Unbound
Govern AI coding agents — discover, assess, enforce agent security across your org.
Unbound is a rare tool that matches the hype: it actually does what it says — discovering and enforcing policy on coding agents in minutes. The Free tier and Pro at $10/user/mo make it accessible, while Enterprise adds SSO, SIEM, and custom policies. If you have developers using AI agents, this is a must-have; if you don't, it's premature. For regulated industries, it's a no-brainer add to your stack.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 74/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/unbound
- Security teams governing AI coding agent usage across engineering orgs
- Engineering teams wanting visibility into agent actions and risk posture
- CISOs in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) needing compliance
- Enterprise organizations with 100+ developer seats using multiple agents
- Individual developers seeking a coding assistant without governance needs
- Teams not using AI coding agents yet — tool requires agent footprint
- Organizations without a dedicated security role to manage the platform
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Skip Unbound if your organization does not use AI coding agents, lacks a dedicated security role to configure policies, or is a small team under 10 developers where manual oversight suffices.
Going past 5,000 tool use evals/user/month on Pro adds overage charges, and after limits the plan defaults to audit-only mode, so you might lose enforcement without warning.
Unbound's pricing fits teams that already rely on AI coding agents — the Free tier and Pro at $10/user/mo (annual) are accessible for small to mid-size orgs, while Enterprise at $18+/user/mo targets 100+ seat enterprises needing SSO, SIEM, and custom policies. Compared to AI gateways or CASBs that charge per-seat or per-usage, Unbound's per-user model with pooled evals can be more predictable for agent-heavy teams, though the 10% LLM passthrough fee on Enterprise adds variable cost.
In short
Unbound — Govern AI coding agents — discover, assess, enforce agent security across your org. Best for Security teams governing AI coding agent usage across engineering orgs, Engineering teams wanting visibility into agent actions and risk posture, CISOs in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) needing compliance. Free to start; paid plans from $10/mo.
What's new in Unbound
Checked 3 days agoAcross the latest 5 updates: 3 feature updates and 2 news mentions.
Break Out to Finish the Task
Unbound highlights how agentic systems are pushing past guardrails, reinforcing the need for agent access security.
The Claude Desktop App Governance Playbook
Unbound releases a governance playbook for securing Claude Desktop, covering Cowork, Claude Code, MCP, file access, and agentic execution.
Unbound Brings Full Enforcement to GitHub Copilot
Following GitHub's postToolUse hooks, Unbound now governs Copilot with audit, warn, approve, and block actions.
Prompt Injection in Coding Agents: Every Attack, Every Defense
Unbound details prompt injection vectors for coding agents and introduces detection signals and defensive controls.
Top MCP Server Risks in Production: A Red Team Walkthrough
Unbound presents three MCP exploit chains (tool poisoning, exfil, confused deputy) with detection telemetry and AASB controls.
What people actually say about Unbound — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
114 mentions across 7 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Jul 6, 2026.
- +Fast recursive DNS with caching – lightning local response times.
- +Wildcard-based domain blocking for easy ad-blocking lists.
- +Runs on minimal hardware like Raspberry Pi and Alpine Linux.
- +Supports DoH and DoT for encrypted queries.
- +Integrates well with Pi-hole and pfSense for network-wide filtering.
- −DoH support requires manual compilation if libnghttp2 absent.
- −Can crash or SERVFAIL under heavy TCP recursive load.
- −Setup complexity higher than using public DNS resolvers.
- −No built-in ad-blocking; relies on external blocklist management.
- −Documentation sparse for advanced configurations.
