about

Run any workload in a fast, hardware-isolated Linux VM. The same SDK and the same .smolmachine artifact run identically:

• on your Mac or Linux box — sub-second boot, free, offline.
• in our cloud — deploy with one call.
• self-hosted — on your own servers.

Develop locally, then deploy or self-host without changing a line.

The engine is open source (Apache-2.0): smol-machines/smolvm.

install + usage

# 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

# 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

# uninstall
curl -sSL https://smolmachines.com/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall

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 -- ping -c 1 1.1.1.1
# 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

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

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
smolvm machine stop --name myvm

GPU-accelerated workloads — Vulkan access to the host GPU inside isolated VMs.

smolvm machine run --gpu --net --image fedora:42 -- bash -c '
  /usr/lib64/chromium-browser/headless_shell \
    --no-sandbox --screenshot=/tmp/shot.png \
    --window-size=1920,1080 https://example.com'

More examples: python · node

comparison

	smolvm	Containers	QEMU	Firecracker
Isolation	VM per workload	Namespace (shared kernel)	Separate VM	Separate VM
Boot time	<300ms	~100ms	~15-30s	<125ms
Architecture	Library (libkrun)	Daemon	Process	Process
GPU	Yes (Vulkan)	Host passthrough	VFIO	No
macOS native	Yes	Via Docker VM	Yes	No
Portable artifacts	.smolmachine	Images (need daemon)	No	No

how it works

Each workload gets real hardware isolation — its own kernel on Hypervisor.framework (macOS) or KVM (Linux). Pack it into a .smolmachine and it runs anywhere the host architecture matches, with zero dependencies.

Defaults: 4 vCPUs, 8 GiB RAM. Memory is elastic via virtio balloon — the host only commits what the guest actually uses. libkrun VMM + custom kernel: libkrunfw. No daemon — the VMM is a library linked into the smolvm binary.

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)