# smolvm

Branchable microVMs for AI agents.

Source: https://wheredoirunthis.com/products/smolvm · JSON: https://wheredoirunthis.com/api/products/smolvm · Read on 2026-10-12

## At a glance

- Type: Sandbox
- Kind: Open core
- Isolation: Virtual machine
- Free tier: Not documented
- Starting price: $20/mo
- GPU: Not documented
- Regions: Not disclosed
- Coverage: 19 of 61 assessed capabilities supported
- Agent readiness: read 10 of 11 signals, drive 9 of 11 signals

## Links

- Homepage: https://smolmachines.com/
- Docs: https://smolmachines.com/docs
- Pricing: https://smolmachines.com/pricing
- Repository: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm

## Pricing

- Model: Hosted plan fee plus metered base running time, active vCPU, RSS memory, used disk and egress. Standard $0, Pro $20/month, Startup $150/month, Enterprise custom. OSS engine free under Apache-2.0 plus own infrastructure.
- Unit: Machine-hour $0.04 (1-minute minimum), active vCPU-hour $0.05, active memory GB-hour $0.0162, used disk GB-hour $0.0001, egress GB $0.05. Exec/file I/O $0.
- Free tier: Standard has $0 monthly plan fee and one-time $100 signup credit, no card. Pricing page + public JSON agree; cloud quickstart still says $10 monthly free usage, so recurring free credit is not treated as current.

| Tier | Price | Includes | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| standard | $0/month + usage | 20 machines; up to 8 vCPU/16 GB per machine; disk cap not published; idle apps scale to zero; one-time $100 signup credit, no card. | Plan fee buys limits/support, not included usage or a different per-unit rate. [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |
| pro | $20/month + usage | 100 machines; up to 16 vCPU/24 GB/200 GB disk each; always-on apps; 99.95% uptime SLA. | Plan fee buys limits/support, not included usage or a different per-unit rate. [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |
| startup | $150/month + usage | 1,000 machines; up to 32 vCPU/32 GB/200 GB disk each; priority support; always-on apps; 99.95% uptime SLA. | Plan fee buys limits/support, not included usage or a different per-unit rate. [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |
| enterprise | custom | Contractual limits, dedicated nodes, volume rates, 99.95% SLA and SSO/SAML. | Plan fee buys limits/support, not included usage or a different per-unit rate. [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |

- Overages: All usage is metered at published rates. Graduated 10% discount applies only to spend above $2,000/month; stopped machines billed only held used disk. Plan fee additional.
- Card required: Not documented
- Source: https://smolmachines.com/pricing

