{"slug": "libkrun", "name": "libkrun", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.2, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-06-26", "latest": "2026-09-23", "why": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["libkrun"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797156720, "item_id": 49822295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822295", "by": "dbmikus", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use your favorite VMM / hypervisor (likbrun, smolvm, microsandbox, etc).", "excerpt": "You don't need to do this on a cloud, you can get the same type of VM and network jail running on your own computer. The important parts are: 1. a VMM hypervisor 2. a network proxy / gateway Use your favorite VMM / hypervisor (likbrun, smolvm, microsandbox, etc). They give you control over the network interface or let you inject your own network layer. The network proxy can handle all the ingress/egress rules, creden", "context": "builds open core tools for sandboxed agents", "use_case": "sandboxing agents in VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cloud Agents Are Inevitable AI Prisons"}, {"id": 784429216, "item_id": 49026826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026826", "by": "sureglymop", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend", "excerpt": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend which works exactly as you describe here. podman run --rm -it --runtime=krun ubuntu sh", "context": "", "use_case": "run OCI images as microVMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "You can now run same OCI images as containers or Firecracker microVMs"}, {"id": 779023824, "item_id": 48688989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48688989", "by": "dbmikus", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can check out libkrun (and friendly layers on top of it like", "excerpt": "Why do you want to self-host vs. using one of the many providers out there? Daytona, E2B, OpenComputer, Freestyle, Blaxel, Vercel, Modal, Cloudflare, Tensorlake, Superserve, etc. etc. Some of them work by pre-purchasing credits, so you can control the blast radius of spend. Also, if you want a more embedded sandbox runtime as a library instead of a daemon + REST API, you can check out libkrun (and friendly layers on ", "context": "", "use_case": "embedded sandbox runtime", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run isolated sandboxes with full lifecycle control: AWS introduces MicroVMs"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "dbmikus", "context": "builds open core tools for sandboxed agents", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822295", "date": "2026-09-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["sandboxing agents in vms", "microvm isolation", "run oci images as microvms", "embedded sandbox runtime"], "compared": [{"slug": "smolvm", "name": "smolvm", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsandbox", "name": "microsandbox", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49820267", "title": "Cloud Agents Are Inevitable AI Prisons", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233423", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49021880", "title": "You can now run same OCI images as containers or Firecracker microVMs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48642510", "title": "Run isolated sandboxes with full lifecycle control: AWS introduces MicroVMs", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797156720, "item_id": 49822295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822295", "by": "dbmikus", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Use your favorite VMM / hypervisor (likbrun, smolvm, microsandbox, etc).", "excerpt": "You don't need to do this on a cloud, you can get the same type of VM and network jail running on your own computer. The important parts are: 1. a VMM hypervisor 2. a network proxy / gateway Use your favorite VMM / hypervisor (likbrun, smolvm, microsandbox, etc). They give you control over the network interface or let you inject your own network layer. The network proxy can handle all the ingress/egress rules, creden", "context": "builds open core tools for sandboxed agents", "use_case": "sandboxing agents in VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cloud Agents Are Inevitable AI Prisons"}, {"id": 787754787, "item_id": 49234674, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234674", "by": "Bnjoroge", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "uses smolvm which uses libkrun vmm", "excerpt": "Lots of fun projects being listed. I'm working on Preloop(https://preloop.dev), a way to run your unmodified Github Actions locally or self-hosted in isolated cross-platform microvms(uses smolvm which uses libkrun vmm).I got frustrated with Github Actions reliability and inability to run or test my workflows locally so i re-wrote the runner and reverse-engineered the control plane so it follows the exact runner proto", "context": "", "use_case": "microVM isolation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 784429216, "item_id": 49026826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026826", "by": "sureglymop", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend", "excerpt": "You can do this with libkrun. I use it as a podman backend which works exactly as you describe here. podman run --rm -it --runtime=krun ubuntu sh", "context": "", "use_case": "run OCI images as microVMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "You can now run same OCI images as containers or Firecracker microVMs"}, {"id": 779023824, "item_id": 48688989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48688989", "by": "dbmikus", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can check out libkrun (and friendly layers on top of it like", "excerpt": "Why do you want to self-host vs. using one of the many providers out there? Daytona, E2B, OpenComputer, Freestyle, Blaxel, Vercel, Modal, Cloudflare, Tensorlake, Superserve, etc. etc. Some of them work by pre-purchasing credits, so you can control the blast radius of spend. Also, if you want a more embedded sandbox runtime as a library instead of a daemon + REST API, you can check out libkrun (and friendly layers on ", "context": "", "use_case": "embedded sandbox runtime", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run isolated sandboxes with full lifecycle control: AWS introduces MicroVMs"}]}