PATTERN Cited by 1 source
Virtual filesystem over container¶
Problem¶
Agent harnesses need durable filesystem access (read, write, grep, diff). The default solution — a full container per agent — is expensive for text-heavy workloads where agents never need npm install, git, or compilers.
Solution¶
Provide a lightweight virtual filesystem (SQLite-backed, typed operations) as the default, and escalate to a full container only when the agent needs OS-level capabilities. Keep the two in sync so agents can transparently upgrade.
Graduated tiers¶
| Tier | Backing | Use case | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightweight | SQLite in DO (@cloudflare/shell) |
Read, write, grep, diff, search | ~free (DO compute) |
| Full | Linux container (@cloudflare/workspace + Containers) |
npm, git, compilers | Container pricing |
(Source: Agents platform post.)
Known uses¶
- systems/cloudflare-shell + systems/cloudflare-workspace (2026)
- systems/project-think execution ladder (level 0 = DO virtual FS; level 2+ = container)
Seen in¶
Related¶
- concepts/virtual-filesystem-over-sqlite — the concept
- systems/cloudflare-shell — lightweight tier implementation
- systems/cloudflare-workspace — sync layer to container tier