Topics / #vm
Vm projects on GitHub
Applications for running virtual machines on desktop and mobile devices.
As of , the most-starred Vm projects on GitHub are Docker-OSX (53K stars), UTM (36K stars) and cua (30.1K stars). GitHub.Locker tracks 28 Vm repositories with 367.5K stars combined. The fastest-growing on October 17 was steamac, with +223 stars in a day.
Hot right now
Most stars gained in a day · Oct 17
+223steamac
fxgl/steamac · ★ 637steamac runs Valve's actual ARM64 SteamOS (the Steam Frame image) inside a lightweight VM on Apple Silicon Macs, with GPU acceleration handled through Venus and Vulkan-on-Metal via MoltenVK.
+117vphone-cli
Lakr233/vphone-cli · ★ 15.5Kvphone-cli boots a virtual iPhone on a Mac using Apple's Virtualization.framework, built on Apple's PCC research VM infrastructure, so you can run, test, and even jailbreak iOS without a physical device.
cua
trycua/cua · ★ 30.1KAn open-source stack for computer-use AI agents: desktop automation drivers, isolated cloud desktops, local macOS VMs, small specialist decision models, and benchmarks for training, evaluation, and data generation.
+46quicksand
microsoft/quicksand · ★ 292Quicksand is an async Python API for launching, controlling, and snapshotting QEMU virtual machines, built specifically for sandboxing AI agents.
The all-time top
28 projects · by stars
- 53K
#1 · sickcodes/Docker-OSX
Docker-OSX
Docker-OSX lets you run a full macOS virtual machine inside a Docker container using KVM, giving near-native performance for security research, CI/CD, and development without owning a real Mac.
- 36K
#2 · utmapp/UTMUTM
UTM is a full system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS, built on QEMU, that lets you run Windows, Linux, and other operating systems directly on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
- 30.1K
#3 · trycua/cua
cua
An open-source stack for computer-use AI agents: desktop automation drivers, isolated cloud desktops, local macOS VMs, small specialist decision models, and benchmarks for training, evaluation, and data generation.
- 4

ProxmoxVE
29.9Kcommunity-scripts/ProxmoxVE · ShellA community-maintained set of one-command install scripts for Proxmox VE: paste a single line into your Proxmox shell and it sets up a popular self-hosted service as a ready container or VM.
- 5
lima
22.1Klima-vm/lima · GoLima launches Linux virtual machines with automatic file sharing and port forwarding, similar to WSL2. It was originally created to bring containerd and nerdctl to Mac users but is not limited to containers.
- 6

macos
21.7Kdockur/macos · Shelldockur/macos lets you run a full macOS virtual machine inside a Docker container, complete with a web-based viewer so you can control it right from your browser.
- 7

hhvm
18.7Kfacebook/hhvm · C++An open-source virtual machine that executes programs written in Hack, using just-in-time compilation for high performance while staying flexible to develop with.
- 8

webvm
17.4Kleaningtech/webvm · SvelteWebVM is a Linux virtual machine that runs entirely in your browser — an unmodified Debian distribution with native development toolchains, fully client-side, no install and no server.
- 9

quickemu
16.6Kquickemu-project/quickemu · ShellQuickemu is a command-line wrapper around QEMU that creates and runs optimised Windows, macOS and Linux virtual machines. You pick the OS; quickget downloads it and quickemu handles the configuration and launch.
- 10

vphone-cli
15.5KLakr233/vphone-cli · Swiftvphone-cli boots a virtual iPhone on a Mac using Apple's Virtualization.framework, built on Apple's PCC research VM infrastructure, so you can run, test, and even jailbreak iOS without a physical device.
- 11

