# firecracker-microvm/firecracker-containerd

firecracker-containerd enables containerd to manage containers as Firecracker microVMs

Repository: https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker-containerd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/firecracker-containerd
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: aws, containerd, containers, oci, virtualization, firecracker, firecracker-containerd, firecracker-microvms
Last push: 2026-08-17T13:40:01+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2848, "days_push": 16, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2910, forks 244 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:29.227853+00:00)

## What it is
firecracker-containerd is a set of components that lets containerd manage containers running inside Firecracker microVMs, combining fast container-style startup with KVM-based hypervisor isolation. It includes a control plugin, an out-of-process shim runtime, an in-VM agent, and a root filesystem image builder.

## Use cases
- sandbox untrusted third-party containers in their own microVM
- bin-pack container workloads on a host with strong isolation
- run multi-tenant workloads with hypervisor-level isolation
- run OCI containers with Firecracker microVMs via containerd
- achieve high container density without sacrificing isolation

## When to choose
- you already use containerd and need stronger isolation than kernel-based runtimes
- you run partially or fully untrusted containers and want to protect host secrets
- you need fast-starting, low-overhead microVMs for multi-tenant hosting

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose container runtime without microVM overhead
- your workloads are fully trusted and standard runc isolation suffices
- you need a solution supported on non-Linux hosts or without KVM

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: container-runtime, container-orchestration, security
- domain: cloud-computing, security, developer-tools
- platform: go, cloud
- tags: firecracker, microvm, containerd, sandboxing, kvm, oci, multi-tenancy, serverless, virtualization, containers, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- firecracker-microvm/firecracker-containerd (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:29.227853+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:34:18.291233+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker-containerd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:29.227853+00:00, sha 1fb1eec42b41)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.