AI · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to SmolVM – open-source sandbox for coding and computer-use agents
SmolVM is an open-source local sandbox for AI agents on macOS and Linux. I started building it because agent workflows need more than isolated code execution. They need a reusable environment: write files in one step, come back later, snapshot state, pause/resume, and increasingly interact with browsers or full desktop environments. Right now SmolVM is a Python SDK and CLI focused on local developer experience. Current features include: - local sandbox environments - macOS and Linux support - snapshotting - pause/resume - persistent environments across turns Install: ``` curl -sSL…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Branchable computing by using a portable, lightweight, self-contained virtual machine - smol-machines/smolvm
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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SmolVLA▲139Powerful robotics VLA that runs on consumer hardware
2025 · huggingface.co · its alternatives →
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I wanted to see how fast an isolated code sandbox could start if I never had to boot a fresh VM. So instead of launching a new microVM per execution, I boot Firecracker once with Python and numpy already loaded, then snapshot the full VM state. Every execution after that creates a new KVM VM backed by a `MAP_PRIVATE` mapping of the snapshot memory, so Linux gives me copy-on-write pages automatically. That means each sandbox starts from an already-running Python process inside a real VM, runs the code, and exits. These are real KVM VMs, not containers: separate guest kernel, separate guest…
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! This is Tim from AnythingLLM (https://github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm). AnythingLLM is an open-source desktop assistant that brings together RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), agents, embeddings, vector databases, and more—all in one seamless package. We built AnythingLLM over the last year iterating and iterating from user feedback. Our primary mission is to enable people with a layperson understanding of AI to be able to use AI with little to no setup for either themselves, their jobs, or just to try out using AI as an assistant but with *privacy by…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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WASM sandbox for running LLM-generated code safely. Agents get a bash-like shell and can only call tools you provide, with constraints you define. No Docker, no subprocess, no SaaS — just pip install amla-sandbox
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, we built SuperHQ, an open source app that runs AI coding agents in isolated microVM sandboxes instead of directly on your machine. Each agent gets its own VM with a full Debian environment. You mount your projects in, writes go to a tmpfs overlay so your host is never touched, and you get a diff view to accept or discard changes. API keys never enter the sandbox. We also just launched remote.superhq.ai which acts as a remote control for SuperHQ, allowing you to access your workspaces and agents from anywhere.
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Spin up secure sandboxes in ~100 ms
Nov 2025 · hopx.ai · its alternatives →
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SuperHQ▲95Hey HN, I built SuperHQ, an app that lets you run coding agents in local sandboxes (powered by Shuru). No custom UI wrapping the agents, they run as CLI/TUI like they were designed to. It just provides you the tools most of us (okay, maybe just me?) needed for running multiple coding agents in parallel without worrying about breaking your system or work environment. Each agent runs in its own microVM. You mount your projects in, writes go to a tmpfs overlay so your host is never touched, and you get a unified diff view to accept or discard changes. API keys never enter the sandbox, they…
Apr 2026 · superhq.ai · its alternatives →
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2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN! Sina here. i wanted to share this open source project (apache 2.0) that i've been working on for the past month or so. it's called hotcell and it lets you create/pause/manage sandboxes on any device (your laptop, linux vm, bare metal). i've tested it against various benchmarks that i found on computesdk (https://www.computesdk.com/benchmarks/sandboxes/) as well as the one shared by dax (cofounder of open code) on twitter recently (link to his original thread and my reply https://x.com/sinasanm/status/2078158598996443346) and…
Aug 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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NanoKVM-Go▲119Give your AI agent physical control over any screen
Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN - Marcello and Vaibhav here. We built smolmodels to experiment with using LLMs for ML development. It's a fully open-source library that generates complete model training and inference code from natural language descriptions. It combines graph search with LLM code generation to find a model that gives as good predictions as possible. The core idea is that LLMs are overkill for a lot of predictive tasks. Smolmodels automates the trial-and-error process of finding the right model architecture and training approach, letting you build small, specialised models. You can either provide your…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Create microVMs from OCI images. Contribute to slp/krunvm development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Contribute to vrn21/bouvet.com development by creating an account on GitHub.
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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We’ve been working with automating coding agents in sandboxes as of late. It’s bewildering how poorly standardized and difficult to use each agent varies between each other. We open-sourced the Sandbox Agent SDK based on tools we built internally to solve 3 problems: 1. Universal agent API: interact with any coding agent using the same API 2. Running agents inside the sandbox: Agent Sandbox provides a Rust binary that serves the universal agent API over HTTP, instead of having to futz with undocumented interfaces 3. Universal session schema: persisting sessions is always problematic, since…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey everyone, We're excited to introduce MarinaBox, an open-source toolkit for creating isolated desktop/browser sandboxes tailored for AI agents. Over the past few months, we've worked on various projects involving: 1. AI agents interacting with computers (think Claude computer-use scenarios). 2. Browser automation for AI agents using tools like Playwright and Selenium. 3. Applications that need a live-session view to monitor AI agents' actions, with the ability for human-in-the-loop intervention. What we learned: All these scenarios share a common need for robust infrastructure. So,…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Over the past few months, as we scaled our internal AI Agents, we hit a dead end: Running LLM-generated arbitrary code in Docker is basically running naked on security due to container escape risks. But using full traditional VMs takes minutes to boot and eats too much memory to support high-density concurrency. We loved the developer experience of SaaS sandboxes on the market, but they are closed-source, expensive, and have too high a barrier to entry for self-hosting. So, our team decided to build our own. After months of grinding, using RustVMM and KVM, we built a blazing-fast,…
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey! I've been really intrigued about small, on device models recently. This project was to explore that a small base model running in the browser as a Co Pilot-like writing assistant. You can check out the demo here: smol-complete.vercel.app. Smal, on device models have a lot of advantages with low latency, cost, privacy (a big one), and being task specific. The demo will definitely repeat itself and hallucinate sometimes, but let me know what you think!
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, We are building Sanbox, a platform for running AI agents in isolated and resumable sandboxes. We use the OpenCode SDK as the harness, support reusable templates, and have a CLI that works with Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, CI, or your terminal. Each sandbox has MicroVM isolation, a persistent filesystem, and live trail of run events. Can also self-host if required for security/compliance. It's on the roadmap to add network ACL, secrets managements, LLM cost tracking & observability. We are also happy to build custom integrations or triggers for specific use cases. For example,…
Jul 2026 · sanbox.cloud · its alternatives →
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One workspace. Every local AI tool. Zero Cloud.
Jun 2026 · openllm-studio.vercel.app · its alternatives →
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A sandbox service for running untrusted, agent-authored code that reports the isolation boundary each run executed behind. Lessons, no clone needed: https://plimsollmark.github.io/plimsoll/trainers/ - plimsollmark/plimsoll
11d ago · github.com · its alternatives →
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