Skip to contents

Quick Start

Source: vignettes/quickstart.Rmd
quickstart.Rmd

Overview

securer runs R code in a sandboxed child process with OS-level isolation. Code in the child can call named “tools” — host-side functions that execute outside the sandbox. Communication happens over a Unix domain socket using JSON messages. The package is designed for LLM agent systems where generated code needs access to host-provided capabilities while being prevented from reaching the network or filesystem.

Installation 

pak::pak("ian-flores/securer")

Verify the installation:

library(securer)
execute_r("1 + 1")
#> [1] 2

Hello world

The simplest way to run code is with execute_r(). It creates a session, runs the code, and tears everything down automatically:

library(securer)

execute_r("1 + 1")
#> [1] 2

execute_r("paste('Hello from', R.version.string)")
#> [1] "Hello from R version 4.4.2 (2024-10-31)"

By default execute_r() enables the OS sandbox (sandbox = TRUE). Pass sandbox = FALSE to disable it.

Defining tools

Tools let sandboxed code call functions on the host. Define them with securer_tool():

add_tool <- securer_tool(
  name = "add",
  description = "Add two numbers",
  fn = function(a, b) a + b,
  args = list(a = "numeric", b = "numeric")
)
add_tool

Each tool has four components:

  • name – the function name available in the child process
  • description – metadata (useful for LLM tool-use prompts)
  • fn – the implementation, which runs on the host side
  • args – argument names mapped to type strings for validation

Supported type annotations

Type string Check function
"numeric" is.numeric()
"character" is.character()
"logical" is.logical()
"integer" is.integer()
"list" is.list()
"data.frame" is.data.frame()

Type annotations are optional. Arguments without type annotations skip validation.

Using tools

Pass tools as a list to execute_r():

tools <- list(
  securer_tool("add", "Add two numbers",
    fn = function(a, b) a + b,
    args = list(a = "numeric", b = "numeric")),
  securer_tool("get_weather", "Get weather for a city",
    fn = function(city) list(temp = 72, condition = "sunny"),
    args = list(city = "character"))
)

execute_r('add(2, 3)', tools = tools)
#> [1] 5

execute_r('get_weather("Boston")', tools = tools)
#> $temp
#> [1] 72
#>
#> $condition
#> [1] "sunny"

Next steps

Now that you’ve seen the basics: