Modern coding agents can reason across large projects, call tools and carry work through multiple steps. The harder question is not whether an agent can act, but where those actions should actually run.
Keep the execution boundary close to the project
A local runtime lets the AI client request work while the machine that owns the workspace remains responsible for file access, terminal execution and device-level credentials. That separation reduces the amount of raw project state that must move elsewhere just to complete a task.
- Scope access to an explicitly granted workspace instead of the whole machine.
- Apply approval and security policy before sensitive actions execute.
- Return bounded results and evidence rather than treating unrestricted machine access as the default.