nanobot vs Zo Computer

nanobot

nanobot runs on the owner's machine under the MIT licence, with no telemetry found in its source and memory kept as files the owner can read and restore. No per-action approval step was found, and the shell sandbox and workspace restriction are off by default. Five security advisories were published between March and September 2026, all with fixes.

Zo Computer

Zo publishes an OpenAPI file, Markdown docs, plan prices and a named list of the providers that receive user content. One access token grants full access to the workspace, no approval step before sending or buying was found in the reviewed docs, and no status page, rate limit or SLA is published.

nanobot

1. Set tools.restrictToWorkspace to true and tools.exec.sandbox to bwrap or seatbelt before giving it real accounts. Both are off by default
2. Run 0.3.0 or later. Earlier versions carry the published SSRF flaw in web fetch (GHSA-vc5v-6vwm-wf9m)
3. Keep allowFrom narrow on every channel and never set ["*"] on Email, which has no pairing
4. Write secrets as ${VAR} references in ~/.nanobot/config.json. Plain values are stored in clear text
5. Use nanobot -m "..." for a one-shot run, and keep nanobot gateway running for channels, schedules and heartbeat

Zo Computer

1. Send POST https://api.zo.computer/zo/ask with Authorization: Bearer zo_sk_... and an input string. The owner creates the token under Settings > Advanced
2. Pass persona_id for a persona with a narrow tool set. The token itself carries every permission the owner has
3. Set memory_mode to off to keep workspace memory out of a request. The field is in the OpenAPI file and absent from the API guide
4. Do not retry /zo/ask blindly after a timeout. No idempotency key is documented and the request may already have sent a message
5. Append .md to any guide or reference URL for Markdown