# smol-machines/smolvm

Portable, lightweight, self-contained virtual machine.

Repository: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/smolvm
Homepage: https://smolmachines.com
Language: Rust
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: containers, crun, libkrun, microvm, rust, virtual-machine
Last push: 2026-08-26T22:05:31+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 79/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 18
- inputs: {"age_days": 258, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 7, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 124}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5756, forks 273 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:29.030517+00:00)

## What it is
smolvm is an open-source CLI and runtime for running lightweight, hardware-isolated Linux microVMs locally on macOS, Linux, and Windows, built on libkrun with sub-second cold starts and no Docker daemon required. It can pack a stateful VM into a single portable .smolmachine file and boot OCI images with declarative Smolfile configuration.

## Use cases
- run untrusted code in a hardware-isolated sandbox
- sandbox coding agent execution with locked-down network egress
- boot an alpine OCI image as an ephemeral microVM
- pack a python environment into a portable self-contained executable
- create persistent dev VMs declared in a Smolfile
- run kubernetes or docker inside a local microvm
- run headless browsers for computer-use agents in isolation

## When to choose
- you need VM-level isolation rather than container isolation for untrusted or agent workloads
- you want sub-second VM startup on your laptop without a Docker daemon
- you need portable, self-contained VM artifacts that run across macOS, Linux, and Windows
- you want declarative VM configuration with explicit network policy and port mappings

## When to avoid
- you only need lightweight process-level containerization and already run Docker or Podman
- your host lacks hardware virtualization (no KVM, Apple Silicon requirements, or Windows Hypervisor Platform)
- you need managed, persistent cloud VMs without operating infrastructure yourself
- you need live migration or snapshotting of running VMs

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: container-runtime, cli, security, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, security, cloud-computing
- platform: windows, cli, rust
- tags: microvm, virtualization, sandboxing, oci-images, libkrun, portable-vms, agent-sandbox, smolmachine, command-line, automation, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- smol-machines/smolvm (main) score 79

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.030517+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 2026-08-29T17:53:16.531866+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.030517+00:00, sha 8b52bc6f63d9)
  - homepage: https://smolmachines.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:30.807606+00:00, sha 949c89810b01)
  - site_page: https://smolmachines.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:30.818733+00:00, sha 071a84ff63f3)
  - site_page: https://smolmachines.com/docs/local (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:30.820195+00:00, sha 4fb2294f54bf)
  - site_page: https://smolmachines.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:30.816878+00:00, sha 1be798c91874)
  - site_page: https://smolmachines.com/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:30.821735+00:00, sha 5757cc8a3b16)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.