Kernel Images is the open-source image repository behind Kernel, a browsers-as-a-service platform that provides sandboxed, ready-to-use Chrome browsers for automations and AI web agents. The images run headful Chromium in Docker containers or Unikraft unikernels. The project is Apache-2.0 licensed, has about 1,100 stars on GitHub, and is actively developed in 2026.
AI agents that browse the web need browsers that are fast to start, isolated, observable and disposable; running them yourself means fighting container images, display servers and stealth configuration. Kernel publishes the actual images that power its hosted service: a sandboxed Chrome that Playwright and Puppeteer connect to over the Chrome DevTools protocol, with live-view streaming for visual monitoring and remote control, configurable view settings, and session video replays. The unikernel variant adds automatic standby when there is no network activity, so idle browsers consume negligible resources and wake on demand. Because the repository is the production foundation of a commercial platform, it reflects real operational lessons about running browsers at scale for agent workloads, and self-hosters can run the same stack on their own infrastructure.
The Kernel images are free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license for self-hosting. Kernel’s hosted browsers-as-a-service at kernel.sh is a commercial platform with paid plans, so the overall offering is freemium.
Kernel Images is for developers building AI web agents and browser automations who need reliable, isolated Chrome infrastructure, whether self-hosted from these images or consumed through Kernel’s managed service.