runtimejs/runtime

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: archived

Adoption not part of the score

1919 stars · 126 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

runtime.js is an open-source library operating system (unikernel) for the cloud that runs JavaScript on an embedded V8 engine, bundling an application into a lightweight immutable VM image. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model inspired by Node.js, supports some Node.js APIs and npm modules, and runs on KVM/QEMU. The project is explicitly not maintained.

Use cases

• build a unikernel VM image from a JavaScript application
• run JavaScript apps directly on a hypervisor without a full OS
• deploy lightweight immutable VM images to the cloud
• experiment with library operating systems and V8
• run Node.js-style code locally in QEMU for testing

When to choose

• you want to explore unikernel or library-OS concepts with JavaScript
• you need a minimal VM image for a small JavaScript service and can accept an unmaintained project
• you want to experiment with V8-based OS kernels on KVM/QEMU

When to avoid

• you need production support, security patches, or an actively maintained project
• you need full Node.js API compatibility or modern npm packages
• you need hypervisors other than KVM
• you want a supported JavaScript runtime - use Node.js, Deno, or Bun instead

Facets

library · maturity abandoned

interpreter http-server cli developer-tools operating-systems cloud-computing developer-tools windows cli unikernel library-os v8 kvm qemu nodejs-compatible virtualization cloud-deployment not-maintained javascript linux macos docker

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="runtimejs/runtime")