GStars
    smol-machines

    smol-machines/smolvm

    An embeddable, portable, branchable virtual machine to safely run Agents locally.

    backend
    agent-sandbox
    ai-agents
    code-execution
    containers
    crun
    Rust
    Apache-2.0
    7.0K stars
    355 forks
    7.0K GitHub watchers
    Updated Nov 5, 2026
    View on GitHub

    Build with Backblaze B2

    SDKs, agent skills, IDE extensions, and reference pipelines from Backblaze Labs. All open source.

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    Where it stands

    Rank, growth pace and release cadence relative to everything GStars tracks.

    5 releases in the last 90 days, the latest 4 days ago, with 62 contributors on GitHub.

    Use Cases & Benefits

    • Provides an embeddable, portable virtual machine to safely run isolated Linux workloads locally with fast startup and cross-platform support.
    • Enables hardware-isolated, stateful VMs with sub-second cold starts and portable snapshot artifacts without requiring a Docker daemon.
    • Use for sandboxing untrusted code with strict network and filesystem isolation to prevent unauthorized host access.
    • Use for packaging and distributing self-contained, pre-baked VM environments as portable .smolmachine files for reproducible deployments.
    • Use for running persistent development environments with live host directory mounts and SSH agent forwarding for secure git and SSH workflows.

    Should you depend on it?

    License terms, project hygiene and risks, from GitHub metadata and GStars' snapshots.

    License

    Apache 2.0

    Permissive: commercial use, modification and redistribution are allowed with attribution; includes an explicit patent grant from contributors.

    Community files

    • README: present

    Watch-outs

    No watch-outs from GStars' checks.

    General guidance from repository metadata, not legal advice. How we score

    From the README

    Ship and run software with isolation by default.

    Or download from GitHub Releases, and place it into ~/.local/share/.

    Windows: download the windows-x86_64 release (bundles krun.dll + libkrunfw.dll), unzip it, and run smolvm.exe. Requires the Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHP) feature enabled.

    Excerpt from the smol-machines/smolvm README on GitHub (Apache-2.0 license). © its authors.Read the full README on GitHub

    Daily snapshots

    Stars gained per day, and how forks and open issues moved, from GStars' daily snapshots

    Sep 21: +25Sep 22: +68Sep 23: +14

    +778 stars over 47 days across 7 snapshot days; best day +68 on Sep 22.

    Forks

    355+58

    Open issues

    87+7

    Compared with peers in Backend

    Fastest-growing repositories GStars tracks in this cohort for the week of Nov 1, by 7-day star growth

    View category →
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