https://github.com/hyperlight-dev/hyperlight-wasm
hyperlight-wasm is a rust library crate that enables Wasm Modules and components to be run inside lightweight Virtual Machine backed Sandbox. It is built on top of Hyperlight.
https://github.com/hyperlight-dev/hyperlight-wasm
wasm
Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation
hyperlight-wasm is a rust library crate that enables Wasm Modules and components to be run inside lightweight Virtual Machine backed Sandbox. It is built on top of Hyperlight.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/hyperlight-dev/hyperlight-wasm
- Owner: hyperlight-dev
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2025-03-26T11:48:48.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-03-30T21:03:54.000Z (3 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-03-30T23:14:01.188Z (3 months ago)
- Topics: wasm
- Language: Rust
- Homepage:
- Size: 1.03 MB
- Stars: 701
- Watchers: 13
- Forks: 36
- Open Issues: 29
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE.txt
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- Security: SECURITY.md
- Support: SUPPORT.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
- awesome-wasm-components - Hyperlight Wasm - progress | (Tools / Host Runtimes)
README
# Hyperlight-Wasm - Run Wasm Modules in a Virtual Machine backed sandbox
_Hyperlight-Wasm_ is a component that enables Wasm Modules to be run inside lightweight Virtual Machine backed Sandbox. Its purpose is to enable applications to safely run untrusted or third party Wasm code within a VM with very low latency/overhead. It is built on top of [Hyperlight](https://github.com/hyperlight-dev/hyperlight).
Hyperlight-Wasm currently supports running applications using either the [Windows Hypervisor Platform](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/api/#windows-hypervisor-platform) on Windows, [KVM](https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page) on Linux or [/dev/mshv](https://github.com/rust-vmm/mshv).
WARNING: This is experimental code. It is not considered production-grade by its developers, neither is it "supported" software.
This repo contains hyperlight-wasm along with a couple of sample Wasm modules and an example host application that can be used to either test or try it out.
This document contains instructions on building `Hyperlight-Wasm`. For usage instructions, please see [RustDev.md](./RustDev.md).
## Prerequisites
### Windows
Make sure the following are installed:
1. [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install)
1. [just](https://github.com/casey/just). is used as a command runner `cargo install just`. Do not install `just` with Chocolately because it installs an older incompatible version, make sure to use at least version 1.5.0 if not installed through cargo.
1. [pwsh](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell)
1. [git](https://gitforwindows.org/)
1. [GitHub CLI](https://github.com/cli/cli#installation)
1. [wasm-tools](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasm-tools?tab=readme-ov-file#installation)
1. [cargo component](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/cargo-component?tab=readme-ov-file#installation)
Ensure that Windows Hypervisor Platform is enabled:
```PowerShell
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HyperVisorPlatform
```
### Linux
#### Ubuntu/KVM
Make sure the following are installed:
1. build-essential: `sudo apt install build-essential`
1. [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install) `curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.3 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh`
1. [just](https://github.com/casey/just). is used as a command runner `cargo install just`. Do not install `just` through a package manager as it may install an older incompatible version, make sure to use at least version 1.5.0 if not installed through cargo.
1. [GitHub CLI](https://github.com/cli/cli#installation)
1. [wasm-tools](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasm-tools?tab=readme-ov-file#installation)
1. [cargo component](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/cargo-component?tab=readme-ov-file#installation)
Ensure that KVM is enabled: On an Azure VM using a size that supports nested virtualisation:
`sudo apt install cpu-checker && kvm-ok`
If KVM is installed and available you should see the output
``` console
INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used
```
You should also add your user to the kvm group: `sudo adduser $USER kvm`
## Building
NOTE: Ensure that you use version 1.89 of rust toolchain.
```Console
rustup install 1.89
rustup default 1.89
```
Now you can build the Rust Wasm library:
```Console
just build
```
And the example wasm modules used by the tests:
```Console
just build-wasm-examples
just build-rust-wasm-examples
```
Then you can test the Rust Wasm library and run the example:
```Console
just test
cargo run --example helloworld
```
## Component Model support
Hyperlight-Wasm has experimental support for running WebAssembly
Component Model components, rather than core wasm modules. In this
mode, set the `WIT_WORLD` environment variable to point to
a binary encoding of a component type (e.g. the result of running
`wasm-tools component wit -w -o /path/to/output.wasm
/path/to/input.wit`), which will ensure that the resultant library
includes a guest binary that is specialised to load components with
that type. Then, use `hyperlight_component_macro::host_bindgen!()` to
generate bindings from the same component type in the host. For a
complete (albeit small) example of this, see [this
example](https://aka.ms/hyperlight-wasm-sockets-sample).
### Selecting a specific world
If your WIT file contains multiple worlds, you can select which world
to use by setting the `WIT_WORLD_NAME` environment variable to the name
of the desired world. If not set, the last world in the file will be used.
For example, given a WIT file with multiple worlds:
```wit
package example:worlds;
world http-world {
export http-interface;
}
world queue-world {
export queue-interface;
}
```
To generate bindings for `http-world` instead of the default `queue-world`:
```
WIT_WORLD=/path/to/output.wasm WIT_WORLD_NAME=http-world cargo build -p hyperlight-wasm
```
### Debugging the macro
You can get more detailed error messages by expanding the Macro locally:
```
cargo clean -p hyperlight-wasm
WIT_WORLD= HYPERLIGHT_COMPONENT_MACRO_DEBUG=/tmp/guest.rs cargo build -p hyperlight-wasm
HYPERLIGHT_COMPONENT_MACRO_DEBUG=/tmp/host.rs cargo build
```
## Code of Conduct
This project has adopted the [Microsoft Open Source Code of
Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/).
For more information see the [Code of Conduct
FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or contact
[opencode@microsoft.com](mailto:opencode@microsoft.com) with any additional questions or comments.
## FOSSA Status
[](https://app.fossa.com/projects/git%2Bgithub.com%2Fhyperlight-dev%2Fhyperlight-wasm?ref=badge_shield&issueType=license)
[](https://app.fossa.com/projects/git%2Bgithub.com%2Fhyperlight-dev%2Fhyperlight-wasm?ref=badge_shield&issueType=security)