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Kilntainers

★ 48 Open GitHub ↗

MCP server to give every agent an ephemeral Linux sandboxes for executing shell commands.

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<p align="center">
    <a href="https://kiln.tech">
        <picture>
          <img width="380" alt="Kilntainers by Kiln AI Logo" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/09009b2a-1310-432b-941d-54ebf1fb78a8" />
        </picture>
    </a>
</p>
<h3 align="center">
  Give Every Agent an Ephemeral Linux Sandbox — via MCP
</h3>

Kilntainers is an MCP server that gives LLM agents isolated Linux sandboxes for executing shell commands.

- 🧰 **Multiple backends:** Containers (Docker, Podman), cloud-hosted micro-VMs ([Modal](https://modal.com), [E2B](https://e2b.dev)), and WebAssembly sandboxes (WASM BusyBox, or any WASM module).
- 🏝️ **Isolated per agent:** Every agent gets its own dedicated sandbox — no shared state, no cross-contamination.
- 🧹 **Ephemeral:** Sandboxes live for the duration of the MCP session, then are shut down and cleaned up automatically.
- 🔒 **Secure by design:** The agent communicates *with* the sandbox over MCP — it doesn’t run *inside* it. No agent API keys, code, or prompts are exposed to the sandbox.
- 🔌 **Simple MCP interface:** A single MCP tool, `sandbox_exec`, lets your agent run any Linux command.
- 📈 **Scalable:** Scale from a few agents on your laptop to thousands running in parallel in the cloud.

## Why Kilntainers?

Agents are already excellent at using terminals, and can save thousands of tokens by leveraging common Linux utilities like `grep`, `find`, `jq`, `awk`, etc. However giving an agent access to the host OS is a security nightmare, and running thousands of parallel agents on a service is painful. Kilntainers gives every agent its own isolated, ephemeral sandbox.

## Quick Start

Install and run from CLI:

```bash
# install
uv tool install kilntainers
# starts with defaults: stdio MCP server, Docker, and Debian-slim (see options below)
kilntainers
```

Add to your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, etc.):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kilntainers": {
      "command": "kilntainers"
    }
  }
}
```

## How It Works

```
┌─────────────┐   MCP   ┌──────────────┐      ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  LLM Agent  │◄───────►│  Kilntainers │◄────►│  Sandboxes              │
│  (client)   │         │  MCP Server  │      │  - Docker/Podman        │
│             │         │              │      │  - Cloud VM (Modal,E2B) │
│             │         │              │      │  - WASM Sandbox         │
└─────────────┘         └──────────────┘      └─────────────────────────┘
```

1. An MCP client connects to Kilntainers
2. On the first `sandbox_exec` call, Kilntainers creates an isolated sandbox. Each connection gets its own independent sandbox.
3. Commands run inside the sandbox; stdout, stderr, and exit code are returned
4. When the session ends, the sandbox is destroyed and resources are cleaned up.

**Security:** The agent communicates *with* the sandbox over MCP — it doesn't run *inside* it. This is intentional: agents often need secrets (API keys, system prompts, code), and those should never be exposed inside a sandbox where a prompt injection could exfiltrate them.

**Agent Isolation & Sandbox Lifecycle:** Each MCP connection starts its own isolated sandbox. In streaming HTTP mode, a single MCP server can host many sandboxes in parallel, and `exec` calls are routed to the sandbox associated with that connection. In stdio mode, the server runs a single sandbox per process. When a connection closes, its sandbox is shut down and deleted.

## Backend Examples

See the [CLI Reference](#cli-reference) for all arguments.

### Docker and Podman (default)

Local containers via Docker or Podman. Any OCI image works.

```bash
kilntainers                                     # Docker + debian-slim (defaults)
kilntainers --image alpine --engine podman      # Podman + Alpine
kilntainers --image node:22 --network           # Node.js with networking
```

### Cloud Containers & VMs

#### Modal.com

Hosted containers with sub-second startup via [Modal.com](https://modal.com). Scales to thousands of parallel sandboxes. Supports GPUs.

```bash
kilntainers --backend modal
kilntainers --backend modal --gpu A10G --region us-east  # GPU-accelerated
```

Authenticate via `modal setup` CLI or `--modal-token-id` / `--modal-token-secret` flags.

#### E2B

Cloud hosted micro-VM sandboxes from [E2B](https://e2b.dev).

```bash
kilntainers --backend e2b # Default Debian image
kilntainers --backend e2b --e2b-api-key ABCD --e2b-template my-custom-alpine # Custom image 
```

Authenticate with `--e2b-api-key` CLI arg, or `E2B_API_KEY` environment variable.

### WASM Go BusyBox (Experimental)

Runs [go-busybox](https://github.com/rcarmo/go-busybox) in a WebAssembly sandbox. Not a full Linux environment, but provides common utilities (`grep`, `awk`, `sed`, `ls`, `wc`, `sort`, etc.) in a very lightweight and secure sandbox.

