Use Cases

Sandboxes

Securely run untrusted sandboxes in milliseconds; scale them to zero, branch or checkpoint them as needed.

Start heavy sandboxes in milliseconds

Snapshot a fully initialised environment (runtime, deps, warm caches) into a template and boot each sandbox from it. Idle ones cost nothing. Scale to zero and restore statefully in ms.

cold start & scale-to-zero < 10 ms

Genuinely secure sandboxes

Every sandbox is a hardware-isolated microVM with its own kernel, not a container sharing the host's. Its traffic leaves through a shield microVM that filters egress and holds your credentials, so untrusted code can use an API without ever seeing the key.

own kernel · secrets never enter the sandbox

Branch, checkpoint, run as many as you need

One hardware-isolated microVM per task: branch a live sandbox to launch sub-agents from its exact state, or checkpoint it and rewind when a path goes wrong.

branch & restore in < 10 ms · platform is built for scale

sandbox

shell

sandbox

filesystem

sandbox

shell + fs

...as many as the workload needs

all traffic

Network shield

A (scale to zero) microVM every packet must pass through: filters traffic, injects secrets

API keys · tokens

Public internet

Third-party APIs, package registries

Nothing reaches the internet directly: the shield sits in the path, filters it, and adds the credentials the sandbox never holds.

Watch the video to see a sandbox boot in under 10 ms, scale to zero while idle, and resume with its state intact.

Create a sandbox from your own code

The JavaScript SDK wraps the sandbox plugin in a Sandbox class, so a microVM is a few lines:

Code
import { Sandbox } from "@unikraft/cloud";

// `await using` deletes the sandbox when this scope ends, however it ends.
await using sandbox = await Sandbox.create();

const { stdout } = await sandbox.exec("echo hello");
await sandbox.writeFile("/work/input.txt", "...");

Commands, standard input, signals and the filesystem are all covered. The Python and Go SDKs drive the instances themselves.

Under the hood

The platform features this use case is built on.

Network shield

A separate microVM that all network traffic is routed through. It can filter traffic and inject secrets.

Plugin API

An authenticated channel over which command execution and filesystem access services are provided.

Branching

Clones a running sandbox, memory and volume state included, in milliseconds, so a sub-agent can start from the parent's exact state instead of setting itself up again.

Checkpoints

Capture the full state of a sandbox and keep a history, so you can rewind to the last good point when a run goes wrong.

Autokill

Optionally terminates long-running sandboxes so a stuck or hostile workload can't run indefinitely.

Stateful scale-to-zero & templates

Give large, heavy sandbox environments millisecond startup, and cost nothing while idle.

Create your first sandbox now

Edit this page

Last modified on November 4, 2026

Overview Headless & Headful Browsers