What is microVM?
A minimal virtual machine with a stripped-down device model that boots in milliseconds and gives each workload its own guest kernel.
MicroVM in agent sandboxes
A microVM keeps the strong boundary of hardware virtualization — each sandbox has its own kernel, so a kernel exploit inside the guest does not directly reach the host — while removing most emulated devices to cut boot time and memory overhead. Firecracker and Cloud Hypervisor are the best-known microVM monitors.
For agent workloads, microVMs are the common choice when running untrusted, model-generated code for many tenants on shared hardware.
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). What is microVM?. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 8, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/glossary/microvm/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.