nanoVM

nanoVM runs your code in fast, isolated microVMs (“sandboxes”) behind a plain HTTP/JSON API and a Python SDK. Everything a first-day user needs is on this page; everything else is one deliberate step deeper.

Initial pilot: access by invitation, at most 20 sandboxes per organization and 4 vCPU / 8 GiB per sandbox. Read the launch guide for first-run instructions, cold-image expectations, recovery behavior, support, and pilot terms. The timings in these docs are historical development measurements, not service guarantees.

Start

Log in at https://console.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud (your first login creates your organization), create an API key on the API Keys page (shown once, starts with lith_sk_), then:

python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install "$(curl -fsS https://console.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud/sdk/LATEST)"
export NANOVM_API_URL=https://sk.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud NANOVM_TOKEN=lith_sk_...

The whole platform, in ten lines:

from lithosbox import LithosBox

nv = LithosBox()                                   # reads NANOVM_* env; ONE per process
sb = nv.sandboxes.create(image="python:3.12-slim") # or create() for the default sandbox
sb.run("pip install -q flask")                     # shell semantics, runs to completion
sb.files.write("/app/app.py", code)                # files in, files out
print(sb.run("python /app/app.py --check").stdout)
sb.run("flask --app /app/app run -p 8000", background=True)
print(sb.expose(8000).url)                         # public HTTPS URL
snap = sb.snapshot()                               # save point (memory + disk)
sb2 = nv.snapshots.restore(snap)                   # load it into a NEW sandbox
sb.delete(); sb2.delete()

Never pip install nanovm/lithosbox from PyPI — those names are not ours. Keep one client per process: its connections are reused, which is most of the difference between a 10 ms create and a 200 ms one. with nv.sandboxes.create() as sb: deletes on exit (best effort — the downloadable first-run example shows explicit delete-and-confirm). Complete first run with curl instead: curl -fsS https://console.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud/examples/first-sandbox.sh | bash. Coding agents: python -m lithosbox skill install, then tell the agent “set up nanoVM” — details in For coding agents.

Where to go next

Run commands

Shell strings, argv form, sessions, and background work.

Save, restore, fork

Checkpoint a sandbox and fork live copies for parallel work.

The twelve operations

The complete SDK surface — one operation per job, arguments select behavior.

HTTP API

Every route, the sandbox object, and every status code.

Query these docs from your agent

These docs are agent-readable without any setup: append .md to any page URL for its Markdown, fetch /llms.txt for the index or /llms-full.txt for every page concatenated, install the nanoVM skill with npx skills add https://docs.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud, or connect the docs as an MCP server:

claude mcp add --transport http nanovm-docs https://docs.nanovm.dev.lithosai.cloud/mcp

Getting help

Report anything odd — a stuck sandbox, a confusing error, a slow create — with the vm_id and the time; every request is traceable on our side. See the launch guide for support channels and pilot terms.

Getting Started

Guides

Concepts

Reference

Start

Where to go next

Run commands

Save, restore, fork

The twelve operations

HTTP API

Query these docs from your agent

Getting help

​Start

​Where to go next

Run commands

Save, restore, fork

The twelve operations

HTTP API

​Query these docs from your agent

​Getting help

Start

Where to go next

Query these docs from your agent

Getting help