## Runtime

- **GPU & accelerators**: Local/self-host only: Vulkan via virtio-gpu/Venus and CUDA API remoting over vsock. Needs compatible host graphics stack or NVIDIA GPU/driver. CUDA sharing is not hardware-partitioned GPU isolation. Cloud create API has no GPU resource fields; native Windows GPU acceleration unavailable. [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/introduction/concepts/gpu)
- **BYOC (Bring your own cloud)**: na — "Self-host on operator servers and custom managed solutions are described; a managed deploy-into-customer-cloud-account offering is not documented." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/local/self-hosting) (confidence: high)
- **Secrets management**: Local --secret-env/--secret-file inject readable plaintext; SSH-agent forwarding keeps key bytes on host but permits signatures. --credential and Smolfile network.credentials replace guest placeholders only on authorized HTTPS destinations so real secrets stay outside guest. No cloud-native secrets vault documented. [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/guides/agent-sandboxes-ci)
- **Storage options**: Persistent cloud machine filesystem sized by storageGb; memory-backed paths reset on stop. Local host-directory mounts and packed .smolmachine files. Cloud has no host mounts; generated legacy volume routes are not a supported storage API. No first-party object-storage service documented. [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/lifecycle-storage-networking)
- **Supported workloads**: Untrusted/generated code, persistent coding-agent workspaces, warm branch fan-out, portable dev/CI environments, Linux services, headless browsers; local Vulkan desktop/computer-use and CUDA training/inference. [source](https://smolmachines.com/faq)
- **Persistence**: Both local ephemeral runs and persistent machines. Cloud filesystem survives exec and stop/start; /tmp, /run and /dev/shm are memory-backed and reset on restart. Delete removes storage; stop is not a backup. [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/lifecycle-storage-networking)
- **Data jurisdiction**: United States: privacy policy says Google Cloud US regions and data processed in the United States. No exact hosted region codes disclosed. Self-host jurisdiction follows operator placement. [source](https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy)
- **Resource limits & quotas**: Local default 4 vCPU/8 GiB elastic RAM. Hosted Standard: 20 machines, 8 vCPU/16 GB per machine (disk cap unpublished); Pro: 100 machines, 16 vCPU/24 GB/200 GB; Startup: 1,000 machines, 32 vCPU/32 GB/200 GB; Enterprise contractual. Quota failures identify the plan limit. VM count is capacity/concurrency, not monthly sandbox-creation throughput. [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing)
- **SDK languages**: Node/TypeScript and Python smolmachines packages; embeddable Rust smolmachines crate. smol Machine API targets embedded local engine or cloud; older smolvm-sdk targets smolvm serve REST. [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm)
- **Network & egress controls**: Local networking off by default; hostname/subdomain and CIDR allowlists, exact/glob host patterns, runtime updates. Cloud supports explicit blocked/open/allowCidrs modes; SDK cloud default is open, so local isolation-by-default does not imply cloud egress blocked by default. No first-class deny-list documented. [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/introduction/concepts/isolation-networking-credentials)
- **Snapshots & forks**: Local live copy-on-write branches preserve RAM, processes and disks. Portable checkpoints and pause/resume are documented, with version/device/architecture constraints; current repo documents arm64 Mac-to-Linux restore and Windows checkpoints plus --freeze-source branches. Cloud branches are node-local; REST snapshots return 501, while separate checkpoint CLI routes are documented. Broad local/cloud live migration is not established. [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm/blob/main/docs/branching.md)
- **Deployment methods**: cli, sdk, api, container-image, template [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm)
- **Isolation**: Virtual machine — "Each workload runs in a hardware-virtualized VM with its own guest kernel on Hypervisor.framework (macOS), KVM (Linux), or the Windows Hypervisor Platform (Windows). libkrun is the VMM; libkrunfw supplies the guest kernel. vm is the schema value for this own-kernel boundary, not Firecracker or gVisor." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) (confidence: high)

## Capabilities

### AI & agents

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Agent skills | Supported | "A skill packet is a task-scoped procedure for smol machines, written for an agent to load when that task comes up." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/guides/skills) |
| AI app builder | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Autonomous QA agent | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Built-in coding agent | Not supported | "the OpenAI Codex CLI (`codex`) pre-installed" [source](https://smolmachines.com/registry) |
| BYOK for LLMs | Not supported | "Bring your own API key at runtime." [source](https://smolmachines.com/registry) |
| Credential-injection proxy | Supported | "the guest gets a placeholder in `ENV_VAR` and the host substitutes the real value only on requests to the listed hosts, so the code in the machine never sees it." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/guides/agent-sandboxes-ci) |
| LLM gateway | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| MCP client | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| MCP-server hosting | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| MCP server | Not supported | "HTTP/2 404" [source](https://smolmachines.com/.well-known/mcp) |
| Model inference API (first-party) | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Preinstalled coding agent | Supported | "Coding-agent sandbox — Node.js, Python, git, ripgrep, and build-essential with the OpenAI Codex CLI (`codex`) pre-installed. Bring your own API key at runtime." [source](https://smolmachines.com/registry) |

### Networking & delivery

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic HTTPS | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Custom domains | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Direct public IPv6 | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Edge KV store | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Egress controls | Supported | "Networking is off by default, egress can be limited to named hosts, and code can use a credential without ever reading it." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |
| Email send / receive | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Public preview URLs | Supported | "`url()` returns the public ingress URL for the first published cloud port." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/sdk/machine-api) |
| Private networking | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Built-in reverse proxy | Supported | "Set `public: true` only when the service should be reachable without the caller's API authorization." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/lifecycle-storage-networking) |

