Installation and usage

Install

To install airlock on macOS or Linux, run:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/milankinen/airlock/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

This installs the bundled variant, which includes the VM kernel and initramfs — everything you need in a single binary. The binary is placed in ~/.local/bin by default. Make sure it’s on your PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin"

If you prefer a smaller binary and want to supply your own kernel and initramfs, install the distroless variant instead:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/milankinen/airlock/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh -s -- --distroless

The install directory can be changed with the AIRLOCK_INSTALL_DIR environment variable, and a specific version can be pinned with AIRLOCK_VERSION.

Quick overview

Once installed, the basic workflow is straightforward:

airlock start                       # Boot a sandbox VM and open a shell
airlock start -- ls /usr            # Run a one-off command in the VM
airlock exec bash                   # Attach to a running VM
airlock show                        # Show sandbox status and config
airlock remove                      # Remove sandbox state

The first time you run airlock start in a project directory, airlock will ask whether to create a default airlock.toml. After that, each subsequent start reuses the existing configuration and sandbox state.

The following sections cover each of these commands in detail.