# zerobootdev/zeroboot

Sub-millisecond VM sandboxes for AI agents via copy-on-write forking

Repository: https://github.com/zerobootdev/zeroboot
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zeroboot
Homepage: https://zeroboot.dev
Language: Rust
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: ai-agents, code-execution, firecracker, kvm, rust, sandbox, vm, copy-on-write, virtual-machine
Last push: 2026-03-21T22:53:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 48/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 73, release rhythm 35, longevity 12
- inputs: {"age_days": 171, "days_push": 165, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, young
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2435, forks 108 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:51.381828+00:00)

## What it is
Zeroboot is an open-source sandboxing service that spawns sub-millisecond KVM virtual machines for AI agent code execution by forking Firecracker snapshots via copy-on-write memory mapping. It exposes an HTTP API and Python/TypeScript SDKs, and can be self-hosted on any Linux host with KVM or used via a managed API.

## Use cases
- run untrusted AI-generated code in isolated VMs
- spawn thousands of sandboxes with millisecond latency
- execute Python or JavaScript snippets server-side for agents
- self-host a code execution sandbox on a Linux box with KVM
- replace E2B or Daytona with a faster, cheaper sandbox
- give LLM agents a safe compute environment with hardware isolation

## When to choose
- you need hardware-enforced VM isolation for untrusted agent code
- spawn latency and per-sandbox memory footprint are critical
- you want an open-source, self-hostable alternative to E2B or microsandbox
- you run Linux hosts with KVM support

## When to avoid
- you need a production-hardened, battle-tested sandbox today
- your hosts lack KVM or you run on macOS/Windows
- you need non-Linux guest runtimes beyond the preloaded templates
- you require long-lived persistent sandboxes rather than short-lived forks

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: experimental
- function: api-framework, http-server, sdk
- domain: security, cloud-computing, developer-tools, self-hosted
- platform: rust, python, self-hosted, cloud
- tags: firecracker, kvm, copy-on-write, vm-snapshots, code-interpreter, ai-agent-sandbox, sub-millisecond-spawn, sandbox, virtualization, code-execution, ai-agents, linux, nodejs

## Member repositories
- zerobootdev/zeroboot (main) score 48

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.381828+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 2026-08-30T02:31:07.639905+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zerobootdev/zeroboot (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.381828+00:00, sha 486daa6c8f9e)
  - homepage: https://zeroboot.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T10:12:25.369321+00:00, sha 7183ec2019da)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.