Install wasm-micro-runtime with Homebrew, apk

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• iwasm
• iwasm-2.4.4

Project history

The public GitHub repository was created on May 2, 2019. Conference material from the project states that Intel open sourced WAMR in May 2019, targeting small footprint, high performance, and adaptability from embedded devices to cloud uses.

WAMR became one of the initial Bytecode Alliance projects when the Alliance was announced on November 12, 2019 by Mozilla, Fastly, Intel, and Red Hat. The formation announcement listed WAMR alongside Wasmtime, Lucet, and Cranelift as founding open source contributions, describing it as an interpreter-based WebAssembly runtime for embedded devices.

The project later established open governance and a Technical Steering Committee. Its repository and project site present WAMR as a Bytecode Alliance project, with maintainers from multiple organizations and a license aligned with LLVM's Apache-2.0-with-exception model.

Adoption history

WAMR's adoption is tied to places where the default browser or server Wasm runtime story is too heavy. The project site highlights an interpreter around 85 KB and an ahead-of-time runtime around 50 KB, plus AOT/JIT support, TEE support, source debugging, and libraries such as WASI libc, sockets, pthreads, and wasi-nn.

The Bytecode Alliance project listing describes WAMR as spanning embedded, IoT, edge, TEE, smart contract, cloud native, and more. The repository documents supported platforms including Linux, macOS, Android, Windows, SGX, Zephyr, AliOS-Things, VxWorks, NuttX, RT-Thread, and ESP-IDF/FreeRTOS, which is the adoption story in miniature: portability below the usual desktop/server layer.

How it is used

Developers use WAMR either by embedding the runtime library in a product or by running Wasm modules through `iwasm`. In embedded contexts, teams build a configured runtime for their target OS or RTOS, select interpreter, fast-interpreter, AOT, JIT, WASI, libc, networking, or threading features, and then load modules under WAMR's sandbox.

In package-manager terms, WAMR is the installable runtime you reach for when testing tiny Wasm deployments locally, preparing AOT artifacts, or validating whether an embedded/edge integration can run a module before integrating the C API into firmware or a host application.

Why package nerds care

WAMR is significant because it keeps WebAssembly from being only a browser, Node, or cloud-runtime story. It packages the Wasm VM idea into a footprint and platform matrix that make sense for microcontrollers, RTOS environments, TEEs, and product firmware.

Timeline

• 2019-05-02: Public GitHub repository created.
• 2019-05: Intel open sources WAMR.
• 2019-11-12: Bytecode Alliance launches with WAMR as one of the founding project contributions.
• 2021: Project material notes establishment of open governance and a TSC.
• 2024: Project blog highlights continued WAMR development and industrial use.
• 2026-06-29: GitHub releases show WAMR-2.4.5 as the latest release at research time.

Related projects

• WAMR sits beside Wasmtime in the Bytecode Alliance runtime family: Wasmtime is the general-purpose runtime, while WAMR is tuned for small footprint and embeddability. It also intersects with WASI, wasi-libc, LLVM, and embedded operating systems such as Zephyr and FreeRTOS.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/bytecodealliance/wasm-micro-runtime
• https://bytecodealliance.github.io/wamr.dev/
• https://bytecodealliance.org/press/formation
• https://bytecodealliance.org/projects
• https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasm-micro-runtime
• https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/ossalsjp21/f9/The%20cool%20features%20of%20WebAssembly%20Micro%20Runtime%20for%20IoT%20and%20embedded.pdf