smolvm

Ship and run software with isolation by default.

This is a CLI tool that lets you:

1. Manage and run custom Linux virtual machines locally with: sub-second cold start, cross-platform (macOS, Linux, Windows), elastic memory usage.
2. Pack a stateful virtual machine into a single file (.smolmachine) to rehydrate on any supported platform.

Install

# install (macOS + Linux)
curl -sSL https://smolmachines.com/install.sh | bash

# for coding agents — install + discover all commands
curl -sSL https://smolmachines.com/install.sh | bash && smolvm --help

Or download from GitHub Releases, and place it into ~/.local/share/.

Windows: download the windows-x86_64 release (bundles krun.dll + libkrunfw.dll), unzip it, and run smolvm.exe. Requires the Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHP) feature enabled.

Quick Start

# run a command in an ephemeral VM (cleaned up after exit)
smolvm machine run --net --image alpine -- sh -c "echo 'Hello world from a microVM' && uname -a"

# interactive shell
smolvm machine run --net -it --image alpine -- /bin/sh
# inside the VM: apk add sl && sl && exit

Use This For

Sandbox untrusted code — run untrusted programs in a hardware-isolated VM. Host filesystem, network, and credentials are separated by a hypervisor boundary.

# network is off by default — untrusted code can't phone home
smolvm machine run --image alpine -- nslookup example.com
# fails — no network access

# lock down egress — only allow specific hosts
smolvm machine run --net --image alpine --allow-host registry.npmjs.org -- wget -q -O /dev/null https://registry.npmjs.org
# works — allowed host

smolvm machine run --net --image alpine --allow-host registry.npmjs.org -- wget -q -O /dev/null https://google.com
# fails — not in allow list

Pack into portable executables — turn any workload into a self-contained binary. All dependencies are pre-baked — no install step, no runtime downloads, boots in <200ms.

smolvm pack create --image python:3.12-alpine -o ./python312
./python312 run -- python3 --version
# Python 3.12.x — isolated, no pyenv/venv/conda needed

Use local container images — for CI, air-gapped hosts, and fast iteration. Feed --image a docker save / podman save archive, pipe one on stdin, or point it at an unpacked rootfs directory. Image work is delegated to your container tooling; smolvm just boots the result.

# build locally, run in the VM with no push/pull
docker build -t myapp .
docker save myapp | smolvm machine run --image - -- ./app

# from an archive file (boots with no network)
smolvm machine run --image ./myapp.tar -- ./app

# from an already-unpacked rootfs directory
smolvm machine run --image ./rootfs/ -- ./app

Persistent machines for development — create, stop, start. Installed packages survive restarts.

smolvm machine create --net --name myvm
smolvm machine start --name myvm
smolvm machine exec --name myvm -- apk add sl
smolvm machine exec --name myvm -it -- /bin/sh
# inside: sl, ls, uname -a — type 'exit' to leave
smolvm machine stop --name myvm

Use git and SSH without copying private keys into the guest. Forward your host SSH agent into the VM. The guest can ask the agent to sign with any forwarded key while the socket is available, so forward it only to workloads you trust. Requires an SSH agent running on your host (ssh-add -l to check).

smolvm machine run --ssh-agent --net --image alpine -- sh -c "apk add -q openssh-client && ssh-add -l"
# lists your host keys; private key material remains in the host agent

smolvm machine exec --name myvm -- git clone git@github.com:org/private-repo.git

Declare environments with a Smolfile — reproducible VM config in a simple TOML file.

image = "python:3.12-alpine"
net = true

[network]
allow_hosts = ["api.stripe.com", "db.example.com"]

[dev]
init = ["pip install -r requirements.txt"]
volumes = ["./src:/app"]

[auth]
ssh_agent = true

smolvm machine create --name myvm -s Smolfile
smolvm machine start --name myvm

More examples: python · node · doom

How It Works

Each workload runs in a hardware-virtualized VM with its own guest kernel on Hypervisor.framework (macOS), KVM (Linux), or the Windows Hypervisor Platform (Windows). libkrun is the VMM and libkrunfw supplies the guest kernel. Pack it into a .smolmachine and it runs anywhere the host architecture matches, with zero dependencies.

Images use the OCI format — the same open standard Docker uses. Any image on Docker Hub, ghcr.io, or other OCI registries can be pulled and booted as a microVM. No Docker daemon required.

Defaults: 4 vCPUs, 8 GiB RAM. Memory is elastic via virtio balloon — the host only commits what the guest actually uses and reclaims the rest automatically. vCPU threads sleep in the hypervisor when idle, so over-provisioning has near-zero cost. Override with --cpus and --mem.

