Kern – container and resource runtime in a 1.5 MB binary, no daemon
A fast, rootless sandbox and virtual resource runtime for any workload, including untrusted and AI-generated code. Daemonless: a real, kernel-enforced container in ~3.5 ms from an OCI image, out of one static binary - getkern/kern
Kern – container and resource runtime in a 1.5 MB binary, no daemon launched on August 24, 2026 with 70 votes, #565 of 23,274 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
Kern is a lightweight container runtime distributed as a 1.5 MB static binary that requires no daemon process. It creates kernel-enforced sandboxes from OCI images in approximately 3.5 milliseconds, running without root privileges. The tool is designed for executing any workload securely, including untrusted and AI-generated code, making it suitable for developers and organizations needing fast, isolated execution environments with minimal overhead.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Rootless container runtime with no daemon. Runs agent tool calls and LLM-generated code in kernel-enforced containers. - getkern/kern
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