Build your software with end-to-end provenance across the org for developers and agents.
Complete and total isolation.
Sandbox in restrained microVMs to keep your day moving.
Total control over workflows.
A personalized workspace that keeps environment parity.
Scale across every machine.
Run your workload anywhere, from anything. We mean it.
Receipts for every environment.
Verified provenance and CVE for all env dependencies.
➜ webapp git:(feat/485-terminaldemo-sessions) ✗$ mip run test
[ What is Minimal? ]
Minimal provides reproducible environments that run isolated in libkrun microVMs. Declare your packages and dependencies once, in a configuration that lives with your code and travels across branches, forks, and worktrees.
Minimal is proudly open source.
[ Why Minimal? ]
A Trusted, Observable Supply Chain
Components in Minimal environments are built from source, in compliance with SLSA L3.
Infinitely Scalable Environments
Machine agnostic daemons build your code within reproducible, isolated sandboxes on your machine of choice.
| Docker | Nix | Minimal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid Invocation | no | no | yes |
| Environmental parity | partial | yes | yes |
| Stateful | partial | no | yes |
| Durable | yes | no | yes |
| Supply chain visibility | partial | yes | yes |
| Local-First | yes | yes | yes |
| Isolation boundary | container | filepath | microVM |
[ Packages ]
Minimal's package repository supports an expanding library of open source software and languages. All packages are defined by Nickel-based build specs, compiled from source, and built in a hermetically sealed environment.
Minimal ensures that every package has extensive provenance and regular security reviews. Everything comes with:
[ Session management ]
Minimal operates in sessions: dynamic environments that you control across various machines. Sessions provide isolation for agents, allowing for parallel workflows without process and dependency pollution.
Sessions are stateful and built with a native understanding of your Git worktree context, file patches, and tool configurations. All sessions are booted with the dependencies required and a loadout–your preferences for editors, terminals, and more.
[ Agentic AI ]
Minimal was built by security experts who understand that AI brings real value… with a lot of risk. To build safely at the speed that agents operate, Minimal has specific security features including:
Managed hermetic builds, org-wide policy enforcement, audit-ready attestation, and more!
[ Install ]
Minimal is currently in public beta and available now for local download on Linux and macOS.
Download Minimal v0.5.4:
curl --proto "=https" --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://go.minimal.dev/stable | shpress 'c' to copy
[upstream]
repo = "https://github.com/gominimal/pkgs"
branch = "main"
[stack]
use = "rust"
[defaults]
state_key = "dev"
[session]
packages = ["base", "vim", "git"]Have more questions? Ask us on Discord.
Yes. Minimal is open source, and it is in public beta and free to download for Linux and macOS. Minimal for Teams — managed hermetic builds, org-wide policy enforcement and audit-ready attestation — is coming soon.
Linux and macOS. On Linux, Minimal runs on x86-64 or ARM64 with a 5.10 or later kernel and unprivileged user namespaces enabled. On macOS it runs on Apple Silicon (M1 or later), where it boots a lightweight Linux microVM via libkrun on Apple's Hypervisor.framework; Intel Macs are not supported.
A Minimal session runs in a sandbox of its own rather than in a container — a lightweight Linux microVM on macOS, and on Linux either user and mount namespaces or that same microVM — and it is declared once in a minimal.toml that lives with your code and travels across branches, forks and worktrees. Sessions are stateful, with a native understanding of your Git worktree context, file patches and tool configurations. Every package inside is built from source in compliance with SLSA Build L3 and ships with a CycloneDX SBOM and VEX data, so the supply chain stays visible.
Minimal's package build specs are similar to Nix derivations, and like Nix, Minimal gives you environment parity and supply chain visibility. The difference is the environment itself: Nix isolates by file path, while a Minimal session runs in its own sandbox — a Linux microVM on macOS, namespaces or that same microVM on Linux — and is stateful, durable and quick to invoke, with your Git worktree context, file patches and tool configurations intact between attaches.
Everything that runs in a session runs in a sandbox, and nothing from your host leaks in unless you allow it. On macOS the session lives inside a lightweight Linux microVM booted by libkrun on Apple's Hypervisor.framework; on Linux the sandbox is built from unprivileged user and mount namespaces, and the same microVM backend is available with --provider local-minvmd. Agent policies define file system and network access.
Minimal supports most modern languages, such as C, C++, Rust, Python, Java, Go and JavaScript. Toolchains come from Minimal's package catalog, an expanding library of open source software in which every package is defined by a Nickel-based build spec and compiled from source in a hermetically sealed environment.