Silo is a local microVM sandbox runtime where machines are created from OCI images.

The short version:

1. OCI image in.
2. Runtime config from policy.
3. Small, isolated VM out.

Core Principles

• Image first: OS images are built from OCI images.
• API first: libvm is the core runtime interface.
• Policy first: networking, kernel access, and userspace access are driven by policy.

Only network policies are implemented today. Kernel and userspace policies are the direction.

CLI

Build the CLI locally:

nix develop
make build

Run an ephemeral VM from an image:

silo run --image ubuntu:24.04 -- uname -a

Create and enter a persistent VM:

silo create dev --image ghcr.io/vandycknick/archlinux:latest --start
silo shell dev

Inspect and manage machines:

silo ls
silo status dev
silo stop dev
silo rm dev

SDK

Use libvm when you want to create and manage machines directly from Rust.

use libvm::{LibVmError, Memory, Runtime};

#[tokio::main(flavor = "current_thread")]
async fn main() -> Result<(), LibVmError> {
    let runtime = Runtime::from_env().await?;

    let machine = runtime
        .machine()
        .image("ghcr.io/vandycknick/archlinux:latest")
        .name("devbox")
        .cpus(6)
        .memory(Memory::gb(16))
        .network(|network| network.private())
        .create()
        .await?;

    machine.start().await?;

    Ok(())
}

Docs

• Packaging
• Terminology
• Guest agent