Proxmox
15.2Ktteck/Proxmox · ShellA collection of shell scripts for Proxmox VE that let you interactively create and configure LXC containers and virtual machines, offering both quick default setups and advanced customizable ones.
- 12

qemu
13.9Kqemu/qemu · CQEMU is a generic and open source machine and userspace emulator and virtualizer — software that lets one computer run systems and programs built for a completely different one.
- 13
macos-virtualbox
13.5Kmyspaghetti/macos-virtualbox · ShellA Bash script that automates creating a macOS virtual machine (Catalina, Mojave, or High Sierra) inside VirtualBox, using unmodified installation files downloaded directly from Apple's own servers.
- 14
sdk
11.3Kdart-lang/sdk · DartThis is the official Dart SDK: the Dart programming language's VM, JS and WebAssembly compilers, core libraries, analyzer, and developer tools, all in one repository.
- 15

VirtualApp
11.1KasLody/VirtualApp · JavaVirtualApp is a sandbox engine for Android — a lightweight 'Android virtual machine' that runs and fully controls apps inside a host app without installing them on the system. It ships as a highly extensible SDK you build products on top of.
- 16
winapps
10.3KFmstrat/winapps · ShellWinApps lets you run Windows applications like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud inside Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora) with GNOME or KDE, so they appear and behave like native apps, including right-click integration in the Nautilus file manager.
- 17

vphone-aio
7.8K34306/vphone-aio · Shellvphone-aio is a single shell script that downloads, merges, and launches a jailbroken iOS 26.1 virtual phone (vphone) on your Mac, with the jailbreak bootstrap already installed.
- 18

tart
7.6Kopenai/tart · SwiftTart lets you create and run macOS and Linux virtual machines directly on Apple Silicon Macs, built specifically for use in CI pipelines and other automated workflows.
- 19

smolvm
6.8Ksmol-machines/smolvm · Rustsmolvm is a CLI tool for running embeddable, portable, branchable virtual machines so you can safely run AI agents and untrusted code locally, with sub-second cold start on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
- 20

wslmanager
4Kbostrot/wslmanager · DartWSL Manager is a free, open source GUI for the Windows Subsystem for Linux: install, back up, move and configure distros without memorising wsl.exe flags. On macOS the same app also manages native Linux and macOS VMs.
- 21

zsvirt
2KZSvirt/zsvirt · JavaZSvirt is an open-source IaaS virtualization engine that brings ZStack's enterprise ZSphere technology to the community, letting you run and manage virtual machines on KVM-based hosts without vendor lock-in.
- 22

coop
787trailofbits/coop · Rustcoop is a Rust CLI that spins up disposable, isolated virtual machines so Claude Code and Codex can run with full tool access (Docker, git, compilers, package managers) without putting your host machine at risk.
- 23

steamac
637fxgl/steamac · Swiftsteamac runs Valve's actual ARM64 SteamOS (the Steam Frame image) inside a lightweight VM on Apple Silicon Macs, with GPU acceleration handled through Venus and Vulkan-on-Metal via MoltenVK.
- 24

vfkit
431crc-org/vfkit · Govfkit is a command-line tool that starts virtual machines on macOS using Apple's built-in Virtualization framework, and it also ships a Go package to generate vfkit command lines programmatically.
- 25

virtio-nvgpu
431nestrilabs/virtio-nvgpu · RustA virtio device that shares one NVIDIA GPU across several KVM virtual machines at near-bare-metal speed, by forwarding kernel-driver ioctls instead of translating graphics APIs. The target use case is headless streaming: the guest renders and encodes on the GPU, and only compressed video leaves.
- 26

nvx
410microsoft/nvx · PythonNVX is an ultra-light micro-VM sandbox for running untrusted workloads with hardware-enforced isolation, built on OpenVMM and running Linux as the guest OS.
- 27

quicksand
292microsoft/quicksand · PythonQuicksand is an async Python API for launching, controlling, and snapshotting QEMU virtual machines, built specifically for sandboxing AI agents.
- 28
brig
233brig-sh/brig · GoBrig is a Go CLI (brig) with a session daemon (brigd) that runs coding agents inside a microVM sandbox on your own machine, so an unattended agent can only damage the one project you hand it.
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