Hosts

The wasmCloud host is a runtime environment for WebAssembly (Wasm) workloads.

WebAssembly components require a runtime to execute. The wasmCloud host provides a wrapper around Wasmtime, a fast, secure, and standards-compliant WebAssembly runtime that supports the Component Model.

Users can build host plugins to customize wasmCloud hosts with extended capabilities using the runtime library.

Hosts as commodity

A core design principle of wasmCloud is that the health of applications should not be dependent on any particular host. Hosts are designed to be operated in host groups, such that they are interchangeable and should be able to start and stop without causing downtime.

While it is possible to run a single host, it's also possible for workloads to be distributed across many hosts, and for those hosts to dynamically scale in response to changing demand.