NervOS

Give your AI agent a computer. Isolated. Instant. Self-hosted.

NervOS is a tiny operating system that boots in 2 seconds and gives AI agents a safe, isolated Linux machine to work in. Install it with one command. No Docker. No cloud. No config files.

Install

pip install nervos-sandbox

Use with Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop config:

Windows (WSL2):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nervos": {
      "command": "wsl",
      "args": ["-d", "Ubuntu", "--", "sudo", "python3", "-m", "nervos_server"]
    }
  }
}

Linux / macOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nervos": {
      "command": "sudo",
      "args": ["python3", "-m", "nervos_server"]
    }
  }
}

That's it. On first run, NervOS downloads a ~100MB pre-built micro-OS. After that, every launch boots a fresh VM in ~2 seconds.

What can it do?

Once connected, your AI agent gets these tools:

Tool	What it does
sandbox_exec	Run any shell command
sandbox_write_file	Create or edit files
sandbox_read_file	Read files
sandbox_list_dir	Browse directories
sandbox_status	Check VM health, CPU, RAM, disk
sandbox_reset	Wipe everything, start fresh

Example: Ask Claude to "write a Python script that fetches the top 10 Hacker News stories, then run it" — it writes the code inside the VM, executes it, and shows you the results. All isolated.

Why not Docker?

	NervOS	Docker
Isolation	Hardware (KVM) — separate kernel	Shared kernel
Escape risk	Near zero	Container escapes exist
Boot time	~2s	~0.5s
Self-hosted	Yes	Yes
Internet access	Optional	Yes
Setup	pip install	Dockerfile + build + run

NervOS runs each agent in a real virtual machine. If the agent goes rogue, it can't touch your host.

Requirements

• Linux with KVM support, or Windows with WSL2
• Python 3.10+
• ~100MB disk for the micro-OS bundle

For WSL2, enable nested virtualization in %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig:

[wsl2]
nestedVirtualization=true

Works with any MCP client

NervOS speaks the Model Context Protocol. It works with:

• Claude Desktop
• LangGraph / LangChain
• Any MCP-compatible agent framework

# For LangGraph integration:
pip install nervos-sandbox[langgraph]

See tests/test_langgraph.py for a working example.

How it works (you don't need to know this)

Under the hood

NervOS is a custom Alpine Linux micro-OS (~256MB) purpose-built for AI agent sandboxing:

Your AI  ──MCP──▶  nervos_server  ──vsock──▶  Firecracker MicroVM
                   (host)                      ┌──────────────┐
                                               │ Alpine Linux │
                                               │ Python 3     │
                                               │ gcc, git,    │
                                               │ curl, etc.   │
                                               │              │
                                               │ exec_agent   │
                                               └──────────────┘

• Firecracker — Amazon's micro-VM engine (same tech as AWS Lambda)
• vsock — Direct host↔VM communication, no networking needed
• TAP networking — Optional, gives the VM internet access
• exec_agent — HTTP server inside the VM that executes commands

The pre-built bundle (~100MB) includes Firecracker, a Linux kernel, and the rootfs. Downloaded once on first run to ~/.nervos/bundle/.

For contributors

Building from source

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/ashishgituser/NervOS.git
cd NervOS

# Build the micro-OS locally (needs Linux/WSL2 + sudo)
sudo bash build/setup-firecracker.sh    # Download Firecracker + kernel
sudo bash build/build-sandbox-rootfs.sh  # Build the 256MB rootfs

# Install in dev mode
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run
sudo python -m nervos_server

Files go into build/ locally. The bootstrap module auto-detects local builds.

License

AGPL-3.0 — Free for personal and open-source use. If you modify NervOS and offer it as a service, you must open-source your changes under the same license.

For commercial licensing, contact the author.