Technology · Ebook

WasmEdge: A Lightweight WebAssembly Runtime for Cloud, Edge, and AI

by Shriira Press

WasmEdge is a CNCF sandbox project that takes WebAssembly out of the browser and turns it into a serious server-side runtime for cloud-native, edge, and decentralized workloads. It starts a hundred times faster than a container, runs the same module across architectures, and adds the capabilities real applications need: WASI plus networking and storage extensions, an ahead-of-time compiler for native speed, host functions and plugins, language SDKs for embedding, and a remarkable AI stack that runs LLMs through WASI-NN and llama.cpp. This book walks from the problem WebAssembly solves on the server through WasmEdge's architecture, sandbox, extensions, AI inference, embedding SDKs, and its path to running Wasm as OCI workloads on Docker and Kubernetes.

Contents

1. 1Preface
2. 2Chapter 1 — Why WasmEdge Exists
3. 3Chapter 2 — Architecture and the Execution Pipeline
4. 4Chapter 3 — Running Modules and the AOT Compiler
5. 5Chapter 4 — The Sandbox and Host Functions
6. 6Chapter 5 — WASI and the Networking, Storage Extensions
7. 7Chapter 6 — AI Inference with WASI-NN
8. 8Chapter 7 — Embedding WasmEdge with Language SDKs
9. 9Chapter 8 — Wasm as OCI: Docker, containerd, and Kubernetes
10. 10Chapter 9 — WasmEdge in Practice