```bash
uv tool install kilntainers[wasm]  # WASM support is an optional dependency (+15MB)
kilntainers --backend go_busybox
```

### WASM Runner

Run a custom WASM module as the sandbox backend. Provides agents a set tools compiled to WebAssembly, and an isolated filesystem.

```bash
uv tool install kilntainers[wasm]  # WASM support is an optional dependency (+15MB)
kilntainers --backend wasm --wasm-path ./my_tool.wasm
```

## Installation

```bash
uv tool install kilntainers        # recommended
uv tool install kilntainers[wasm]  # optional, include WASM backends (+15MB)
pip install kilntainers            # also works with pip
```

Requires Python 3.13+. Docker backend requires Docker or Podman. The Modal and E2B backends require accounts to those services.

## CLI Reference

```
usage: kilntainers [-h] [--backend {docker,go_busybox,modal,wasm}] [--transport {stdio,http}] [...]

MCP server providing isolated Linux sandboxes for LLM agent shell execution.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

core options:
  --backend {docker,e2b,go_busybox,modal,wasm}
                        Backend to use (default: docker). Available: docker, e2b, go_busybox, modal, wasm
  --transport {stdio,http}
                        MCP transport (default: stdio)
  --host HOST           HTTP bind address (default: 127.0.0.1, HTTP mode only)
  --port PORT           HTTP listen port (default: 8435, HTTP mode only)
  --timeout TIMEOUT     Default exec timeout in seconds (default: 120)
  --output-limit OUTPUT_LIMIT
                        Max combined stdout+stderr bytes per exec (default: 2097152 = 2 MiB)
  --session-timeout SESSION_TIMEOUT
                        Idle session timeout in seconds (default: 300, HTTP mode only)
  --shell SHELL         Shell binary for command mode (e.g., /bin/bash, ash). Default: /bin/bash.
  --network             Enable network access in sandboxes (default: disabled)

tool description:
  --tool-instruction-override TOOL_INSTRUCTION_OVERRIDE
                        Replace the entire sandbox_exec tool description
  --extended-tool-instruction EXTENDED_TOOL_INSTRUCTION
                        Append to the backend's default tool description

docker backend options:
  --engine ENGINE       Container CLI binary (default: docker). Supports podman.
  --docker-host DOCKER_HOST
                        Docker daemon socket/address, passed as -H to the Docker CLI (e.g., "ssh://user@remote-host", "tcp://host:2375")
  --image IMAGE         Docker image (default: debian:bookworm-slim)
  --cpu CPU             Docker CPU limit (e.g., "1.5")
  --memory MEMORY       Docker memory limit (e.g., "512m")
  --docker-run-flag DOCKER_RUN_FLAGS
                        Additional flag passed to docker run. Repeatable. (e.g., --docker-run-flag "--pids-limit=256")

e2b backend options:
  --e2b-api-key E2B_API_KEY
                        E2B API key (overrides E2B_API_KEY environment variable)
  --e2b-template E2B_TEMPLATE
                        E2B template name or ID (default: base)
  --e2b-sandbox-timeout E2B_SANDBOX_TIMEOUT
                        Sandbox lifetime timeout in seconds (default: 3600)
  --e2b-metadata E2B_METADATA
                        Metadata key=value pairs (can be used multiple times)
  --e2b-env E2B_ENV     Environment variable key=value pairs (can be used multiple times)

modal backend options:
  --modal-token-id MODAL_TOKEN_ID
                        Modal token ID (overrides environment/default auth)
  --modal-token-secret MODAL_TOKEN_SECRET
                        Modal token secret (overrides environment/default auth)
  --modal-app-name MODAL_APP_NAME
                        Modal app name (default: kilntainers)
  --modal-cpu MODAL_CPU
                        CPU cores (fractional, default: 1.0)
  --modal-memory MODAL_MEMORY
                        Memory in MiB (default: 512)
  --gpu GPU             GPU type (e.g., "A10G", "H100")
  --region REGION       Geographic region (e.g., "us-east")
  --sandbox-timeout SANDBOX_TIMEOUT
                        Sandbox lifetime timeout in seconds (default: 3600, max 86400)

wasm backend options:
  --wasm-path WASM_PATH
                        Path to the .wasm file to execute (required for wasm backend)
  --wasm-max-memory WASM_MAX_MEMORY
                        Max WASM memory in MiB (default: 256)
  --wasm-fuel WASM_FUEL
                        WASM instruction fuel limit (default: unlimited)
```

Kilntainers

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