- • Additional hardware cost if not already available
- • Time investment for setup, maintenance, and troubleshooting
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Unbound? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: August 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Agent discovery across 9+ coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Codex, Gemini CLI, Roo Code, Kilo Code)
- MCP server enumeration and risk assessment
- Per-developer security posture scoring
- Policy engine with Audit, Warn, Block, Approve actions
- Hooks integration for Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Codex, and GitHub Copilot via postToolUse hooks
- Gateway mode for full API-level request/response visibility
- Continuous agent inventory and drift detection
- IDE plugin mapping across VS Code and JetBrains
- Terminal command allow/deny with semantic parsing
- MCP server connection and action policies
- Approval workflows for high-risk operations
- Full audit log of every agent action
- Sub-agent and extension configuration analysis
- Prompt insights and LLM interaction analysis (Enterprise)
- Detection signals and defensive controls for prompt injection and MCP attack patterns (May 2026 update)
About Unbound
Unbound is the first Agent Access Security Broker (AASB) built exclusively for AI coding agents like Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot. It gives security teams complete visibility and control over every agent, MCP server, and tool integration running in their engineering organization. A single CLI command inventories all agents, permissions, and risk posture in under five minutes, with no code changes or developer disruption. The platform is designed for organizations already using AI coding agents, where developers have terminal access, MCP connections, and full credentials. Unbound fills the gap that existing controls — EDR, IAM, AI gateways, CASB — miss: governing the agent's runtime behavior at the endpoint. The platform starts with continuous agent discovery across nine coding tools (Cursor, Roo Code, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex, Kilo Code, and more), enumerating MCP servers and their configurations, and mapping IDE plugins across VS Code and JetBrains. It then scores every developer's agent setup against security benchmarks, flagging risky autonomy settings, dangerous MCP connections, and permission issues. The policy engine lets you define granular rules with actions like Audit, Warn, Block, or Approve. You can enforce terminal command allow/deny with semantic parsing, MCP connection and action policies, and require human approval for high-risk operations. A full audit log captures every agent action, with drift detection tracking changes over time. Unbound supports two integration modes: Hooks, using native lifecycle hooks for zero-friction coverage without disrupting developer workflows, and Gateway mode, for full API-level request/response visibility. Recent updates bring full enforcement for GitHub Copilot via postToolUse hooks, a governance playbook for Claude Desktop, and defenses against prompt injection and MCP attack patterns. The platform is SOC 2 compliant and available through AWS, GCP, and Azure marketplaces.
Behind the Verdict
Unbound is purpose-built for a narrow but rapidly growing pain point: securing AI coding agents that now have terminal access, MCP connections, and full developer credentials. The platform's discovery engine is its strongest asset — a single CLI command scans the entire org and inventories every agent, MCP server, and IDE plugin across nine coding tools, giving security teams a complete picture in under 5 minutes. This is genuinely differentiated; most security tools ignore agent runtime behavior entirely. The policy engine is the second pillar. You can define granular rules with Audit, Warn, Block, or Approve actions, enforce terminal command allow/deny with semantic parsing, and set MCP connection and action policies. The dual integration modes — Hooks for zero-friction coverage and Gateway for full API-level visibility — let teams start small and scale enforcement as needed. Recent updates have added full enforcement for GitHub Copilot via postToolUse hooks, a governance playbook for Claude Desktop, and defenses against prompt injection and MCP attack patterns, all of which address real-world risks documented in the threat landscape. Where Unbound fits best: security teams in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) that need compliance visibility and audit trails; engineering orgs with 100+ developer seats running multiple agents; and CISOs who want to understand agent risk before an incident. The Free tier and low-cost Pro tier make it accessible for smaller teams too. Where it doesn't fit: if your org doesn't use AI coding agents, Unbound has zero value. It also requires a security owner to configure and maintain policies — small teams without a dedicated security role may find it overkill. The API Governance Fee of 10% of LLM passthrough on Enterprise could be a surprise for high-volume users. But for any org with a meaningful agent footprint, this is a tool that delivers on its promise.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Unbound actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Run the Unbound CLI to inventory all coding agents across the org, review risk scores, and set up audit policies for risky commands and MCP connections.
Outcome: Within an afternoon, you have full visibility into agent sprawl, a risk ranked list of users, and audit rules that block destructive commands like 'rm -rf' and flag suspicious data transfers.
Deploy Unbound in Gateway mode to capture full API visibility, integrate with Splunk for SIEM logging, and define approval workflows for high-risk operations.
Outcome: You meet compliance requirements with a complete audit trail of agent actions, enforce custom policies aligned with your security policies, and get team-level analytics for board reporting.
Use Unbound's Hooks integration for Cursor and Claude Code to get zero-friction coverage, then set up policies to require approval for production database access.
Outcome: Developers get minimal disruption while you reduce the risk of accidental data loss or exposure — you can see who's using which agents and at what autonomy level.
Use Cases
- Discover all AI coding agents installed across your engineering org with a single CLI command in under 5 minutes.
- Enforce policies that block, warn, or require approval on high-risk agent actions like destructive terminal commands.
- Assess risk of every developer's agent setup against security benchmarks and score their posture.
- Integrate with SIEM tools like Splunk and Datadog for centralized audit logging of agent activities.
