The local-first embedded runtime for AI agents.

Real microVMs, as a library. No daemon, no cloud, no root - on your laptop, your cluster, your customer's machine.

[ Read_the_docs ]

Request an AI summary of this page

On your laptop. On your cluster. On your customer's machine.

CLAUDECODEXGEMINIOPENCLAW

features

Four things containers can't do.
Clouds shouldn't have to.

$ box.boot()

Microsecond microVMs

Real Linux kernel per box. Own kernel, own memory, own everything. Hardware isolation at container speed.

<50ms
box.resume()

State that survives

Install once. Edit once. Stop and resume tomorrow - packages, files, env still there.

T+1w
snapshot -> fork

Fork like a branch

Snapshot the full state and branch it. Explore three strategies in parallel. Roll back risky ops instantly.

3x
pip install boxlite

One library. Every platform.

Same pip install on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Same code on your laptop and your production cluster.

KVM

quickstart

Three lines. Any language.
A real VM.

Not a sandbox. Not a container. A real Linux VM, called from a function.
01import asyncio02import boxlite0304async def main():05    async with boxlite.SimpleBox(image="python:slim") as box:06        result = await box.exec("python", "-c", "print(2 + 2)")07        print(result.stdout)  # "4"0809        await box.exec("pip", "install", "numpy")10        result = await box.exec(11            "python", "-c",12            "import numpy as np; print(np.random.rand(3))"13        )14        print(result.stdout)1516asyncio.run(main())

runtime

A library on top.A microVM underneath.

Real microVMs. Your machine.

Containers are embeddable but share a kernel. MicroVMs isolate properly but need a daemon. BoxLite eliminates the tradeoff.

Rust core, native bindings. No daemon. Pluggable hypervisor: KVM on Linux, Hypervisor.framework on macOS, WSL2 on Windows.

workloads

Built for the agentspeople actually ship in 2026.

FIG 01
One runtime. Six workloads.

Six concrete scenarios.

SANDBOX YOUR CODING AGENT

Mount your repo read-only, let the agent work on a copy, review the diff before merging.

Your shell history, your SSH keys, your Docker daemon - all safe behind a hardware boundary.

SHIP DESKTOP AI THAT RUNS CODE

Embed BoxLite into your app. No cloud sandbox cost, no privacy story to defend.

The sandbox runs on your user's machine. Local Replit, Claude Code competitors, on-device code execution.

LONG-HORIZON AGENTS

Boxes retain packages, files, and state across stop/restart. Resume tomorrow. Resume next week.

Research, refactoring, multi-hour data pipelines - the box remembers. One setup, N sessions.

BROWSER & GUI AGENTS

BrowserBox ships with Playwright + CDP ready. ComputerBox ships with XFCE, screenshot, mouse, keyboard APIs.

Skip the Dockerfile gymnastics. pip install boxlite, get a browser or a desktop.

LOCAL DEV, CLUSTER PROD

Develop on your MacBook. Ship the same image and SDK to your cluster, untouched.

Runtime layer is identical at every stage. No "works on my machine, fails in CI".

PARALLEL AGENT EXPLORATION

Fork full state, run three strategies in parallel, and keep the winner.

No re-installing packages, no re-uploading codebases - fork is copy-on-write at VM level, measured in ms.

faq

The questions people actually ask.

Those are cloud services. BoxLite is a library that runs on your infrastructure, including your laptop. No account to start, no data leaving your machine, no per-minute billing.