boring-computers
michaelshimeles
On-demand Firecracker microVMs you can hand to an AI agent, self-hosted on your own KVM box.
What is boring-computers?
Spins up ephemeral Linux microVMs on Firecracker that an AI agent can drive: each VM ships a browser, terminal and pre-installed coding agents (Claude, Codex, Cursor) over VNC, plus a REST/WebSocket API, an MCP server and a TypeScript SDK. VMs can fork, expose ports and files, persist to S3 and self-destruct on a TTL. Deploys to any Ubuntu host with KVM or to an Apple Silicon Mac via Lima. Written mostly in Go with a Svelte UI.
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Maintainer | michaelshimeles |
| GitHub stars | 222 (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Forks | 31 |
| License | Apache-2.0 |
| License type | OSI-open |
| Category | Computer-use and autonomous agents |
| Status | Rising |
| Edition | 2026-07 |
| Last verified | 2026-07-11 |
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Real microVM isolation via Firecracker rather than shared containers
- Self-hostable on your own hardware, with an MCP server and SDK included
- VM forking and TTL self-destruct map cleanly onto agent-sandbox needs
Cons
- Needs KVM-capable hosts (or Lima on Apple Silicon); not a trivial setup
- The sub-second boot and 35ms fork figures are project claims, not independently benchmarked
- Young project (~100 commits); multi-tenant operational hardening is left to you
License
Apache-2.0 (OSI-open)
When it is interesting
You want to give agents disposable, isolated Linux boxes on infrastructure you control.
When it is too early
If you need a managed, SLA-backed sandbox or lack KVM hardware to self-host.
Commercial alternative & related
- Commercial counterpart: E2B
This repo featured in the 2026-07 edition of the Open-Source AI Radar.
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