VM Sandboxes: Full computers for agents

Modal has made VM Sandboxes generally available, offering agents full Linux virtual machines through the existing Sandbox APIs by adding `runtime="vm"`. The service retains Modal’s container-oriented conveniences, including Images, fast cold starts, burstable CPU and memory, familiar filesystem and execution APIs, and large-scale concurrency, while enabling workloads that need capabilities beyond a gVisor container, such as Docker, local databases, FUSE filesystems, graphical environments, mobile simulators, and specialized kernel features. Built on Cloud Hypervisor with custom work on filesystems, lazy image loading, memory bursting, and snapshotting, the VM runtime has already supported more than 20 million VMs for early users. Linear uses it to run complete developer environments for coding agents, Legora uses it for long-running legal-agent evaluations with Docker-based services, and Snorkel uses it to simulate realistic multi-container software environments. Modal says gVisor remains the default for workloads that already work well there, while VM Sandboxes are intended as a drop-in option for users who need a more complete machine environment at the same API and pricing model.

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