Security Model

smolvm strengthens the guest/host boundary by giving each workload a separate VM and guest kernel. It is not, by itself, a hardened multi-user control plane:

• The smolvm CLI and VMM processes run with the permissions of the invoking host user. That user account, the host OS, the hypervisor backend, libkrun, and smolvm are in the trusted computing base.
• Host directories passed with --volume are intentionally exposed to the guest with the requested access. Do not mount secrets or sensitive paths into an untrusted workload.
• --ssh-agent does not copy private key material into the guest, but it grants the guest access to the forwarded agent socket and therefore the ability to request signatures while the VM is running.
• Networking is disabled by default. Enabling --net, port forwarding, or host services expands the workload's reachable surface.
• In standalone local use, smolvm's state and control endpoints are scoped to the invoking user's environment. For hostile local co-tenants, add host-level account separation and OS confinement around the VMM process. This section does not describe the separate smolmachines cloud control plane or its tenant-isolation guarantees.
• Release archives publish SHA-256 checksums and the installer rejects a mismatch when the checksum file is available. Releases are not currently signed or accompanied by provenance attestations, and the installer permits installation when the checksum file cannot be downloaded.

Treat root in the guest as untrusted. The VM boundary limits its direct access to the host, while every explicitly forwarded capability, including mounts, network access, ports, and SSH agent access, becomes part of the workload's authority.

Comparison

	smolvm	Containers	Colima	QEMU	Firecracker	Kata
Workload boundary	VM + guest kernel	Namespace + shared kernel	Namespace inside shared VM	VM + guest kernel	VM + guest kernel	VM per container
Boot time	<200ms	~100ms	~seconds	~15-30s	<125ms	~500ms
Architecture	Library (libkrun)	Daemon	Daemon (in VM)	Process	Process	Runtime stack
Per-workload VMs	Yes	No	No (shared)	Yes	Yes	Yes
macOS native	Yes	Via Docker VM	Yes (krunkit)	Yes	No	No
Embeddable SDK	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Portable artifacts	.smolmachine	Images (need daemon)	No	No	No	No

Platform Support

Host	Guest	Requirements
macOS Apple Silicon	arm64 Linux	macOS 11+
macOS Intel	x86_64 Linux	macOS 11+ (untested)
Linux x86_64	x86_64 Linux	KVM (/dev/kvm)
Linux aarch64	aarch64 Linux	KVM (/dev/kvm)
Windows x86_64	x86_64 Linux	Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHP) enabled

Known Limitations

• Network is opt-in (--net on machine create). TCP/UDP only, no ICMP.
• Volume mounts: directories only (no single files). Mounting at /workspace (-v /host/dir:/workspace) takes priority over the default storage-disk workspace — your host directory is used instead.
• macOS: binary must be signed with Hypervisor.framework entitlements.
• --ssh-agent requires an SSH agent running on the host (SSH_AUTH_SOCK must be set).
• GPU acceleration requires libkrun built with GPU=1 and virglrenderer + a Vulkan driver on the host (see GPU Acceleration below).
• Windows: --net works the same as on other platforms (virtio-net with inbound port-forwarding; TSI for outbound-only VMs), as do machine exec / interactive sessions and machine stats. Not yet available on Windows: GPU acceleration and machine fork / snapshot. Pack create needs storage-template.ext4 / overlay-template.ext4 next to smolvm.exe (Windows has no host mkfs.ext4).

GPU Acceleration

smolvm exposes the host GPU to guests via virtio-gpu / Venus (Vulkan-over-virtio). Guest workloads see a real Vulkan device; on Linux + Intel this renders as:

ANGLE (Intel, Vulkan 1.4 (Virtio-GPU Venus (Intel(R) UHD Graphics ...)), venus)

Host requirements

macOS — virglrenderer and MoltenVK are bundled in the smolvm distribution. No extra installs needed.

Linux — virglrenderer and a host Vulkan driver must be installed from the system package manager:

Distro	Packages
Alpine	apk add virglrenderer mesa-vulkan-intel (or mesa-vulkan-ati for AMD)
Debian/Ubuntu	apt install virglrenderer0 mesa-vulkan-drivers

virglrenderer depends on libEGL and libdrm from the host GPU driver stack — these are hardware-specific and cannot be bundled. Any GPU-capable Linux host will already have them installed via its GPU driver.

Usage

# CLI
smolvm machine run --gpu --image alpine -- vulkaninfo --summary

# Smolfile
# gpu = true
# gpu_vram = 2048   # MiB, default 4096

The guest Vulkan loader must be pointed at the virtio ICD:

export VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/virtio_icd.x86_64.json

Headless browser example

See examples/headless-browser/ for a working Chromium setup using ANGLE + Venus for hardware-accelerated WebGL inside a headless VM.

Development

See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.

Apache-2.0 · made by @binsquare · twitter · github