Show HN: Stateful Linux microVMs for coding agents

AHVM released a client that gives coding agents persistent Linux microVMs with interactive shells, files, networking and snapshots, running on a Linux server the user controls. The tool installs via curl or Homebrew on Apple Silicon Macs and Linux x86_64, requires a server with KVM, systemd, glibc 2.35+, Python 3, OpenSSL 3 and GNU tar, and its default Ubuntu image ships Node.js LTS, Bun, Python, Git, build tools, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi. Ordinary VMs pause after 30 seconds of inactivity and idle-stop after one hour, with snapshots and crash recovery from the latest checkpoint.

Stateful Linux microVMs for coding agents, on the hardware you control. Website https://ahvm.app · Documentation https://ahvm.app/docs/ · Releases https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/releases AHVM gives your coding agents persistent Linux machines with interactive shells, files, networking and snapshots. Install the client on your Mac or Linux machine; your sandboxes run on a Linux server you control. No domain or public API port is needed. The default Ubuntu image https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/DEVELOPMENT-IMAGE.md includes Node.js LTS, Bun, Python, Git, build tools, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi. Bring your own provider credentials. New image builds open interactive shells as ahvm ; use sudo for administration. Existing images retain their previous user until recreated from an updated image. curl -fsSL https://ahvm.app/install.sh | bash export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" Or use Homebrew: brew install mariobm/ahvm/ahvm Clients are available for Apple Silicon Macs and Linux x86 64. The curl installer needs curl, gzip and Python 3. You can inspect the script https://ahvm.app/install.sh before running it. ahvm host add home --ssh root@YOUR SERVER IP --install Existing SSH aliases work too: replace root@YOUR SERVER IP with your alias. The server needs Linux x86 64, KVM, systemd, glibc 2.35+, Python 3, OpenSSL 3 and GNU tar. Use root or an account with passwordless sudo. Installation downloads the runtime and Ubuntu image. Leave off --install to connect an already installed server. The first host becomes your default if none is selected; --context home selects a host for one command. SSH handles encryption and host-key checks; the admin token is not saved on your laptop. ahvm contexts ahvm use home ahvm create dev --cpus 2 --memory 4096 Bash opens inside the VM: bun --version exit Omit the name to let AHVM generate one: ahvm create . Interactive creation opens Bash automatically. Use --no-shell to create without attaching; --json and redirected stdin or stdout also return without opening a shell. Type exit to end Bash and return to your local terminal. Your VM and files remain. Press Ctrl- instead to detach while keeping the shell session alive. Run ahvm shell dev to open a new shell, or ahvm start dev first if the VM has stopped automatically while idle. Ordinary VMs first pause after 30 seconds without activity and resume automatically on guest work; connected shells stay awake. See idle pause https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/IDLE-PAUSE.md for configuration and stop behavior. printf 'Hello from AHVM\n' hello.txt ahvm files put dev ./hello.txt /workspace/hello.txt ahvm files get dev /workspace/hello.txt ./download.txt ahvm snapshot create dev before-change ahvm stop dev ahvm start dev Uploads replace the guest file only when complete. With default local storage, stop saves a disk and memory checkpoint for non-desktop VMs; desktop VMs restart from disk. Idle-stop defaults to one hour, and wake is explicit. Crash recovery uses the latest checkpoint. Keep off-host backups for important data. When you are finished, delete the VM and its working disk: ahvm delete dev Invited accounts can connect the CLI with ahvm login , check their workspace with ahvm whoami , and revoke access with ahvm logout . Compute-enabled pilot workspaces use ahvm create dev and ahvm shell dev after ahvm use cloud . Login selects Cloud only when no default exists. Use ahvm context to inspect your connection, ahvm contexts to list choices, and ahvm use home to switch back. ahvm --context cloud delete dev targets Cloud for just one command. Names belong to the selected connection; AHVM never searches other hosts. See cloud setup and limits https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/CLOUD-LOGIN.md . ahvm image available ahvm image list ahvm image pull ubuntu-dev ahvm image default ubuntu-dev ahvm create another-dev --image ubuntu-dev Ubuntu is the automatic default. These are VM disks, not Docker images. Downloads are verified against a signed catalog and cached on your server. Updating an image affects future sandboxes; existing filesystems and snapshots stay unchanged. See building your own images https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/IMAGE-PUBLISHING.md . The desktop preview adds XFCE, Bash and Firefox to the Ubuntu development image. It runs on the same Linux server without a GPU. With a desktop-capable release: ahvm create dev-desktop --desktop --no-shell ahvm desktop dev-desktop The first create downloads ubuntu-desktop to your saved SSH host. The Mac client includes the native viewer. Closing its window leaves the VM running; ahvm stop dev-desktop preserves files but discards the desktop session. Remove it with ahvm delete dev-desktop . Desktop snapshots are not supported. See the desktop image guide https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/images/ubuntu-desktop/README.md . ahvm upgrade Client installed with curl brew upgrade ahvm Client installed with Homebrew ahvm host upgrade home Server Use the client upgrade command matching your installation. Server upgrades preserve configuration and the selected image, check API health, and roll back the runtime and database if the new version fails to start. AHVM is an early-release product for evaluation; it is not yet qualified for hostile multi-tenant workloads. The runtime is Rust, using the pinned libkrucible fork of libkrun. Private submodule access is required to build the VMM; see the build guide https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/RUST-INSTALL.md . make build make test make check Agent House originated as a fork of Bhatti https://github.com/sahil-shubham/bhatti . AHVM is open-source under the standard MIT License https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/LICENSE , with no revenue cap or paid commercial software license requirement. Commercial use is permitted. Upstream and third-party licenses remain valid. See NOTICE https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/NOTICE , the retained Apache-2.0 text https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/licenses/Apache-2.0.txt and the licensing explanation https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/LICENSING.md for attribution and scope. On a supported Linux GPU host: ahvm create omarchy --image omarchy-desktop --no-shell ahvm desktop omarchy The first create downloads the image on a saved SSH host. Defaults to 4 CPUs and 8 GiB RAM. See setup, requirements and limitations https://github.com/mariobm/agent-house/blob/main/docs/OMARCHY-DESKTOP.md .