always majorly lag behind CPython in its support. I advise sandboxing CPython instead using OS features.

The repo does make a case for this, namely speed, which does make sense.

Speed is not a feature if there isn't even syntax parity with CPython.

Re: Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

#59

Post by dhdjfhfjfn »

simonw wrote: post #5

I got a WebAssembly build of this working and fired up a web playground for trying it out: https://simonw.github.io/research/monty-wasm-pyodide/demo.ht... It doesn't have class support yet! But it doesn't matter, because LLMs that try to use a class will get an error message and rewrite their code to not use classes instead. Notes on how I got the WASM build working here: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/6/pydantic…

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