### Organisation & security

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built-in auth | Not supported | "Google or email login via Auth0" [source](https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy) |
| BYOC | Not supported | "You can install smolvm on your own servers and operate local machines on each host." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/local/self-hosting) |
| Deploy into customers' VPCs | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Secrets management | Partially supported | "Secret injection places plaintext in the guest:" [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/guides/agent-sandboxes-ci) |
| Self-host / OSS core | Supported | "Standalone smolvm provides the engine, CLI, local state, and `smolvm serve` HTTP API." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/local/self-hosting) |
| Sharing | Partially supported | "Sharing a machine through scoped share links" [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/api-reference) |
| SSO / SAML | Partially supported | "SSO/SAML" [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |
| Teams | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Workload identity | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |

### Developer access

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CLI | Supported | "smolvm machine run --net --image alpine -- uname -a" [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |
| E2B-compatible API | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Filesystem API | Supported | "Supported on local and cloud:" [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/sdk/machine-api) |
| Git deploy | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| HTTP data API | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| OpenAPI spec | Supported | ""openapi":"3.1.0"" [source](https://smolmachines.com/openapi.json) |
| Private container registry | Partially supported | "The registry stores `.smolmachine` artifacts using OCI registry conventions." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/registry) |
| Public API | Supported | "The Cloud API is the hosted REST interface for smol cloud." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/api-reference) |
| SDK | Supported | "npm install smolmachines" [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |
| SSH access | Not supported | "smolvm machine run --net -it --image alpine -- /bin/sh" [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |

### Compute & storage

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cloud-init / ignition config | Partially supported | "A Smolfile declares a machine in TOML, the equivalent of a `Dockerfile` or a cloud-init file, but for a whole VM: image, resources, network policy, mounts, ports, and setup commands in one checked-in file." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm/blob/main/docs/smolfile.md) |
| Desktop / computer-use sandbox | Supported | "A machine can run a real desktop and serve it from the host, so the guest needs no VNC server, no capture tool, and no compositor-specific screencopy protocol." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/guides/headless-browser-computer-use) |
| GPU compute | Supported | "Local smolvm has two GPU paths for different workloads: Vulkan graphics through virtio-gpu and CUDA compute through API remoting." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/introduction/concepts/gpu) |
| Live-state (memory) snapshots | Supported | "Checkpoints capture RAM, CPU state and disks; branches are copy-on-write children of a live machine." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |
| Multi-region | Not supported | "Google Cloud — compute infrastructure, databases, and logs (US regions)." [source](https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy) |
| Object storage | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Persistent disk | Supported | "Cloud machines keep their filesystem across commands and stop/start cycles." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/lifecycle-storage-networking) |
| Sandbox templates / custom images | Supported | "Pack a machine, however you set it up, into a single `.smolmachine` file." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm) |
| Scale to zero | Supported | "idle apps scale to zero and wake on the next request" [source](https://smolmachines.com/pricing) |
| Selectable isolation runtime | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Snapshots / forking | Supported | "A branch is a live fork: an independent copy-on-write child that resumes with the source's running processes, memory, and disk." [source](https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm/blob/main/docs/branching.md) |

### Data

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Database branching | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Ephemeral instant DB (no-signup) | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| First-party database | Not supported | "postgres:16 — packaged as a smolmachine" [source](https://smolmachines.com/registry) |
| Vector search | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |

### Platform & operations

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Managed CI/CD runners | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Built-in observability | Partially supported | "Per-machine usage and cached images" [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/api-reference) |
| Preview environments | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Scheduled tasks | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Project template marketplace | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |
| Durable workflows | Not supported | "Smol machines provides a local microVM runtime, a managed cloud service, and an optional application SDK." [source](https://smolmachines.com/docs/) |

## Agent readiness

### Read: 10 of 11 signals present

10/11 signals (10 full, 0 partial)

- Llms txt: pass — "https://smolmachines.com/llms.txt: substantive docs/product/API/pricing/auth/skills index."
- Llms full txt: fail — "https://smolmachines.com/llms-full.txt returns HTTP 404 HTML; robots points to llms.txt, not a comprehensive full dump."
- Robots AI policy: pass — "robots.txt explicitly allows search engines and AI crawlers: User-agent: * / Allow: /."
- JSON LD: pass — "Homepage JSON-LD graph has Organization, SoftwareApplication, WebSite; software name/description and OSS/cloud Offer entries."
- Sitemap: pass — "Fetchable substantive XML sitemap lists public docs/legal/pricing/registry pages; >5 URLs."
- Meta quality: pass — "Homepage descriptive title, meta description, OG title/description/image and canonical URL."
- Markdown negotiation: pass — "Homepage Accept:text/markdown serves clean product guide; docs Markdown twins and pricing.md are substantive."
- Content efficiency: pass — "Homepage HTMLParser readable non-script/style UTF-8 text / raw HTML bytes = 9.14%, above 5% full-credit threshold."
- Docs discoverable: pass — "Docs is a first-class homepage header link /docs reachable in raw HTML."
- Pricing machine readable: pass — "pricing.md has structured rates/plan tables; live unauthenticated /v1/pricing JSON corroborates amounts."
- Anti bot: pass — "Retained public landing/docs/legal/specs/rate card fetched without bot or consent challenge; ordinary optional 404s are not blocks."

