# Introduction

AVM is the Runtime Infrastructure for the Agent Economy: a secure, scalable compute layer that turns agent reasoning into real-world execution. Powered by MCP, it enables trustless, high-throughput code execution with zero DevOps.

### Overview <a href="#overview" id="overview"></a>

In a world where AI agents can reason, plan, and write code, AVM provides the missing infrastructure to let them act.

AVM (Agent Virtual Machine) is the runtime layer for the agent economy: a secure, scalable compute protocol that turns agent outputs into real-world execution. It bridges large language models (LLMs) and code execution, allowing agents to autonomously run scripts, process data, and interact with systems without infrastructure overhead.

At the core of AVM is the Model Context Protocol (MCP) a lightweight, JSON-based standard for exposing tools to LLMs. AVM runs an MCP server that accepts tool calls from agents (e.g., run\_code), executes them in isolated containers, and returns verifiable outputs, all in real-time, and without relying on centralized APIs.

### [​](https://docs.avm.codes/getting-started/introduction#core-advantages)Core Advantages <a href="#core-advantages" id="core-advantages"></a>

* **One Standard Interface**\
  Works out-of-the-box with Claude, GPT-4, Cursor, and any agent using MCP or function calling.
* **Secure, Auditable Execution**\
  Every task runs in a sandboxed container, with outputs like stdout, stderr, and exit codes returned to the agent.
* **Zero DevOps Overhead**\
  No servers, no scaling logic just hit the API or SDK and start executing.
* **Enterprise-Grade Performance**\
  Autoscaled, containerized runtimes optimized for ML, cryptography, and agent workloads.
* **Flexible Pricing**\
  Pay-per-run with support for fiat, crypto, and X402 payment rails.

### [​](https://docs.avm.codes/getting-started/introduction#architecture)Architecture <a href="#architecture" id="architecture"></a>

The AVM execution flow is simple yet powerful:

1. **Agent** generates code through your LLM
2. **MCP Server** routes the execution job
3. **AVM Node** executes code in isolated sandbox
4. **Returns** structured output: stdout, stderr, exit code, and metadata


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