Ignite

Ultra-secure microVM sandboxing for JS/TS services, AI-generated code, and untrusted scripts.

Overview

Ignite runs JavaScript/TypeScript code inside isolated, hardware-virtualized microVMs rather than containers. Execution currently requires a Linux host with KVM, using Firecracker as the hypervisor.

Status: pre-1.0. A macOS backend built on Apple's Virtualization.framework is planned but not implemented — the platform selector is stubbed and returns a clear error. Bun is the only runtime ignite setup provisions today.

It is designed for systems that execute code you do not fully trust:

• AI agent generated code
• Plugin or extension ecosystems
• User submissions and sandboxed automation
• Security-sensitive CI checks

Key Features

• KVM-backed Firecracker: Each service runs in its own microVM with a separate guest kernel. (A macOS Virtualization.framework backend is planned; see Status above.)
• Host-Reliant Disk Mounts: The guest microVM has no shell, utilities, or libraries. Service code and language runtimes (Bun, Node, Deno, QuickJS) are compiled on the host and attached as read-only virtual block devices (/dev/vdb and /dev/vdc).
• VSOCK Multiplexing: Low-latency communication handshakes stream stdout/stderr and exit codes directly back to the host via virtual sockets, bypassing network interfaces.
• Resource Enforcement: memoryMb and cpuLimit are applied to Firecracker machine config, while timeoutMs is enforced by a host-side watchdog that force-terminates timed-out VMs. cpuLimit is rounded up to whole vCPUs, which is the only granularity Firecracker accepts.
• Preflight & Metric Timelines: Sub-millisecond logging of all VM lifecycle transitions (disk format, boot connect, execution, cleanup).

Quick Start

1) Prerequisites

• Linux with KVM enabled (/dev/kvm accessible).
• firecracker on your PATH.
• e2fsprogs (provides mke2fs).
• The musl target for the static guest agent: rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.
• An uncompressed ELF vmlinux. Distro /boot/vmlinuz-* files are compressed bzImages that Firecracker cannot boot; extract one with the kernel tree's scripts/extract-vmlinux, or use a prebuilt Firecracker kernel, then point IGNITE_KERNEL_PATH (or --kernel) at it.

Run ignite status to check KVM access and Firecracker availability.

2) Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/dev-dami/ignite.git
cd ignite
cargo build --release

Release binaries will be compiled under target/release/ignite-cli (installed as ignite).

3) Initialize a Service

ignite init hello-world
cd hello-world

4) Run the VM Sandbox

ignite run .

To run with trace timelines of startup transitions:

ignite run . --verbose

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CLI at a Glance

Command	Purpose
ignite init <name>	Generate a new service scaffold
ignite run <path>	Build + execute service in a microVM
ignite preflight <path>	Run safety validator checks
ignite serve	Start HTTP REST API server

Runtime Support

Runtime	Accepted versions	Default	Provisioned by ignite setup
Bun	1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3	1.3	Yes
Node	18, 20, 22	20	No — install manually
Deno	1.40, 1.41, 1.42, 2.0	2.0	No — install manually
QuickJS	2024-01-13, 2023-12-09, latest	latest	No — install manually

Runtimes are read from ~/.ignite/runtimes/ (override with IGNITE_RUNTIMES_ROOT). A pinned spec such as bun@1.3 resolves to runtimes/bun@1.3/ and falls back to runtimes/bun/ with a warning. Runtime binaries must be statically linked or otherwise self-contained: the guest rootfs has no dynamic loader.

Only runtimes you install are available; ignite setup currently downloads Bun only.

Documentation

• Getting Started
• Walkthrough
• API Reference
• Architecture
• Threat Model

License

MIT (see LICENSE).