### Drive: 9 of 11 signals present

9/11 signals (7 full, 2 partial)

- Public API: pass — "https://smolmachines.com/docs/cloud/api-reference documents machine create/exec/files, authentication, lifecycle and quotas."
- Openapi spec: pass — "Fetchable OpenAPI 3.1.0 at /openapi.json, 44 paths; generated schema can lag API and includes unsupported legacy volumes."
- MCP server: fail — "/.well-known/mcp HTTP 404; no first-party MCP server/endpoint or installable package in retained docs/llms guide."
- SDK packages: pass — "Official smolmachines packages for Node/TypeScript, Python and Rust, linked in repository README."
- Auth docs: pass — "auth.md documents bearer smk_ API keys, operation scopes, expiry, revocation and scoped minting."
- Agent self serve creds: pass — "auth.md documents POST /v1/apikeys to mint narrower keys with existing authenticated key, no browser; initial root key still obtained through console sign-in. This documents issuance, not behavioral autonomous signup."
- Webhooks: fail — "No webhook delivery/signing docs; machine events/polling are not webhooks."
- CLI tool: pass — "Official smolvm engine CLI plus smol cloud/local orchestration CLI."
- Error model: pass — "Cloud API: RFC 9457 application/problem+json, stable code/detail/retryable, Retry-After and x-request-id; exec exit code model documented."
- Rate limit docs: partial — "Per-tenant rate limiting and 429 with Retry-After documented, but concrete request ceilings and rate-limit remaining/reset headers not published."
- Agent config: partial — "Substantive /docs/guides/skills task-scoped script packets; /agents.md and /.well-known/agent HTTP 404, so one agent-config surface only."

## Coding harnesses

- Codex CLI (OpenAI) — "codex … Coding-agent sandbox — Node.js, Python, git, ripgrep, and build-essential with the OpenAI Codex CLI (`codex`) pre-installed. Bring your own API key at runtime." [source](https://smolmachines.com/registry)

## Compliance & regions

- GDPR: self-attested (scope: hosted) — "Depending on where you live (including the EEA/UK under GDPR …), you may have specific statutory rights… smol machines, inc. is the data controller." [source](https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy)
- CCPA: self-attested (scope: hosted) — "Depending on where you live (including… California under CCPA), you may have specific statutory rights to the same effect." [source](https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy)
- Regions note: Country-level disclosure: Google Cloud US regions and data processed in United States. Exact hosted regions and placement choices not public; no multi-region availability inferred. Self-host placement is operator-defined.

## Open source

- Repository: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm
- License: Apache-2.0
- Stars: 6699
- Forks: 326
- Self-host methods: binary, source-build

## Company & presence

- Headquarters: unknown
- Founded: unknown
- Team size: unknown
- Privacy policy: https://smolmachines.com/legal/privacy
- Terms of service: https://smolmachines.com/legal/terms
- GitHub: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm
- Discord: https://discord.gg/E5r8rEWY9J
- X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/binsquares
- Status page: https://smolmachines.com/status
- Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/smol-machines

## Nearby in the atlas

- [Agent Safehouse](/products/agent-safehouse.md)
- [Agent Sandbox](/products/agent-sandbox.md)
- [Agent Substrate](/products/agent-substrate.md)
- [Agent37](/products/agent37.md)
- [AgentNest](/products/agentnest.md)
- [Anthropic Sandbox Runtime (srt)](/products/sandbox-runtime.md)

## Method

Facts come from the product's own public pages. Each claim carries its evidence: a quote and the page it came from. We count capabilities rather than grade products, and "Not assessed" means we have not checked, never that the product lacks it.