Providing field-programmable devices in a distributed execution environment

A method, comprising:

• receiving a request to launch a virtual machine instance, the virtual machine instance providing access to field-programmable device resources on a device within a distributed execution environment, the request to launch the virtual machine instance specifying a first configuration for the field-programmable device resources;
• in response to receiving the request to launch the virtual machine instance, launching the virtual machine instance on the device;
• receiving, by the device executing the virtual machine instance, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) design image for use in programming the field-programmable device resources;
• programming the field-programmable device resources based at least in part on the FPGA design image and the first configuration to produce a first programmed FPGA;
• causing the first programmed FPGA to run within the distributed execution environment to produce results of running the first programmed FPGA;
• determining that the results fail to satisfy a condition regarding a running performance of the first programmed FPGA, the condition defined prior to the running of the first programmed FPGA;
• based at least in part on the determining that the results fail to satisfy the condition, automatically modifying the first configuration for the field-programmable device resources for programming the FPGA design image to produce a second configuration;
• reprogramming the field-programmable device resources, based at least in part on the FPGA design image and the second configuration to produce a second programmed FPGA;
• and
• causing the second programmed FPGA to run within the distributed execution environment.