- Govern MCP servers and their configurations to prevent data exfiltration via unsanctioned connections.
- Use the Claude Desktop governance playbook to secure Claude Desktop with Cowork, Claude Code, MCP, file access, and agentic execution.
- Prevent prompt injection attacks in coding agents with detection signals and defensive controls.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-08-18
Limitations
- Unbound is purpose-built for securing AI coding agents, so it provides no value for organizations that do not use such agents.
- The Pro tier includes a 30-day audit log retention and a 48-hour email SLA, while the Enterprise tier offers longer retention and faster support at a higher price.
- The Enterprise API Governance Fee of 10% of LLM passthrough may affect high-volume users.
- Free tier defaults to audit-only mode after eval limits are exceeded.
as of 2026-08-20
Verification history
We have re-verified Unbound 5 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Unbound tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Security teams wanting to scan their agent surface in minutes and get a risk snapshot without committing to a paid plan
What this tier adds
Starting tier: instant discovery and audit-only mode with 30-day log retention — a free entry point for evaluation
Pro
$10/user/mo billed annually
Ideal for
Teams ready to enforce policy on coding agents, with no user minimum and pooled evals for up to 100 seats
What this tier adds
Adds 5,000 tool use evals/user/month, full policy engine (Conservative to Mad Max), and continuous discovery + posture
Enterprise
Custom starting at $18/user/mo
Ideal for
100+ developer orgs in regulated industries needing SSO, SIEM export, custom policies, and dedicated support
What this tier adds
Adds RBAC/SSO/SCIM, environment segregation, team analytics, prompt insights, 90-day+ audit logs, and a 10% API governance fee
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Unbound's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Unbound's pricing fits teams that already rely on AI coding agents — the Free tier and Pro at $10/user/mo (annual) are accessible for small to mid-size orgs, while Enterprise at $18+/user/mo targets 100+ seat enterprises needing SSO, SIEM, and custom policies. Compared to AI gateways or CASBs that charge per-seat or per-usage, Unbound's per-user model with pooled evals can be more predictable for agent-heavy teams, though the 10% LLM passthrough fee on Enterprise adds variable cost.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Unbound — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Discovery: run the CLI and get a full inventory in under 5 minutes. Policy setup: configure Hooks or Gateway mode in an afternoon. Full enforcement: typically 1-2 days to tune policies and approval workflows. Enterprise onboarding with SSO/SCIM and SIEM export may take up to a week.
Switching to or from Unbound
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual agent oversight: Start with Unbound's Free tier, run the CLI, and use audit-only mode to get visibility without touching developer workflows.
- ↗To a general CASB or AI gateway: Export audit logs from Unbound to your SIEM before decommissioning, and ensure your replacement covers agent runtime behavior.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
Official links
Tools that pair well with Unbound
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Unbound, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Unbound vs Temporal Ai
If your org needs to govern AI coding agents across Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot, Unbound is the dedicated security broker with policy enforcement (hooks + gateway) and MCP risk scoring. If you need to build reliable, crash-surviving AI agent pipelines or multi-step workflows, Temporal's durable execution platform with automatic retries and state capture is the proven choice—trusted by OpenAI and Replit. The two tools are complementary: use Unbound to secure the agents, and Temporal to build the workflows.
Unbound vs Audioeye
Unbound and AudioEye serve entirely different needs: one governs AI coding agents for security and compliance, the other automates web accessibility. The choice depends on your primary pain point. If your engineering org uses multiple AI agents (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) and you lack visibility into their actions, Unbound is the only dedicated AASB. If you face ADA/WCAG compliance pressure or lawsuits, AudioEye provides end-to-end scanning, remediation, and legal documentation. Both target enterprises but overlap minimally. Buying both is possible if you need both agent governance and accessibility compliance.
Unbound vs Push Security
Choose Push Security if you're defending against browser-based attacks (AiTM, session hijacking, shadow SaaS) and need to control employee use of AI tools like ChatGPT. Choose Unbound if your primary risk is AI coding agents (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) and you need visibility, policy enforcement, and MCP security across your engineering org. They address different threat surfaces — Push is browser security, Unbound is coding agent governance — so purchase both if both apply.
Alternatives to Unbound
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Mindgard
Automated AI red teaming & security platform for continuous agent and system protection
Poolside AI
Open-weight agentic coding models for regulated enterprises needing auditable, on-prem AI
Frequently Asked Questions
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