Run containers as microVMs. Fast, secure, simple.
Ravel is an open-source orchestrator that turns OCI images inside lightweight microVMs powered by Cloud Hypervisor. Get the sandboxing of VMs with the simplicity of containers.
# Deploy nginx in a microVM
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:3000/fleets/my-fleet/machines?namespace=default' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"region": "eu-west", "config": {"image": "nginx:alpine", "guest": {"cpus": 1, "memory_mb": 512}}}'- MicroVM Runtime - Run any OCI/Docker image inside isolated Cloud Hypervisor VMs
- HTTP Gateway - Automatic HTTPS routing with Let's Encrypt support
- TCP/UDP Proxy - Load-balanced proxy for any protocol
- Private Networks - WireGuard-based networking between machines
- Volumes & Secrets - Persistent storage and secure secret management
- Clustering - Multi-node clusters with gossip-based state sync
# 1. Create a namespace
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:3000/namespaces' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name": "default"}'
# 2. Create a fleet
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:3000/fleets?namespace=default' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name": "web"}'
# 3. Deploy a machine
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:3000/fleets/web/machines?namespace=default' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"region": "eu-west", "config": {"image": "nginx:alpine", "guest": {"cpu_kind": "std", "cpus": 1, "memory_mb": 512}}}'
# 4. Create a gateway to expose it
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:3000/fleets/web/gateways?namespace=default' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name": "www", "target_port": 80}'Your app is now live at https://www.yourdomain.com
| Example | Description |
|---|---|
| hello-world | Simple Alpine container |
| nginx | Nginx web server with gateway |
| frankenphp | Modern PHP application server |
See the examples directory for more.
┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐
│ Client │────▶│ Ravel │
└─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
│
▼
┌─────────────┐
│ MicroVM │
│ (Container) │
└─────────────┘
Components:
- Cloud Hypervisor - Lightweight VMM for microVMs
- Containerd - OCI image management
- NATS - Pub/sub messaging
Not yet, Ravel is in beta and is to be considered unstable.
But we are working full time on providing a stable release.
Ravel is named after the famous composer Maurice Ravel, known for his orchestral works.
Please come and join us on our Discord server, where you can ask questions, get help, and contribute to the project.
Please open an issue on our GitHub repository.
Please open an issue on our GitHub repository.
Copyright 2026 Alexis Bouchez
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
Portions of this project (pkg/vsock/) are derived from the Firecracker
project, © Amazon.com, Inc., and remain under the Apache License 2.0 —
see the file headers for details.
Thank you for your support! 🌟