What Is StacyVM?

Learn what StacyVM does, why teams use it, how it compares to alternatives, and where it fits in agent infrastructure.

StacyVM is self-hosted sandbox infrastructure for applications that need to run code safely, repeatedly, and observably. It gives agents and developer tools a disposable machine-like workspace with shell access, files, timeouts, quotas, previews, and audit trails.

The Short Version

Your application calls StacyVM when it needs a clean runtime. StacyVM creates a sandbox, runs work inside it, streams output back, exposes files and previews, and destroys the environment when the task is done.

Why StacyVM Exists

AI coding agents, workflow engines, and developer tools increasingly need to execute generated code. Running that code directly on your host is risky. Outsourcing every execution to a cloud sandbox can be expensive, slower, or difficult to govern.

StacyVM sits in the middle: you keep the execution plane under your control while developers get a simple API.

Advantages

Your runtime, network, logs, credentials, and certification boundary stay with you.

Agents get a simple API for shell, files, streaming output, and previews.

TTL cleanup, quotas, audit logs, typed errors, and conformance gates are built in.

Advantage	What it means
Self-hosted control	You decide where code runs, what network it can reach, and how logs are retained.
Provider flexibility	Start with Docker, then certify Firecracker, PRoot, custom providers, or remote workers when needed.
Developer-friendly API	Use REST, Python, or TypeScript without learning the underlying runtime provider first.
Production guardrails	Use TTLs, quotas, typed errors, health checks, audit logs, config linting, and runtime conformance.
Agent-ready workflows	Run commands, stream output, move files, and expose live previews for generated web apps.

Common Use Cases

Coding agents

Give agents a real shell and filesystem without giving them your host.

Code execution APIs

Run submitted snippets, scripts, tests, and generated code in short-lived environments.

Live app previews

Let users inspect web apps built inside sandboxes through preview URLs.

Internal automation

Run build, migration, analysis, or validation jobs with consistent cleanup.

Comparison

Approach	Best for	Tradeoff
Direct host execution	Trusted internal scripts	Unsafe for generated or user-provided code.
Docker-only wrapper	Fast local prototypes	Usually lacks a stable API, quotas, audit trails, and multi-worker routing.
Cloud sandbox APIs	Teams that do not want to operate infrastructure	External dependency, data egress concerns, cost, and less host-level control.
Kubernetes jobs	Long-running platform teams	Strong orchestration, but heavier developer ergonomics for per-agent interactive execution.
StacyVM	Self-hosted, agent-facing sandbox infrastructure	You operate the control plane and certify the runtimes you publicly claim.

Mental Model

Think of StacyVM as a control plane in front of many possible sandbox runtimes.

What StacyVM Is Not

• It is not a promise that every provider is safe on every host. You must certify runtime claims.
• It is not a replacement for application-level authentication.
• It is not a general Kubernetes distribution.
• It is not a reason to run unbounded user code without TTLs, quotas, and audit logging.

Next Steps

• Start with the quickstart.
• Review the system architecture.
• Build the Python example app or TypeScript example app.