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Use Cases

Remote Desktops

Full remote desktop environments power browser-based access to Linux GUIs, agentic computer-use workloads, secure browsing sessions, and disposable workstations. They're memory-hungry, security-sensitive, and often run in short, interactive bursts—making them a strong fit for microVM-based, scale-to-zero infrastructure.

Why run remote desktops on Unikraft Cloud

⚡ Instant session startups

MicroVMs on Unikraft Cloud boot in milliseconds, so a full desktop is ready the moment a user opens the link:

• No waiting for heavy VMs or container images to warm up.
• Sessions resume from standby in milliseconds when traffic returns.

🔒 Strong session isolation

Remote desktops run untrusted browsers, untrusted documents, and arbitrary user input. With Unikraft Cloud:

• Each desktop runs in its own VM, isolated by design.
• A minimal, single-purpose image reduces attack surface.

💸 Cost-efficient scale-to-zero

Interactive sessions are bursty—active for minutes, idle for hours:

• Desktops scale-to-zero between sessions, removing idle costs.
• Pay only for the seconds users actively spend in the session.

🤖 Built for automation

Computer-use workloads drive a real desktop the same way a human does:

• Expose a noVNC endpoint over HTTPS for browser or programmatic access.
• Spin up a fresh, disposable environment per task or per session.

Getting started

Remote desktops on Unikraft Cloud run faster, safer, and cheaper. From disposable browsers to a Linux GUI in a tab, you get instant scale-out and zero idle costs—without sacrificing isolation.

This guide shows you how to use noVNC, an open source Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client that runs in the browser, paired with a minimal Linux desktop and Firefox.

To run it, follow these steps:

1. Install the CLI and a container runtime engine (for example, Docker). Use the unikraft CLI or the legacy kraft CLI.

2. Clone the examples repository and cd into the examples/novnc-browser/ directory:

Code
git clone https://github.com/unikraft-cloud/examples
cd examples/novnc-browser/

Make sure to log into Unikraft Cloud and pick a metro close to you. This guide uses fra (Frankfurt, 🇩🇪):

The UKC_TOKEN and UKC_METRO environment variables are only supported by the legacy CLI.

When done, invoke the following command to deploy this app on Unikraft Cloud:

The output shows the instance address and other details:

In this case, the instance name is vnc-browser. The address is different for each run.

Open the provided address in a browser to reach the noVNC landing page. From there, click Connect to open the remote desktop, which ships with Firefox and a minimal Linux GUI.

At any time, you can list information about the instance:

When done, you can remove the instance:

Customize your deployment

The current deployment ships with Firefox, a tiling panel, and a small set of X11 utilities on top of Ubuntu. Customizing the deployment means editing the Dockerfile to add the apps your users need, such as a different browser, an editor, or developer tools. You can also adjust the screen geometry through the WIDTH, HEIGHT, and DISPLAY_NUM environment variables in wrapper.sh.

Anthropic's Computer Use Demo inspired this example, which works well as a sandbox for computer-use automation that needs to drive a real desktop.

Learn more

Use the --help option for detailed information on using Unikraft Cloud:

Or visit the CLI Reference or the legacy CLI reference.