BentoBox 🍱

BentoBox is a microVM manager that boots a full Linux environment in seconds. It is highly configurable, so you can tune nearly every aspect of the system. Whether you want a WSL-like development environment on macOS, a fresh Docker Desktop alternative, or a secure sandbox for agentic workflows, BentoBox has you covered. Run it on your laptop, on servers, in the cloud, or wherever you need it.

Runtime Backends

• macOS: Apple Virtualization.framework
• Linux: Firecracker backend (work in progress)

Inspiration

BentoBox draws inspiration from these projects, which helped shape its architecture and developer experience:

• macosvm
• UTM
• Lima
• vfkit

Getting Started

Install with Nix profile:

nix profile install .#bentoctl

Or build locally with Nix:

nix build .#bentoctl
./result/bin/bentoctl --help

Usage

Bentobox instance lifecycle control

Usage: bentoctl [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  create
  start
  stop
  shell
  delete
  list
  status
  instanced
  images

Options:
  -v, --verbose...
  -h, --help        Print help

Quick VM Lifecycle

Create a VM from an image:

bentoctl create dev --image <name-or-oci-ref>

Enable nested virtualization for supported macOS VZ hosts:

bentoctl create dev --image <name-or-oci-ref> --nested-virtualization

This is currently VZ-only and still depends on host macOS and hardware support.

Enable Rosetta for x86_64 Linux binaries in supported macOS VZ guests:

bentoctl create dev --image <name-or-oci-ref> --rosetta

This currently requires Apple silicon, macOS 13 or newer, and Rosetta to already be installed with softwareupdate --install-rosetta.

Start it:

bentoctl start dev

Open a shell:

bentoctl shell dev

Run a single command over SSH, while best-effort cd-ing into your current host working directory first:

bentoctl exec dev -- pwd

Stop it:

bentoctl stop dev

List instances:

bentoctl list

More Docs

• Extensions, guest features like ssh and docker, how to enable them, and how to read their status