Back to browse
Portal (SPC F25) – Try products with browser session sandboxes

Portal (SPC F25) – Try products with browser session sandboxes

by zach4123·Mar 11, 2026·5 points·0 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidSlickCrowd Pleaser

Guardrailed sandbox sessions beat Loombloom with AI operator walkthrough modes.

Strengths
  • .ptl spec file format enables declarative session configuration and version control
  • Blocked selectors and API rate limits prevent users from breaking demo environments
  • Watch Mode AI agent autonomously clicks through workflows for async demos
Weaknesses
  • Loombloom, Navattic, and Console already solve shareable demo environments well
  • Sandboxed browser infrastructure adds latency and cost versus static screenshots
Category
Target Audience

Founders, DevRel teams, sales engineers, user researchers

Similar To

Loombloom · Navattic · Console

Post Description

Hey HN, I'm Zach, founder of Portal. Portal lets you share a live sandbox browser session as a link.

Try it here: https://www.makeportals.com/try

Instead of asking someone to sign up, install software, or book a demo for user research, onboarding, or sales, you send a link and they interact with the real product in a sandboxed browser environment, then you get session replays.

Each viewer gets a fresh remote browser instance that starts from a defined state (URL, cookies, extensions, local files, etc). Sessions are isolated and expire automatically.

The sessions have configurable guardrails: - disabling buttons - restricting URLs - API rate limits - Time limits

In Watch Mode, an AI Agent with contextual awareness clicks through a demo and explains the product. In Play Mode, users explore a guardrailed session while the AI answers questions.

Portal came from trying to get feedback on a chrome extension I’d built to help people with disabilities control gmail with voice. People were cautious to download it & I kept wishing I could send a browser session with the extension already installed to try safely & an AI to explain async.

Portal grew out of that idea: share an exact browser state where your product works without requiring installs or already logged into demo accounts.

Some early uses: - Getting user feedback on local projects in Claude Code with a temporary links/rate limits - Helping onboard to high friction/integration products like extension/add-ons or code reviewers - Replacing inbound product demos in sales for SMBs by embedding on landing pages or sending to prospects with the AI agent self-serve created - Ending live presentations with a QR code open to a live product environment - PMs sharing prototype links for feedback in slack

Docs: https://www.makeportals.com/docs/mcp Try in Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http portal https://mcp-portal-sogv.onrender.com/mcp OpenClaw: https://clawhub.ai/Zach213/portal

Curious about the browser sessions you’d want to share w/ an AI guide- we’re improving latency of interaction every week & think stateful URLs/shareable product states are the future. Love any feedback as we're early!

Similar Projects

Security●●Solid

Minimal Linux sandboxes to manage AI-Generated Code with ease

Embedded Rust sandbox with seccomp and DNS rebinding protection, no VM required.

Big BrainSolve My ProblemShip It
bugthesystem
101mo ago