hyperkit ☆

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Description:
Toolkit for embedding hypervisor capabilities in your application

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: virtualization hypervisor macos vm docker

Install: brew install hyperkit

About:
Hyperkit is a lightweight toolkit for embedding hypervisor capabilities in macOS applications. It leverages the native macOS Hypervisor.framework to run virtual machines with minimal overhead. This makes it an ideal solution for container runtimes like Docker Desktop that require efficient, hardware-accelerated virtualization.

Key Features:

Lightweight and minimal footprint
Built on Apple's Hypervisor.framework
Supports virtio for networking and storage
Designed for programmatic integration

Use Cases:

Powering container runtimes like Docker on macOS
Running lightweight Linux VMs on Apple hardware
Building custom virtualization tools for macOS

Alternatives:

QEMU – More feature-rich but heavier and more complex to integrate
UTM – Provides a full GUI for virtualization, whereas Hyperkit is a command-line toolkit

Version History

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